Expansion continues at West End Resort with 80 new seasonal sites and more activities
March 8, 2021, 11:46 am
Kara Kinna
A new camping and boating season is just around the corner, and Willie Kuzub, the owner of West End Resort and Campground at Round Lake, is excited about the addition of 80 new seasonal sites to his campground.
The addition marks a significant expansion for the resort, which will now have 150 seasonal sites available and 30 sites for short-term campers, for a total of 180 campsites.
Kuzub has big plans for West End Resort, and the addition of the new campsites is just one more step toward realizing a larger vision. Last year, after years of work deepening an inlet on the lake, Kuzub opened a new marina at West End Resort with 50 boat slips that allow campers and boaters to keep their boats on the water all season long.
Kuzub says that 50 of the new seasonal sites will be operational by the end of the first week in May, and the remaining 30 will be ready by the end of the first week in June.
The sites will be large—50 by 60 feet, and will include sod, a large area to back in a camper, ample room for a deck and fire pit, and even room for a shed if campers want it.
Kuzub says he will be spending his spring ensuring the sites are well treed with evergreens and hedges so that they are ready for the 2021 camping season.
“We have a lot of trees that my grandfather had planted when he was still with us from PFRA, and we have a tree spade so we are going to move a lot of stuff around and try to get some nice trees in to where we want,” says Kuzub.
Kuzub says each of the new sites will be irrigated with lake water and he’ll be encouraging campers to care for and dress up their lots with flowers and other embellishments through the season.
He says 24 of the new seasonal sites are already spoken for, and with his new marina as a draw and an increase in campers last year across the Prairies due to Covid-19, he expects all of his new seasonal sites to be rented before spring.
“Our marina is making a big difference,” he says. “When people can put their boats there and leave them tied up and come and go as they please, and when it takes five minutes to jump in your boat and go out onto the lake versus going through the motions of having the hassle to load it and unload it, it makes a big difference for people.”
Aside from the new marina and the new seasonal sites, Kuzub also wants to increase the activities that are available at the resort.
“There are a lot of other things we are going to do this year,” he says. “We’re going to start a kids’ club where every Saturday the kids can come down around 9 o’clock and we are going to have crafts for them to do, maybe a nature hike—stuff like that. We will start with an hour every Saturday, but we will probably bump it up a bit.
“We are actually going to have a food truck that’s going to be on site all year—Lizzie’s Prairie Fields, out of Round Lake. She will offer some traditional food truck menu items as well as some healthier stuff. She plans to provide culturally diverse food choices that are locally sourced. She wants to use locally grown stuff whenever possible.
“And then we are going to have a few different variations of yoga a few times a week. The yoga started last year and it went off well for the last few weeks of the summer. It was still into September when they were doing yoga.”
Kuzub says he has also started to develop a gravel walking path along the marina and wants to continue to lengthen the path so it can be used by walkers or golf carts. He also has added wifi to the campground, as well as the ability for boats to fuel up right on the lake, and is also planning on holding outdoor movie nights with a large inflatable screen a few times a month, as well as a flea market on Sundays. In 2022 he hopes to add swimming lessons to the list of activities offered at the resort.
“We are really trying to create more things to do so you’re not just going camping, going out on the lake then coming back to eat and go to sleep,” he says. “We are trying to create more activities. Pickleball might be an option down the road. Maybe a tennis court or volleyball nets. Whether it’s walking trails, or golf cart trails, or quad trails, it just gives people stuff to do.”
West End Resort is a labour of love for Kuzub. His family—including his grandpa and his parents—have been actively involved in working on the land for years, and Kuzub eventually started his own construction company to do some of the work.
“That’s why I got into construction,” he says, “so that we could look into moving forward on some of this stuff and developing, and try to get our numbers up.
“Now that we have the marina, we are pretty confident that’s a good draw, a good foundation for us to build off of. The other draw I’m thinking about or planning for down the road would be a nine-hole, par three golf course. It’s a little bit early to do that now because I may as well expand and see what kind of draw I can get with the marina and other stuff I can add to it, and then we will go from there.
“As long as we can grow and keep everybody happy and enjoying themselves, then we will. It’s a really good family resort, we have tons of kids and young families, but we also have a lot of older folks who are between 65 to 70 years old. Once we put that marina in last year it was a gamechanger for a lot of our older folks. One fella said ‘this is probably going to be my wife and my last year of camping, and now that this marina is here, it’s so easy, we don’t need the two of us to get the boat in the water and load it out after we use it for the day, because it’s exhausting, it’s a lot of work.’ So now you can leave your boat in, jump in and go.
“And we really promote golf carts. So they can take their cooler with their sandwiches or muchies or drinks right down to their boat with the golf cart to where the marina slips are, throw it in their boat, come back, throw the stuff back on their golf cart and drive back up to the campsite. They don’t have to be right beside the dock or lakefront. It’s only minutes of driving with one of those vehicles to get there.
“The fella said ‘Will, we went from using our golf cart about three times the year before to about three times using it this afternoon.’ And just the glow in their eyes, I could tell they are probably going to have another few years of camping. It’s not coming to an end for them.
“And so we’ve got a lot of those folks where it’s kind of relit the spark for them. They are pretty excited. And that’s nice to see.”
Kuzub says West End Resort has evolved to have a community-like atmosphere over the years.
“We’ve got a lot of good people. Our clientele is really good, a lot of fun. My family and my mom and dad help me out a lot down there.
“Watching our kids grow up around all these other kids, it’s like pretty cool too. Because when springtime comes, all of a sudden their summer friends start coming down on weekends and pretty soon it goes from our four kids or the 10 kids that are kind of local to that area—it just grows from 10 to like 100 kids. Suddenly there are just different faces you haven’t seen all winter. It’s good to see everybody back again. Then in fall it’s kind of sad because everyone goes home. But in springtime everyone shows up again and you’ve got all of your friends back.
“It is like a community and everyone watches out for everyone’s kids down there, it doesn’t matter who they are. Everyone is kind of raising everyone’s kids down there.”
Kuzub says they have a lot of day trippers who come out to check out the resort now as well.
“We have a spot by the store where you can park and wander down to the beach and go for a walk.
“We’ve been getting a lot of folks from all over the lake coming by just to go for a walk and get out and it’s kind of neat. The atmosphere down by the marina is kind of unique because it’s something that has not been on our lake ever, so now you get people just bringing their boats in to go on a country cruise. They will come and idle through there and then with the turtles and other wildlife there too, it’s kind of a sightseeing experience and relaxing drive.”
The community at West End Resort is coming from a large area says Kuzub.
“We are drawing from all over the place—Estevan, Carnduff area, Moosomin, Rocanville, Esterhazy, Langenburg, Churchbridge, Yorkton, Melville, and this year a lot of the seasonals we’ve been renting to are from White City and Pilot Butte. We are starting to get a really good draw there, and some folks from Indian Head.
“It has been overwhelming in a great way to see this different group of people coming from everywhere. It’s nice because everyone gets to know someone new every year too. That’s the nice thing about it. You are meeting more people and new people. It’s pretty neat that way.” Tweet
-SM.jpg)
