Lodging around the Parks

Because Yellowstone National Park is so freaking huge, I didn't want to stay in one location for the duration of the trip and have to drive long distances each day to see each section of the Park. It was better, I figured, to stay in the section of the Park where we wanted to look. Therefore, I booked us lodging in various parts of Yellowstone so that we could concentrate on what there was to see near that particular lodging.

Since the Park is so old and because of its size, there is ample lodging to be had to access each section. Some of the lodging is extremely luxurious and some of it is basic. Of course as I'm accustomed to tent camping and to backpacking, even the most rustic of lodging is relatively posh to my way of thinking. We stayed in everything from very old structures dating back almost 100 years, to pre-fabricated boxes erected in the 1970s.

The best spot we stayed for pure comfort was the Colter Bay Village in the Grand Tetons National Park. The only spot we stayed that we didn't care for was our cabin at Mammoth Hot Springs. The cabin was nice, but the walls are--and this might be an exaggeration--paper thin. When a group of young women arrived at the duplex attached to ours just at bedtime, Carole had to go next door and ask them to shut the fu--be quiet. We could quite literally hear every syllable from them. The cabin itself was okay

This is the hotel where we stayed when we got in to West Yellowstone. It's outside the Park and I've forgotten the name of the place. I'll post it later. One nice thing is that the box for Internet reception was sitting on our windowsill, so we had excellent WiFi connection.

Just outside the room. Apparently they decorate the heck out of this tree every Xmas.

This was our place at Lake Village. This was the most traditional lodging we used in the Park. It wasn't any different from staying at a big chain hotel, save for the absence of TVs.

Inside our room at Lake Village.

We didn't actually stay in Old Faithful Inn, but I wanted to take a photo of it. I really disliked this place. I'm sure that it has tremendous charm, and I understand that it is, architecturally, a gem of a structure, but the crowds there were hideous. You could--and I am not exaggerating--easily get trampled trying to get in and out of the main lobby. Maybe someday I'll go back in there during an off-season.

This is looking into our cabin at Old Faithful Inn (see my post from two days ago). I can recommend these, but I can't say that staying and/or lingering at the Old Faithful site during high season is a good idea if, like me, you can't stand crowds.

This was the inside of our cabin at Mammoth Hot Springs. It was very nice and very clean. It even had a porch outside with chairs for sitting and relaxing in the fresh air. However...these are duplex cabins and the walls between rooms are like tissue! You can quite easily hear everything your neighbors say and do, right down to and including farts. If we go back there I will definitely try to get room inside the main Inn and not in the cabins.

Our rental car parked in front of our cabin at Mammoth Hot Springs.

This was our cabin at Colter Bay Village in the Grand Tetons National Park. This was without a doubt the nicest lodging we had on our trip. The cabin is old, but solid and updated. It had its own bathroom so we didn't have to use a public bathhouse. I don't have a problem with communal showers and toilets, but it's nice if your lodging has its own bath facilities.

Inside the cabin, which had three beds. This was the bed that Andy ended up using.

Carole standing in front of our bed. We left the third bed made which, I'm sure, the maid service appreciated when we left.

I'm missing photos from our stay at Canyon Village, which I'll try to post later. That was the best place overall that we used in the Park. When we go back I'm going to stay there again unless we go by way of our truck and pull our travel trailer along.