A place to seek a room with a view
Written: Jul 30 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: view, comfort, cuisine, quiet
Cons: lack of tvs may traumatize some, halls too brightly lit
The Bottom Line: Not as impressive as Timberline or Old Faithful lodges, but, like them, now very comfortable places in which to stay and eat.
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| Jiahong's Full Review: Crater lake Lodge |
Half the rooms in the Crater Lake Lodge overlook the deepest lake in the United States and the clearest lake water in the world. The other half are not viewless, but the lakes visible from them (Agency and Upper Klamath) are 50+ miles away. It used to be that all the Crater Lake Lodge had going for it was view and the Great Hall. The lodging part of the lodge was shoddily constructed between 1909 and 1930 and the whole edifice was structurally unsound (being buried each winter under fifteen feet of snow). The building was condemned and the lodge closed in 1989.
Oregonians protested the decision to tear it down, though "reconstruction" was so considerable that the Crater Lake Lodge is a 1920 hotel built during the early 1990s. As explained in a flyer in every room: "The plan to rehabilitate Crater Lake Lodge called for returning the exterior appearance and interior public areas to that of the late 1920s. After nearly two years of planning and design, construction work began in 1991. Some original materials, such as the masonry stones, were salvaged for reuse, but very little of the original building could be saved. The Great Hall wing was dismantled and rebuilt. Most of the rest was gutted. A steel structural support system, utilities, life-safety systems, and modern hotel standards were built into the new facility. The rehabilitation of Crater Lake Lodge was completed in the fall of 1994 at a cost of more than $15,000,000. On May 20, 1995, Crater Lake Lodge reopened to the public. Patrons and visitors could again enjoy its accommodations and services safely, and in an atmosphere reminiscent of the 1920s. For the first time since its original opening eighty years before, Crater Lake Lodge was a project finally completed."
Rooms
The lodge is open from mid-May to mid-October. It only has 71 rooms, and particularly to get a lakeview room requires reservations far in advance of arrival. I usually don't care very much about getting a room with a view, but in that going to Crater Lake National Park is mostly about looking at the lake (there are only four hiking trails in a park approximately the same size as Yosemite), I enjoyed looking up from my laptop at the changing light and consistently cobalt blue of the lake. There are no televisions or telephones in guest rooms, and no Internet access, though there are alarm clock/radios and copies of USA Today.
There was a major (15 million dollar) renovation of the lodge, which was closed in 1989 and did not reopen until 1995. Our lakefront room has two queen-size beds, two windows with screens, one without, a desk, one easy chair, lots of toiletries, a fairly adequate reading lamp between the beds and another one for the chair (plus a desk lamp), no closet, a luggage rack, a bit of counter around the sink, plus desktop, and bedside tabletop on which to place stuff. No tv or phone or Internet access in the rooms. The hotel provided two pairs of towels, a heat-bulb in bathroom, a deep and somewhat short bathtub, historic photographs, curtains that necessarily leave a gap when closing, and a range of toiletries.
Being so far from any city, I'd have liked it to be darker, but light seeped in from the hall and from between the drapes. (A full moon reduced the visibility of stars, but rose dramatically over the opposite rim!)
Rates this season are: ground floor 123, southside rooms 154, lakeview 160-70, loft rooms (two-stories with a queen bed in each) 238. Plus six percent tax. There are smoking rooms and non-smoking rooms of each sort. Some rooms have one queen-size bed, some have two.
At 7500 feet elevation, there is no need for air conditioners. Rooms have heaters.
Restauarant
Drinks and snacks are served during the day in the Great Hall and on the deck just outside of it.
There is a full-service restaurant beyond the Great Hall (the far right in epinions' surprisingly drab photo here). I don't know about its lunches, but I had breakfast and dinner in it three times. I'd say the food served at the Timberline Lodge at Mount Hood, further north in Oregon,and at the Yellowstone Lake one, are a bit more interesting, but at least the first day it seemed there were a range of options on the Crater Lake Lodge menu. Having sampled most of the entrées and seen the rest, by the third night of the same menu, the selection seemed limited. (Of the three dinner entrées I ordered, I liked best the salmon in puff pastry, though it seemed an unlikely combination. I also had steak and duck and pieces of others' pork and halibut.) Preparation and service were very good, and the desserts were excellent, especially the mixed berry cobbler. Most entrées were in the $20-25 range.
Alternatives
Nearby, the Watchman Restaurant and the Rim Village Café are located in the Rim Village Complex. Prices are lower and I don't have any basis for opinion on the quality of fare.
Seven miles below the rim of the lake (which is, incidentally, a thousand feet above the water level; the only trail down to the lake is on the shore opposite the Rim Village and Crater Lake Lodge), there is a 40-room Mazama Village Motor Inn, It is also run by Xanterra. (Like the Crater lake Lodge, the motor inn's rooms do not have televisions, telephones or air conditioning.)
For reservations at any of the Crater Lake facilities, or further information, the e-mail address is info-cl@xanterra.com.
Recommended:
Yes
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