Glacier Bay National Park – A single lodging facility, Glacier Bay Lodge, is situated in this spectacular and isolated park that is a short plane trip from the capital city of Juneau.  The lodge enjoys an impressive main building with large windows overlooking Bartlett Cove plus fifty-six nearby rustic guest rooms, some of which also have water views. Whale-watching cruises and all- day boat tours of spectacular Glacier Bay depart from the lodge dock.  The restaurant specializes in freshly caught Dungeness crab.  Combine a stay here with several days in Juneau.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument – Thunderbird Lodge is a well-maintained motor lodge located just inside the monument entrance near the small town of Chinle.  The lodge, in a grassy area full of cottonwood trees, includes seventy-four guest rooms in several adobe and stone buildings. Half- and full-day guided canyon tours are offered by the lodge that is a short walk from the park visitor center. 

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area – Lake Powell Resort offers 350 rooms as part of an attractive marina complex on Lake Powell, just north of Page, Arizona. The resort serves as a center for water-based activities including houseboat rentals and day cruises to Rainbow Bridge, the world’s largest natural stone bridge.  Bullfrog Resort and Marina, Hite Marina, and Halls Crossing and Marina offer lodging facilities and boat rentals at other locations in the national recreation area.

Grand Canyon National Park – This popular park is home to eight lodging facilities, six at the heavily visited South Rim, one on the more isolated North Rim, and one in the canyon.  The best known lodge is the El Tovar (photo left), an historic hotel built in 1905 by the Santa Fe Railroad.  Nearby, and also near the rim, Bright Angel Lodge is comprised of a series of historic cabins.  Motel and motor lodge units are also available.  All South Rim lodging is operated by the same concessionaire, Xanterra Parks & Resorts.  Grand Canyon Lodge, on the North Rim, is a series of three types of cabins, some quite rustic.

Buffalo National River – A small facility at Buffalo Point offers a total of seventeen cabins and lodge rooms.  Four lodge rooms and two modern cabins sit on a bluff and offer excellent views of this scenic river.  Five freestanding rustic cabins (photo left) were built in the 1940s by the Civilian Conservation Corps.  A restaurant is open seasonally.

Death Valley National Park – This desert park has four very different lodging facilities including upscale and expensive Furnace Creek Inn (photo left).  Nearby Furnace Creek Ranch is a series of motor lodge buildings more appropriate for families.  Stovepipe Wells Village offers guests a better feel for the desert and Panamint Springs Resort is a funky lodge near the park’s western border

Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Park - This impressive park has three lodging facilities including two relatively new lodges.  Wuksachi Village and Lodge opened in 1999 with 102 guest rooms in three attractive cedar buildings.  The complex is on a hillside amid large fir, sugar pine, and cedar trees. Grant Grove Village offers relatively new John Muir Lodge plus four types of rustic cabins.  Cedar Grove Lodge (photo left), in an isolated area of Kings Canyon, offers twenty-one rooms in a building that looks like a ski chalet.

Yosemite National Park - This heavily-visited park has seven lodging facilities including four in scenic Yosemite Valley. The famous Ahwahnee, (photo at top of page) in Yosemite Valley, is elegant, expensive, and considered by many veteran travelers as the crown jewel of America’s national park lodges.  Yosemite Lodge is a series of motel-type buildings, while Curry Village includes over 400 regular and tent cabins.  Housekeeping Camp is just what the name implies. Historic Wawona Hotel (photo left) near the south entrance, and two sites with tent cabins and a few wood cabins on Tioga Road in the high Sierra.

Mesa Verde National Park – Far View Lodge sits at 8,250 feet and provides 150 guest rooms in a series of seventeen motel-type wooden buildings.  Most rooms offer an excellent view of the distant mesas and canyons.  An attractive adobe building houses the registration desk, dining room, cocktail lounge, and gift shop.  Ranger-guided bus tours of the park’s Indian ruins leave from the lodge.

Cumberland Island National Seashore – Greyfield Inn, a turn-of-the-century mansion built for the daughter of business tycoon Thomas Carnegie, offers ten rooms in the main house and six rooms in two nearby cottages.  Greyfield Inn is accessible only via private boat or the inn’s boat that leaves from nearby Fernandina Beach, Florida.  Guests enjoy a full Southern breakfast, a picnic lunch, and a gourmet evening meal.  Keep in mind that several rooms in the main house share a bathroom.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park – Volcano House offers a total of forty-two rooms, most of which are in the main hotel on the edge of Kilauea Crater.  A separate two-story building that was once a rangers’ cabin has ten smaller rooms.  Ten small A-frame cabins in Namakani Paio Campground are three miles from the main hotel.

Mammoth Cave National Park – Mammoth Cave Hotel is a complex offering a total of ninety-two guest rooms in thirty cottages, four one-story motel-type buildings, and a two-story brick hotel near the site of two earlier hotels, the first of which burned to the ground and the second that was torn down in 1979.  The lodging complex sits in an expansive grassy area near the National Park Service visitor center where tickets are sold for tours of this world-famous cave.

