Lake Yellowstone Hotel: One of the Old 'Grand' Hotels
I tend to plan too much. I want to see and experience as much as I possibly can on every single day of every trip I take and as a result, sometimes I end up totally exhausted at the end of the day. That's what happened on the day I discovered the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. I began the day very early in Salt Lake City. I left there and drove north. I stopped in Jackson Hole briefly before going on and stopping for quite a while at Grand Tetons National Park. Then I headed on to Yellowstone. I drove to Old Faithful and got to see it erupt (right on schedule:-)) and then, as the sun was sinking in the west, I realized that not only was it rather late in the afternoon but that I was exhausted, really tired of driving, and not ready to leave Yellowstone because it was so much more beautiful than I had expected.
As I drove through the park trying to decide what to do, I passed this huge old yellow building. I turned around and went back to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel and checked in. I was very lucky. I got a room for much less than I had expected some place like this to be. It was originally built in the late 1800s and underwent a full renovation in the 1990s to restore it to its heyday of the 1920s. Just walking into the stylish lobby, I thought for sure I was out of my price range but, although I paid more for a room than I normally do, it wasn't so exorbitant that I had to leave. So I checked in. I got a room in a two-story building called the Annex on the grounds of the hotel. These are "high range" rooms, which sounds expensive but actually aren't too bad. I had a very comfortable room and full, private bath for just over $100 (US).
Other room options are in the main building of the hotel or in one of the cabins nearby if you'd like to really "rough it."
There are several dining options, including the main dining room just off the lobby or the deli, also inside the main hotel. I chose to go on a short walk over to the Lake Lodge Cafeteria where they serve a wide variety of food in an old cabin sitting amongst the trees near the lake. It's more casual than the dining room (and less expensive) but still offered something good to eat.
I had to go check out the lake while I was there (good thing the sun sets close to 9pm in the summer). On the lake side of the hotel is an old park tourbus, used in the 1920s to take guests around the park. Near the lake off to the side of the hotel is where I ran into the grazing buffalo. I was on my way back to the Annex Building from the lake. There are some trees there and the buffalo was just casually eating grass and, thankfully, not paying me much attention. They give you a lot of warnings in the park. Buffalo can run faster than people and you can't exactly reason with them, so I kept my distance but it was fun to get that close to a wild animal.
A couple of disclaimers about the hotel - it's in the middle of the woods, which are in the middle of a national park - there are no tvs, no internet connections, even in the regular rooms. There's also no air conditioning but this is Wyoming - it doesn't usually get too hot. Also, the hotel is only open from May-October.
The views are amazing. Yellowstone Lake is huge and around the hotel area of the lake are wildflowers and buffalo munching on the grass. The buffalo actually come onto the grounds of the hotel to graze. You have to be careful but it's definitely a unique experience to run into a buffalo on your way to dinner.
