While many national park lodges in the United States close up shop when the snow falls, some throw open their doors to winter guests. Make your reservations now to get in on the fun. Here are a few of my favorites:
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| Travelers can escape winter at Furnace Creek Inn. Photo by David Morris |
DEATH VALLEY NATIONAL PARK, CA
The Mission-inspired Furnace Creek Inn closes each summer as temperatures soar, but come October 8th the 1927 luxury resort reopens. This is the ultimate oasis with fresh water, spring-fed swimming pool, lush gardens, locally inspired cuisine and the kind of setting that drew the Hollywood crowd of the Roaring 20s. Guests still get VIP treatment at this intimate retreat where days are filled with exploring the park, playing golf on the lowest elevation course in America or taking part in a variety of special events at the inn. Visitors to Death Valley now have the option of being picked up at the in-park hotels and taking guided jeep tours to some of the park’s remote attractions. In cooperation with Pink Jeep Tours, guests travel to areas where high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicles are strongly recommended.
Tour prices range from $65 to $165. Reservations for the tours can be made directly with Pink Jeep Tours by calling 1-888-900-4480. For those who want to explore the park on their own, Jeep Wranglers are now available for rent at a rather pricey $175 for 24 hours. You can also rent a bicycle at nearby Furnace Creek Ranch. The best part of one's stay at the inn is simply the solitude. As one park ranger said of Death Valley, "The silence is deafening." www.furnacecreekresort.com, 800-236-7916.
The Mission-inspired Furnace Creek Inn closes each summer as temperatures soar, but come October 8th the 1927 luxury resort reopens. This is the ultimate oasis with fresh water, spring-fed swimming pool, lush gardens, locally inspired cuisine and the kind of setting that drew the Hollywood crowd of the Roaring 20s. Guests still get VIP treatment at this intimate retreat where days are filled with exploring the park, playing golf on the lowest elevation course in America or taking part in a variety of special events at the inn. Visitors to Death Valley now have the option of being picked up at the in-park hotels and taking guided jeep tours to some of the park’s remote attractions. In cooperation with Pink Jeep Tours, guests travel to areas where high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicles are strongly recommended.
Tour prices range from $65 to $165. Reservations for the tours can be made directly with Pink Jeep Tours by calling 1-888-900-4480. For those who want to explore the park on their own, Jeep Wranglers are now available for rent at a rather pricey $175 for 24 hours. You can also rent a bicycle at nearby Furnace Creek Ranch. The best part of one's stay at the inn is simply the solitude. As one park ranger said of Death Valley, "The silence is deafening." www.furnacecreekresort.com, 800-236-7916.
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| The Stanley is open year round, and winter is a joy. |
Stephen King may have been inspired to write The Shining after a stay at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, but today the elegant 1909 Colonial Revival hotel is anything but creepy. Constructed by FO Stanley of Stanley Steam automobile fame, the complex of perfectly restored buildings are parts of a National Historic District. When it opened, The Stanley's East Coast elegance defied the Wild West persona that had defined the state for so long. Instead of park rustic design found in lodges like Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, the hotel offered the comforts afforded the upper class clients of the era. While many of the public rooms are beautifully restored, their uses have been altered to accommodate conferences and weddings. It's worth taking a tour, but be prepared for lots of ghost stories. If you opt for a winter visit and it's is snowy, the setting is spectacular. Get a room with a view and be enchanted by this lovely hotel. www.stanleyhotel.com, 800-976-1377.
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| The lobby of Lake Quinault Lodge is the ideal place to curl up and read a book. Photo by David Morris |
Set along the lake shore, surrounded by one of the Western Hemisphere's three temperate coniferous rain forests is the shingle-covered shake-roofed Lake Quinault Lodge. Designed by Robert Reamer (who also gave us Yellowstone’s Old Faithful Inn), the lodge is located in the south central portion of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. Guests gather around the massive brick fireplace for games of Scrabble and chess while they look out through floor-to-ceiling paned windows at the wonder of it all. Meals are served in the same dining room where President Franklin D. Roosevelt dined during his 1937 tour of the peninsula while evaluating the feasibility of creating Olympic National Park. The guest rooms in the lodge have recently been updated along with some historic restoration of the main lobby. Always good news! Bring your rain gear and a good book. www.visitlakequinault.com, 888-896-3827.
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, CA
Probably the most elegant hotel in a national park is The Ahwahnee in Yosemite National Park, California. Designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, the towering stone, glass and concrete (made to look like wood) hotel was meant to draw visitors of "means" to the national park. Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service wanted to make sure that those he needed to support the parks had proper (and imposing) accommodations. The stunning hotel opened in 1927 and fabulous public rooms such as the 77-foot long Great Lounge and rustic yet formal dining room along with intimate spaces such as the Mural Room or Solarium wowed guests then as they do today. Winter hotel events include the Christmas holiday's Bracebridge Dinner, and Vintner’s and Chef’s Holidays, but nothing beats taking in the breathtaking views of the frozen Yosemite Falls, Half Dome or Glacier Point from one of the hotel’s many vantage points.
Most visitors to Yosemite know about The Ahwahnee, but one of the oldest mountain resorts in California is located just seven miles from the park’s south entrance. Built in 1879, the Wawona Hotel is part of eight New England-style buildings set on the site of old Clark Station and lodge in the park. This National Historic Landmark hotel is an ideal place for skiers headed to Badger Pass Ski Area or those who venture a cross-country ski trip whether for the day or an overnight adventure to Glacier Point Ski Hut. If you’re looking for a Currier and Ives setting in California, the Wawona Hotel is it. www.yosemitepark.com/Accommodations_WawonaHotel.aspx, (801) 559-4884.