Isle Royale National Park – Rock Harbor Lodge features four motel-type buildings nestled on a rocky shoreline of Lake Superior plus twenty duplex housekeeping cabins in a nearby wooded area.  The cottages offer more privacy and larger interior space, plus cooking facilities, but rooms in the motel-style buildings offer a better view.  Access is via seaplane or scheduled passenger boats from Houghton and Copper Harbor, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and from Grand Portage on Minnesota’s north shore. 

Voyageurs National Park – Kettle Falls Hotel and Resort is an historic two-story frame hotel plus three newer wooden villas that each contain from two to four lodging units. Guests staying in the twelve hotel rooms must use one of three community bathrooms. Transportation to Kettle Falls is via boat.  The hotel offers daily boat transportation (fee charged) while private boats may use a free docking area.  Walleye pike dinners are served in the dining room or on the screened porch.

Ozark National Scenic Riverways – Big Spring Lodge and Cabins is in a quiet, rural area and consists of a main lodge building plus fourteen freestanding cabins built in 1934 to 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration.  The fourteen cabins are available in four sizes and are in a thick forest of hardwood trees on a hill above the main lodge building.

Glacier National Park – This magnificent park boasts six lodging facilities in four locations.  Two lodges sit just inside the park’s west entrance from Kalispell in the village of Apgar.  Two other hotels, Lake McDonald Lodge and Rising Sun are on the spectacular Going-to-the-Sun Road.  The picturesque Many Glacier area in the park’s interior has two lodging facilities, Swiftcurrent and Many Glacier Hotel.  The latter facility may enjoy the most scenic setting of any national park lodge. Prince of Wales Hotel (photo left) in neighboring Canada also enjoys a dramatic setting.  Glacier Park Lodge, just outside the park in the town of East Glacier has a magnificent lobby and is a short distance from an Amtrak station.

Lake Mead National Recreation Area – Five lodging facilities are scattered through the national recreation area.  Echo Bay Resort, Lake Mead Resort at Boulder Beach (photo left), and Temple Bar Resort are each on Lake Mead in the northern half of the recreation area.  Cottonwood Cove Resort and Lake Mohave Resort at Katherine's Landing are on Lake Mohave in the southern half of the recreation area.  All five facilities are geared to visitors interested in water-based activities, particularly boating and fishing.

Blue Ridge Parkway – Four lodging facilities are within the boundaries of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Accommodations range from nice two-story lodges to very rustic cabins without a private bath.  Pisgah Inn, approximately twenty-five miles south of Asheville, consists of three two-story buildings with guest rooms and separate restaurant serves the best food on the parkway.  Bluffs Lodge,(photo top left) at milepost 241, consists of two identical two-story buildings constructed on a grassy hillside overlooking a meadow and surrounding hills.  A unique coffee shop is a quarter mile away.  Rocky Knob Cabins (photo bottom left) at milepost 174 is a small complex of seven cabins, all but one of which does not have a private bathroom.  Peaks of Otter Lodge at milepost 86 consists of a main registration and dining building plus three adjacent two-story buildings with a total of sixty-three guest rooms.  The buildings are on the grassy banks of Abbott Lake.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park – The Inn at Brandywine Falls is the only bed and breakfast in a national park.  This pre-Civil War-era farmstead was renovated in 1988 by an enterprising couple who offer six guest rooms, four in the main house and two in the carriage barn.  The inn is a good base from which to explore this diverse national park.

Crater Lake National Park – This park has two very different lodging facilities; Crater Lake Lodge (photo left) offers seventy-one rooms in an historic, but completely rebuilt four-story wooden lodge on the rim of spectacular Crater Lake.  Mazama Village Motor Inn offers forty basic and less expensive rooms seven miles south of the rim.  Crater Lake Lodge is a classic national park lodge, while Mazama a basic motel unit.  Both locations have eating facilities.

Oregon Caves National Monument – The Chateau at the Oregon Caves is a classic six-story chateau with twenty-three guest rooms in this relatively small national monument.  The chateau is an alpine-style wooden building constructed in 1934.  It became a National Historic Landmark in 1987.  The chateau, with an exterior covered with cedar bark sheathing, retains a coziness and warmth of a traditional inn.

Badlands National Park – Cedar Pass Lodge consists of twenty-one small, mostly free-standing stucco cabins plus a large cottage (photo left).  The facility includes a dining room and nice gift shop selling specialized items relating to the Plains and America’s westward expansion.  The lodge was purchased by the National Park Service in 1964.

Big Bend National Park – Chisos Mountains Lodge in the park’s scenic basin area is a complex of modern lodge and motel-type units (photo left) plus older stone and adobe cabins.  All of the lodging facilities rent for about the same price and are open year round.  The lodge is in a remote location in the midst of breathtaking scenery.

