We are staying at the Old Faithful Inn, a multistory log cabin kind of place whose rough-hewn beams are worn smooth by generations. Beautiful and elegantly rustic. It’s supposed to look like it grew here, and it does:
Those beams are all the natural forms that were cut from trees in the area. The inner lobby is the whole height of the building. The common areas on the balconies surrounding the lobby are really wonderful. Big old leather-and-wood chairs and couches overlooking the central area, and people actually fill those spaces right up, because the rooms are too dim to hang out in or even read in. There’s also a giant deck, from which you can watch Old Faithful. Or you can walk over to the geyser viewing area and watch from closer up. You can tell when it’s about to erupt by the accumulation of tourists. Our room is charming and rustic with bare wood walls and dim electric lights built to imitate candles. Early visitors apparently expected electricity, as well as running water and central heat.
I love the sink in the room. However, they are not original… they were added in the 1980s, apparently. Before that people only had bathrooms down the hall. Shared toilets and showers are still there, and are actually very nice.
We toured three of the other lodges in the park and each has its own totally unique style. The Roosevelt Lodge is a hunting-lodge type of place with a “great room” in the main building and the lodging in tiny little cabins. The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is practically Grecian, with its pale buttery colors and classical clean lines. And then there is my secret favorite, the Canyon Lodge, an “ugly strip-mall” according to my dad’s guidebook but to me, a marvelous example of modernist architecture. Maybe it’s so out it’s in. Look at the awesome clock in the lounge.
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