The old lodges in National Parks are usually pretty wonderful places. My favorite is still the one at Glacier. The old wood, the stone hearth at the fireplaces, the textures, and smells. You're always stepping back to a nicer time when you step inside. They're part of the history of the parks. Unfortunately most of the items I turned over in the gift shops had "Made in China" stamped on the bottom. I'd pick up something that looked Native American and there was that blasted little gold sticker with "China" on it. Really bugged me.
Below are a few old postcards showing the lodges at Bryce Canyon in Utah, Old Faithful in Yellowstone, Zion National Park in Utah, and Mount Rainier in Washington. I look at the one of Zion and can remember my father and me having lunch on the balcony porch a few years after my mother's passing. The parks always bring back good memories.
Click on image to see it larger.
And this copy is from the back of the Bryce Canyon card. The same copy is on the back of the Zion card below.
"Lodge Center, Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, provides accommodations for guests housed in adjacent guest lodges. The lodge center contains hospitable lobby and lounge, attractive and commodious entertainment hall, spacious dining room, curio store, barber shop, and retiring rooms and shower bath for men and women."
And from the Yellowstone card:
"Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone Park. Without this wonderful architectural creation how lame and lacking in completeness the Upper Geyser Basin would be. Words are almost useless in word-picturing this Inn--one must surely see and ramble about it and eat and sleep in it to know it. Go and do this and be happy!"
Click on image to see it larger.
And from the back of the Rainier card:
"Steam shovels have just dug channels through ten to twelve feet of snow to allow automobiles to reach Paradise Inn, Rainier National Park. The highway is usually open for traffic by July 1st."
Hopefully some of these will bring back memories to those who remember visiting parks as children on family vacations when the world seemed a little less scary and maybe even a little bigger.
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