Lodging at Yellowstone National Park

My wife and I have made a number of trips to Yellowstone National Park, but the one we enjoyed the most (and one we would enjoy repeating) was the visit we made in 2004. The main difference between that trip and the others we had made was that we stayed in the park itself rather than finding a motel outside and driving in each day. The company through whom online reservations for lodging can be made is Xanterra Parks and Resorts.

Some Important Tips about Staying in the Park. First, plan ahead! I just checked the website for the places my wife and I stayed and they're basically filled up through September. Then some of them are closed for the season. Second, be ready for a wide range of prices among the different lodges or cabins. The cabins and lodges vary in amenities and the prices reflect that. Third, be sure you know what you're getting. Some of the cabins, for example, do not have bathrooms; you have to go to a common bathroom. Fourth, plan your lodging to correlate with the section of the park you'll be exploring on a certain day. If you're exploring the northwest quadrant of the park, try to get lodging in that area and check in the night before you explore the area. That way, when you get up, you're already where you want to be. Fifth, most of the rooms or cabins do not have telephones, although, in today's age of cell phones, this is not a big problem. Sixth, try toavoid the busy times in the park. If you don't have to worry about getting children back to start school in the fall, late August or early September may be the best times to schedule a vacation in Yellowstone.

The Places We Stayed. My wife and I stayed in four different places in Yellowstone Park over a period of five days.

Our first stop was the Old Faithful Inn which celebrated its 100th birthday in 2004 and is located in the west central/south central quadrant of the Park. According to an informational brochure about the Inn, the architect who designed the building, Robert C. Reamer, intended to have a structure that "would appear to have grown out of its surroundings." His style, copied in other national parks, has become known as "rustic architecture" or "parkitecture."