Staying overnight in a national park lodge is a excellent way to enhance the
experience of a national park visit. The lodges are generally situated in scenic
areas where guests are able to enjoy a variety of activities and experiences.
Several lodge dining rooms, including those in Yosemite's Ahwahnee and the
North Rim's
Grand Canyon
Lodge, are magnificent. Walk a short distance outside the front door of
The Chateau at Oregon
Caves and take part in a ranger-guided cave tour. Walk down the
lane from Kettle Falls
Hotel in
Minnesota's
Voyageurs National Park
and stand beside a waterway where French-Canadian trappers long ago portaged canoes.
Stand on the second-floor deck of Cedar Grove Lodge in
California’s
Kings Canyon National Park
and delight in the roar of a rushing mountain stream. Walk out back of Oregon's Crater
Lake Lodge (photo upper left) and enjoy a view of one of North America's most beautiful lakes.
Gaze out the window of Olympic National
Park's Kalaloch Lodge and take in the
Pacific Ocean
surf crashing into the driftwood-filled beach. These are just a few of the
experiences enjoyed by travelers who choose to stay in a national park
lodge.
Lodging in
America's
national parks varies from the exquisite to tent cabins. Likewise,
prices range from $500 per night at
Yosemite National Park’s Ahwahnee (photo right) to
approximately $55 per
night for tent cabins in Wyoming's
Grand Teton
National Park's
Colter
Bay Village. The wide
range of facilities and prices makes it important that you
understand the type accommodations that are being reserved. Some
national park visitors are disappointed with their lodging
facilities, but it is often because they didn't fully understand the
type lodging that was reserved.
A different and more suitable facility may have been available in the
same park or at the same general location. National park lodges are
often rustic and without many amenities you may be accustomed to in commercial hotels. You are
unlikely to have access a swimming pool, may be without a television, and don't
expect that someone will be available to park your vehicle. Some lodges don't
have telephones in the rooms. You may even find that
you have to walk down the hallway to use a shower. Remember, these
facilities are in national parks, not downtown
Chicago,
Los Angeles,
or
New York City.
Many of the lodges were built many decades ago and some over a century ago.
Lodging Availability
Most of the 397 areas administered by the National Park Service do not offer
lodging within the park boundaries. For example, some very popular national
parks such as
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee/North
Carolina),
Acadia
National Park (
Maine), and
Rocky Mountain
National Park (
Colorado) do not offer regular overnight
visitor accommodations within the parks. At the opposite extreme,
Yellowstone
National Park
has nine lodging facilities scattered about the park, including three in the
Old Faithful area.
Yosemite
National Park in
California
has four very different lodging facilities in Yosemite
Valley, one hotel (the historic Wawona) near the park's south entrance, and two
locations
with tent cabins on
Tioga
Pass in the High Sierra.
Shenandoah
National Park
(Virginia) has three lodging facilities and the
Blue Ridge Parkway
(Virginia and
North Carolina)
offers four locations with overnight accommodations. Six lodging facilities are offered in
Montana's
Glacier
National Park
plus nearby
Glacier Park Lodge that
sits across from an Amtrak stop and Many Glacier Hotel that
is situated in what many consider the most scenic
location of any national park lodge.
Oregon
Caves
National Monument offers a
unique lodge with nearby cave tours offered by National Park
Service rangers. Use the link to the left for a complete
listing of national park lodging facilities.
Management
Overnight lodging facilities in the national parks are operated by private
concessionaires, not the
U.S.
government or the National Park Service. For example, Xanterra Parks & Resorts,
a private corporation, operates all the lodging facilities in Crater Lake
National Park (Oregon), Zion National Park (Utah), and Yellowstone National Park.
The same company also operates two of
the four lodging facilities in Death Valley National Park (California) and all
of the lodging facilities on Grand Canyon National Park’s South Rim (Arizona).
Forever Resorts operates lodges in Big Bend National Park
(Texas), Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah, photo
upper left), Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim
only), Isle Royale National Park (Michigan), Mammoth
Cave National Park (Kentucky), and Badlands National
Park (South Dakota). ARAMARK, a large and
diversified hospitality business,
operates lodges in Shenandoah
National Park
(Virginia),
Mesa
Verde
National
Park (Colorado),
Glen
Canyon
National Recreation Area (Arizona), Glacier Bay
National Park (Alaska), and Olympic National
Park (Washington). Delaware North is the concessionaire for lodging in
Yosemite National Park (California), as well as
Sequoia National Park (California), and Olympic
National Park (photo right).
The superintendent at each
national park exercises ultimate oversight over
retail operations, including lodging, and must generally
approve the prices charged for rooms, food, tours, and items sold in gift shops. In
most cases, the National Park Service owns the buildings although some remain
under private ownership. This latter group includes Furnace Creek Inn,
Furnace Creek Ranch, and Panamint Springs Resort in Death Valley National Park,
facilities on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and Log Cabin Inn in Olympic
National Park In some instances, the concessisonaire retains a
partial leasehold interest, such as when major improvements or additions
paid for by the concessionaire have
occurred.