Virgin Islands National Park – Cinnamon Bay Campground with tents and cottages is on the north shore of St. John Island, a fifteen-minute tax ride from the town of Cruz Bay.  The forty cottages are fifteen by fifteen feet and constructed of cement sides and floor with front an back screening.  The concessionaire provides linens for four twin beds in each cottage.  Guests must use a community bathroom Both the cottages and tents are a short walk from Cinnamon Bay Beach.

Bryce Canyon National Park – Bryce Canyon Lodge offers a variety of nice accommodations including two two-story motor lodge buildings, forty historic Western Cabins with refurbished bathrooms, and four rooms in the main lodge (photo left) designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the same architect who designed the Ahwahnee in Yosemite, Zion Loge, and Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim.

Zion National Park – Zion Lodge comprises a central building housing the registration and dining facilities, plus forty Western Cabins and seventy-six motel-type rooms in two large two-story motor-lodge buildings (photo left).  The lodge is fronted by a large grassy area with cottonwood trees and surrounded front and back by the beautiful red sandstone cliffs that make Zion such a scenic national park.

Shenandoah National Park – Three locations in this national park offer lodging facilities.  All are in the central section between milepost 40 and 60.  Big Meadows Lodge (photo left) and Skyland Resort are relatively large complexes with an historic lodge plus cabins and modern lodging units.  Lewis Mountain Cabins is a very small facility with cabins only.  All three facilities are operated by concessionaire Aramark Parks and Destinations.

Mount Rainier National Park Nat – This national park has two inns that offer very different lodging experiences.  National Park Inn is a small, cozy lodge in a heavily forested area with a view of Mountain Rainier.  It offers twenty-five guest rooms and is open year round.  Paradise Inn (photo left) is a classic lodge building at higher altitude in an alpine environment.  Paradise has 117 guest rooms and offers spectacular mountain views when the weather permits.  Despite the different environments, the two lodges are only about 13 miles apart.

North Cascades National Park Complex – Two major lodging facilities are located in this beautiful and relatively lightly visited national park.  Stehekin Landing Resort is in the tiny village of Stehekin (population about 100 hardy souls) at the north end of Lake Chelan.  The lodge is reached via commercial boats or floatplanes that leave from the town of Chelan or Field’s Point Landing.  The second facility, Ross Lake Resort (left photo), consists of three styles of floating cabins, all of which have kitchens.  This one of the most unusual of all national park lodging facilities.  No food of any kind is available at the resort that is reached only by boat.

Olympic National Park – Olympic has four facilities with overnight guest accommodations.  Kalaloch Lodge (photo left) has main lodge rooms, cabins, and motor lodge rooms, many of which are directly on the coast.  Kalaloch is perfect for beach walkers.  Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort is an inviting destination for those who want to spend time relaxing in a hot mineral pool.  Sol Duc has cabins with and without kitchens.  Lake Crescent Lodge and Log Cabin Resort are situated on the northern edge of the park in heavily wooded areas on opposite sides of beautiful Lake Crescent.  Lake Crescent Lodge is one of our favorite places to stay.

Grand Teton National Park – This park along with the neighboring parkway are home to seven lodging facilities.  These include Triangle X Ranch, the only working dude ranch in a national park and Jenny Lake Lodge (photo bottom left), one of the most expensive lodges in a national park.  Jackson Lake Lodge (photo top left) offers spectacular views of the Teton Mountains from huge windows in its spacious lobby and some of the more expensive guest rooms.  Colter Bay offers some of the least expensive lodging in this park in both historic cabins and tent cabins.  Dornan’s Spur Ranch Log Cabins offers very nice accommodations in a small commercial complex while Signal Mountain Lodge is comprised seventy-nine cabin units on the bank of beautiful Lake Jackson.  Flagg Ranch, with ninety-two modern cabin units, is the only lodging facility on the John D. Rockefeller Parkway that connects Grand Teton National Park with Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park – Yellowstone boasts nine lodging facilities including famous Old Faithful Inn (photo top left), one of three lodges in the hectic Old Faithful Area.  Two nearby lodges are modern Old Faithful Snow Lodge and Cabins plus Old Faithful Lodge Cabins, the latter of which offers only rustic cabins.  Other park lodging includes Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins near the north entrance and Roosevelt Lodge Cabins in the northeast section of the park.  The latter is near the Lamar Valley that is popular for wolf sightings.  The largest and most centrally located lodging facility is Canyon Lodge and Cabins with hundreds of cabins plus two modern lodge buildings.  This is a huge complex that we don't particularly enjoy stay in.  Lake Village, on the east side of the park, has two separate but nearby facilities.  Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Cabins provides numerous renovated cabins plus the elegant Lake Yellowstone Hotel (photo bottom left), our favorite place to stay in this park.  Nearby, Lake Lodge Cabins has 186 cabins that range from rustic to modern.  Grant Village, near the park’s south entrance, has six relatively modern motel-type buildings with nearly 300 rooms. 

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, room recommendations, dining facilities, activities, maps, how to reduce expenses, sketches 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 of Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

Order the 7th edition of The Complete Guide to the National Park Lodges from Amazon.

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