On our recent trip to Yellowstone, we stayed at Canyon Lodge, a National Park Lodge operated by Xanterra. If you’re considering staying at a National Park Lodge on your trip to Yellowstone, here’s a few things we think you should know.
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Don’t expect a luxury experience
Let’s just set expectations clearly: the rooms in a National Park Lodge are clean, and they contain beds, but that’s about it. Depending on what room type you choose they may also have a private bathroom (not all rooms do), a mini-fridge (only included in “upgraded” room types), or a balcony/patio area (usually only the top of the line rooms.) But that’s about it. There’s not air conditioning. There’s not a television. There’s not internet access—not even for purchase—in most lodges. There’s not a radio. Services like a coffee shop, restaurant, bar, or business center may or may not be located in your individual lodge building. So go in with your eyes wide open for what you’ve signed up for.
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Bring something to do at night
As a result of the simplicity outlined in #1, there’s not really much to do at night in a National Park Lodge other than sit and stare at your travel companions. Consider packing a deck of cards, jigsaw puzzle, or fully downloading some movies to your laptop in advance.
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Double check where registration is located for your lodge
At our lodge, Canyon, there are actually 6 lodge buildings. We didn’t know until we got there that we had been assigned to the Chittendon Lodge, but check in for all the lodge buildings was actually located in the Washburn lodge. There are no signs telling you this, nor is it included in your reservation materials. So you may want to call once you book to get the low down on where you actually need to go to check in.
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The in-room coffee is surprisingly decent
Surprisingly, one amenity the rooms did include was in-room coffee maker. And even more surprisingly, it was pretty good! The coffee maker was a pod-style machine, and the brand of the coffee was Rainforest. It wasn’t the best coffee I’ve had in my life, but it also wasn’t horrible.
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Pack your own paper products
Have you ever had the pleasure of blowing your nose into sandpaper? That’s about the quality of the tissues we found in the room. Can’t really speak any higher of the toilet paper either. Go ahead and pack your own…if you’re hiking, you’ll likely want to take it with you on the trail anyways, and it’s just a whole lot nicer to have it in the room.
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You can leave the haircare stuff at home
If you are lucky enough to have a private bathroom, they do come pretty well stocked. The showers have dispensers of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash, and since they are full-sized bottles, you aren’t limited to just a tiny bottle’s worth if you have long or thick hair like me. There was also a blow dryer in the vanity area. So that was a nice touch.
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Double-check the hours of nearby services
As I collect National Park stamps in my passport book, I needed to stop by a National Park Visitor’s Center during our trip. I was surprised to learn that they were only open between 9am and 5pm — times we were usually still out exploring for the day. Similarly, if you wanted a coffee from the Washburn lodge coffee shop, you better not sleep in — it was only open from 6:30 to 9am. So before you make a plan to visit a certain locale, you may want to double check that it will actually be open when you’re trying to go.
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Parents: be prepared for the guilt-purchase
Oh, what a cute wolf perched on the bed of our room! I bet if you have kids, they’re really gonna love it! And that they’re not going to want to leave it behind at the end of the trip either! And when they do beg and plead for the toy, it’s going to set you back $30. So, if you’d like to avoid that, you may want to have one parent slip in the room and stow away the cute plushie before your kids come into the room.
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Bring some post-its to cover problem light sources
We LOVED having a fridge while we were in Yellowstone. It was so nice to be able to come back to a cold beer at the end of the day, not to mention storing snacks and waters in there as well. But there was one issue: the fridge had a bright blue LED display that lit up the whole room at night. We took to rigging up clothing or some other cover over it every night, but a stack of post-its would have been an easy and elegant solution.
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Be prepared for 10-15 minute walks to get to village services
Canyon Village was one of the larger lodging areas in Yellowstone, complete with one sit-down restaurant, a bar, 2 counter service restaurant, an ice cream shop, a Visitor’s Center, and several general stores/souvenir shops. But none of these things were located in the Chittendon Lodge building, where our room was. In fact, it was about 15-minute walk over uneven ground to get to any of these places. There was a shuttle bus, for people who couldn’t make that trek, but it didn’t seem to come around very often.
So that’s it! All in all, we were very happy with our choice to stay in a National Park Lodge on this trip, as it positioned us very well for all the sights and hikes we wanted to do, and let us beat the crowds to popular attractions in the early mornings. But as with all travel, it’s best to go in with your eyes wide open about what you’re getting yourselves into, so that you can even better prepare for your vacation.
Have a question about Canyon Lodge, or Yellowstone in general? Put it in the comments and I’ll get back to you shortly!