Facilities and Occupancy
Most national park lodges are at maximum occupancy during busy summer
months (winter months for Virgin Islands and Death Valley national parks) so it is advisable to
make reservations well in advance. For very busy units including California's
Yosemite
National Park, it is not
unusual for reservations to be made nearly a year in advance. Likewise, make
reservations for
Yellowstone
National Park lodging at
least five to six months ahead of your expected arrival date. It helps to be
flexible with regard to the dates and types of rooms you will accept. Rooms
without a private bath are less expensive and generally easier to book because
most U.S.
travelers demand private bathroom facilities. The famous Old Faithful Inn in
Yellowstone National Park offers rooms with and
without a private bath. Likewise,
Lake Crescent Lodge in Olympic National Park, both
National Park Inn and Paradise Inn in Washington's
Mount Rainier
National Park, and the
Wawona in
Yosemite National Park each offer both types of
guest rooms. Rooms with a community bathroom are likely to save $50 per night or more
compared to rooms with a private bathroom. Even rooms with a private bath can
vary in quality at a given location. For example, the Old Faithful area of
Yellowstone National Park offers rustic cabins, rustic rooms in Old Faithful Inn, and upscale
rooms at the newly constructed Old Faithful
Snow Lodge.
Season
Lodges in areas that experience harsh winters are
generally open seasonally.
For example, Glacier
National Park lodges close
each fall and reopen in late spring or early summer.
Likewise, Oregon’s
Crater Lake Lodge and Mount Rainier’s
Paradise Inn each receive huge amounts of snowfall and have relatively short summer
seasons.
All three lodges in Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park close for the
winter and only two of Yellowstone’s nine lodges, Old Faithful Snow Lodge and
Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, are open during the winter, and Snow Lodge can only
be reached via snow coach and snowmobile.
Lodges in areas with more temperate weather conditions
are often open year round.
Chisos Mountains Lodge in Big Bend National Park
is open all year. Likewise, the Ahwahnee, Yosemite Lodge, and Curry
Village in
Yosemite National Park
are open all year.
Reservations and
Cancellations
National park lodges typically require
at least one night's deposit when a
reservation is made. Some lodges require more than one night's deposit, sometimes
substantially
more. For
example,
Triangle X Ranch
in Grand Teton
National Park
requires a
deposit equal to
35 percent of
the total cost
and doesn't
accept credit
cards for a
summer stay.
Cancellation
policies vary by
lodging
operation, so it
is important to inquire about the
refund policy in the event your plans change. It is not unusual that at least
48-hour notice is required for a refund. Also, be certain to request that a
confirmation be
sent by mail or
email so you can
carry it along
on your trip. On
two occasions
our reservations
had been lost
and the
confirmation
slips saved us.
Make certain the
confirmation
includes a
receipt for the deposit.
Most
travel
agents have
limited
knowledge
of
national
park
lodges.
They may
have
stayed
in Old
Faithful
Inn and
experienced
a trip
to
Yosemite
or
Glacier,
but
that's
about
it.
Thus,
travel
agents
may be
of
limited
assistance
in
offering
advice
for a
trip to
a
national
park.
On the
other
hand,
reservation
agents
for the
lodging
concessionaires
are
generally
quite
knowledgeable.
They can
help
with
choosing
a place
to stay
in parks
that
have
multiple
lodges,
and
provide
assistance
with
park
tours.
In
addition,
no
reservation
fee will
be
charged
if reservations
are made directly with
lodging
concessionaire.
You
should
never
have to
pay a
reservation
fee for
making a
reservation
at a
national
park
lodge.
Planning
a
Stay
While it is most convenient to stay in a single lodge, we sometimes choose
to move from one lodge to another within the same park. For example, during a
trip to Yosemite National Park
we might spend a night at the Wawona near the south entrance, three nights at
Yosemite Lodge, Curry Village, or the Ahwahnee in Yosemite Valley, and another
night at White Wolf or Tuolumne Meadows on
Tioga Road. These are very different areas and
a stay in each allows a much better appreciation for Yosemite. Likewise,
you might want to spend two or three nights at a lodge on the South Rim of the
Grand Canyon and another two nights at Grand Canyon
Lodge on the North Rim. In Glacier National Park, it is beneficial
to stay in two or three lodges, depending on the amount of time you plan to
devote to the park. For example, a stay at Lake McDonald Lodge on the west
side of the Continental Divide can be combined with a stay at either Many
Glacier Hotel or Glacier Park Lodge on the east side of the park. You may
also want to add a night at the Prince of Wales just across the Canadian border. All three lodges are operated by the same concessionaire, Glacier
Park, Inc. Large parks including
Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park
provide opportunities for staying in multiple lodges during a single visit. In
fact, these two parks are so large that staying in more than one lodge will
almost certainly result in a much more enjoyable trip, especially if it is
likely to be your only visit.
Comprehensive information about all national park lodging facilities
is available in The Complete Guide to the National Park
Lodges by David L. and Kay W. Scott. The seventh edition of this book is published by the Globe Pequot Press and retails for $18.95. It includes room rates, reservation information including phone numbers and web sites, room recommendations, dining options and costs, activities, maps, how to reduce expenses, color photos of the
lodges, and information about pets. The book is available from local bookstores or online at Amazon,
Barnes & Noble, and Books-A-Million. The main cover photo is Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.
Order the seventh edition of
The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges from Amazon.
David and Kay Scott have traveled America's national parks for forty years including six summers
devoted to the park lodges.
They have stayed in all nine of Yellowstone's lodges and all eight of the lodges
in Glacier National Park. They have spent several nights in each of the
four lodges on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the three lodges in neighboring
Shenandoah National Park. During each stay they explore the rooms,
sample the food, and talk with the employees and guests. These experiences have
allowed them to author the most thorough and personal book on America's national
park lodges. The photo at left shows the authors beside one of Yellowstone's historic yellow buses in front of iconic Old Faithful Inn. Visit our home page.
