Lodging in the Parks

Maswick Lodge on the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park is going to be rebuilt, with the end product offering 30 more rooms than the old lodge in the same space.

Who really does manage most national park lodgings? For the big operations in places such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier, and Shenandoah, corporations. Not surprisingly, while many of the 500 management contracts administered by the National Park Service, such as providing firewood or operating a bicycle rental operation, are relatively straightforward, those for large commercial facilities such as lodging in Yosemite or Yellowstone are extremely complicated. David and Kay Scott bring some clarity to this issue in their latest article pertaining to lodging in the National Park System.

This past June marked the opening of Lodge at the Presidio, a companion facility to Inn at the Presidio that opened in 2012. Both lodge buildings once housed soldiers stationed in the former military post.

Laughing children, teens streaming out of the cafeteria, and elk grazing peacefully on the lawn greeted me as I made my way to check in to the YMCA of the Rockies, a venerable and sprawling retreat cupped in a mountainous bowl sidled up against Rocky Mountain National Park.