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| There are numerous lodges and motels at the Grand Canyon but El Tovar is the Grand Dame of the South Rim |
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, AZ
At the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, five of the six lodges are open year-round, and many are fully booked during the summer season. The historic, 78-room El Tovar Hotel is typically the first lodge to sell out. During the months of November and December, however, there are still rooms available at El Tovar for visitors who book in the weeks ahead. What you'll find is a low-slung, wood, and log hotel that seems to sink into the landscape along the edge of the Grand Canyon. Part Victorian-era resort and part rustic log cabin when it opened in 1905, it provided both the comforts of the established Eastern or European resorts and the excitement of the newly "discovered" Southwest. Winter is an ideal time to miss the crowds at the canyon without sacrificing the heart-stopping views found just steps from the hotel. El Tovar was redecorated, and updated for the 2005 centennial celebration, and the dining room offers some of the best food in the national parks. www.grandcanyonlodges.com, 888-297-2757.
MOUNT HOOD NATIONAL FOREST, OR
Six miles up a winding road on Mount Hood, Oregon, at the point where trees give way to volcanic ash, this elegant piece of soft-gray architecture looks rather unimposing in contrast to the looming presence of Oregon's highest peak. Built by the WPA during the Great Depression, this is the ultimate "ski lodge" where everything remains as it was in 1935. The lodge is a living museum featuring gigantic timber construction, hand wrought iron work, loomed textiles and mountains of personality. The Cascade Dining room offers fabulous Northwest cuisine. Since Timberline Lodge was built as a ski resort, it only makes sense to visit here in the winter. They've already kicked off the winter season with a bunch of ski pass offerings. As noted in my earlier post, you'll find about $4 million worth of improvements at this 74,000-square-foot National Historic Landmark. An added bonus is seeing the fabulous new snow entrance that replaced the ugly tunnel affair. The original design didn't take into account the mountains of snow blown into the entrance, so after much debate and many proposals here is the new winter entrance completed in 2009. www.timberlinelodge.com, 800-547-1406.
GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, MT
The Great Northern Railway constructed a series of massive lodges and backcountry retreats that dot Glacier National Park, Montana. Lake McDonald Lodge, Many Glacier Hotel and Glacier Park Lodge close for the winter, but the more intimate Belton Chalet stays open. Tucked against the hillside past the west entrance of the park, the chocolate brown cluster of restored buildings was the first foray into tourist development by the railway’s president Louis Hill. The chalet opened in 1910 the same year President Taft signed a bill creating Glacier National Park. Designed by Kirkland Cutter, the chalet was brought back from near ruin and reopened in 2000. Cottages are available, but the restaurant and taproom are only open on weekends during the winter season. You won’t find crowds this time of year, but you will discover a slice of “real” Montana. www.beltonchalet.com, 406-888-5000.
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| Cavallo Point Lodge is the newest lodge in the national park system. |
GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARK, CA
Set within the Golden Gate National Parks at Fort Baker, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge near Sausalito, California, is the national park's newest lodge. Cavallo Point Lodge is a compound of twenty-four historic military buildings, transformed into a combination of historic rehabilitation and contemporary construction. The one-time military post became a 350-acre national park site in 2002, and in 2008 the parade grounds and hillside became a “green” destination resort. Guests can choose from the renovated officers' residence (including the generals' house) or newly constructed guest suites and rooms. In addition, Cavallo Point offers a high-end Healing Arts Center and Spa, posh Murray Circle restaurant with extensive wine cellar, cooking classes, meditation and yoga in the former chapel, hiking and biking. Not exactly what those who awoke to revelry found. www.cavallopoint.com, 888-651-2003.
Set within the Golden Gate National Parks at Fort Baker, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge near Sausalito, California, is the national park's newest lodge. Cavallo Point Lodge is a compound of twenty-four historic military buildings, transformed into a combination of historic rehabilitation and contemporary construction. The one-time military post became a 350-acre national park site in 2002, and in 2008 the parade grounds and hillside became a “green” destination resort. Guests can choose from the renovated officers' residence (including the generals' house) or newly constructed guest suites and rooms. In addition, Cavallo Point offers a high-end Healing Arts Center and Spa, posh Murray Circle restaurant with extensive wine cellar, cooking classes, meditation and yoga in the former chapel, hiking and biking. Not exactly what those who awoke to revelry found. www.cavallopoint.com, 888-651-2003.
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WY
Yellowstone National Park’s nine lodges close between late September and mid-October. The park's winter season begins Dec. 18th with the reopening of Old Faithful Snow Lodge followed by the reopening of Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel on Dec. 21st. They will close the first week of March. My choice would be Old Faithful Snow Lodge next door to the shuttered Old Faithful Inn. Opened in 1999, the timber and log lodge houses 100 guest rooms, a huge great room with fireplace, dining room and nooks to call your own. Half of the fun is just getting there. The interior of the park is only accessible by snowmobile, snowcoach or cross-country skis. Once you’ve checked in, the park is yours via cross country skiing, snowshoeing, or limited snowmobile and snowcoach rides. Geysers, roaming wildlife and the stark beauty of the snow-covered landscape make it a favorite time for a visit. Winter Getaway packages include snowcoach transportation, and are available from Jan. 2 through March 7, 2011 at Mammoth Hot Springs and through March 6 at the Snow Lodge. "Trail of the Wolf" packages take you into the park to observe wildlife in the Northern Range of the park. Winter Getaway packages may be booked by phone by calling (1) 307-344-7311 or toll-free (1) 866-GEYSERLAND (1-866-439-7375). Complete tour details are also available at the web site www.YellowstoneNationalParkLodges.com
For more information on the author's books and the great lodges, check out www.greatlodges.com
