Erdman vs. Wild: Hotels Near National Parks
Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
TLF partner Alex Erdman Ely would rather be outside. Erdman vs. Wild features her favorite intersections of epic nature experiences and luxury travel.
As the population of the United States moved toward the Pacific in the early 19th century, artists and authors began creating romantic and mythic descriptions and representations of the epic landscapes of the American West. This grand scope and scale was soon integral to the national identity - the spacious skies and purple mountain majesties that Katharine Lee Bates immortalized in her lyrics to “America the Beautiful.” Since Ulysses S. Grant signed the order that made Yellowstone the United States’ first national park in 1872, the system has grown to include over 400 awe-inspiring natural, historical, recreational, and cultural sites across 29 of the 50 states.
Post-World War II, with the personal automobile increasingly common, families set out by the thousands for summer visits to the Parks. The Great American Road trip became iconic, spawning movies and memoirs and filling generations of family photo albums with snaps of kids with scraped knees and parents lugging backpacks and coolers. And while it’s still possible to march off solo into the wild with a tent and a map to roam the system’s combined 18,000 miles of hiking trails, there are also cushier ways to appreciate our nation’s natural beauty – think Frette linens, full wine cellars, and Michelin-starred dining. Below are five of my favorite hotels located in and around National Parks, for when you want to live like John Muir during the day and John D. Rockefeller at night.
Caldera House
In a town of sprawling ski resorts scattered along the landscape like so many cans of spilled Lincoln Logs, the cozy 8-suite Caldera House stands out for its intimate size and its perfect location. Cuddled up against the base of the famed Jackson Hole Aerial Tram, the property’s multi-bedroom suites all offer balconies with views onto the main event: the incredible mountain scenery. After all, owner Wes Edens says Jackson “is where every badass mountain athlete goes,” so whether that descriptor applies to you or you’re just here for the cowhide rugs, private fireplaces, and croque monsieur mac and cheese at Old Yellowstone Garage, Caldera House makes for a base camp that’s anything but basic.
National Park Access
Grand Teton National Park (5 miles)
Take a wildlife safari in hopes of spotting the park’s big boys – moose, elk, and bison, among others; raft the Snake River as bald eagles soar overhead; fish for trout or paddle a classic red canoe on Jackson Lake.
Yellowstone National Park (57 miles)
Marvel over the three towering waterfalls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone; tap into your inner Ansel Adams at the Grand Prismatic Spring; check off one of the major National Park bucket list items with a stop to watch Old Faithful let off some steam.
Blackberry Mountain
The wilder younger sister of famed Blackberry Farm, Blackberry Mountain opened in 2019. Town and Country Magazine called the pair of properties an “Appalachian Arcadia;” where at the Farm you’ll find rolling lawns and picturesque red barns, 20 minutes away and 2,800 feet higher into the clouds, you’ll forage for wild morels and spend an afternoon learning to throw clay pots on the wheel in the ceramics studio. Your room may contain the full 12-book Foxfire set, a how-to series written in the 1970s about life in Southern Appalachia (“Moonshining as a fine art” and “Making a foot powered lathe” among the articles), but if you’re worn out after a long hike, the Mountain staff will drop you at your cottage in one of the property’s Lexus GXs – just the type of balance we’d expect from a resort perched on top of a peak.
National Park Access
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (15 miles)
Earn your lunch-time rib eye cheeseburger with a guided 10k trail run; watch the fireflies dance in the summer twilight; take a trip into history at perfectly-preserved Cades Cove, a highly scenic collection of more than 90 historic log cabins, churches, and barns from the early 1800s that serves as a microcosm of American frontier history.
Sheldon Chalet
There's private, and then there's only-villa-in-a-national-park-in-Alaska private. Located 6,000 feet above sea level, floating on a granite outcropping that's the only constant in an active, 35-square mile glacial amphitheater, finding words to describe the truly epic remoteness of Sheldon Chalet leaves us buried in an avalanche of hyperbole. The Chalet is owned by the son and daughter in law of Don Sheldon, who went bravely into this Olympian landscape in a 1960s Cessna. If the idea of champagne, elk charcuterie, and fresh Alaskan King Crab preceding a one-on-one audience with the Northern Lights speaks to you, then Sheldon Chalet is calling - it's just so far into the middle of the great wide nowhere that you might not be able to hear it yet.
National Park Access
Denali National Park (all around you)
Trek the Ruth Glacier with your local guide; soak in exclusive access to the Northern Lights; snowshoe to the even-more-remote Don Sheldon Mountain House, built in the 1960s by the famed Alaskan Bush pilot for whom this stretch of the park (and the chalet!) is named.
Amangiri
Amangiri has been the standard-bearer for American luxury since it opened its impeccably designed blonde wood doors just over 10 years ago. In the world of travel, where one viral Instagram can fling the zeitgeist across the globe, Amangiri seems to operate on a different scale – after all, a decade means nothing in this landscape of dinosaur bones and mountainscapes forged through millennia. The property’s 600 acres feel incomprehensibly vast and immediately tactile, shaped and twisted by winds and spirits over infinite time but also here, now, crunching under your feet and settling as silky russet dust on your shoulders. This summer, Amangiri is opening a cluster of ten tented suites called Camp Sarika, crouched a 5-minute drive from the main hotel and outfitted with private plunge pools and fire pits. The tawny canvas roofs rose just months ago, but already feel sliced and smoothed by eons of desert winds.
National Park Access
Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (6 miles)
Tour the sculptural maze of Lower Antelope Canyon; marvel at the Rainbow Bridge, the iconic natural sandstone arch contrasted against the surrounding red rock mountains; spend an epic day on the water of Lake Powell.
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (18 miles)
Learn to identify a hoodoo in Devil’s Garden; bathe in the cascading sunbeams in Golden Cathedral; prove your back-country bonafides with an overnight trek through Coyote Gulch.
Zion National Park (106 miles)
Get oriented with the Virgin Riverside Walk before wading through the famous Narrows; pay homage to your elders at the Court of the Patriarchs, three red rock formations biblically named Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; cover the Sandbench Trail on horseback for incredible views of the southern end of Zion.
Grand Canyon National Park (138 miles)
Pass through every ecosystem to be found between Canada and Mexico on the North Kaibab Trail; swoop in by helicopter to visit the technicolor Havasu Falls; navigate the precipitous canyon trails a la Teddy Roosevelt astride a mule.
Bryce Canyon National Park (141 miles)
Start your day at Sunrise Point (or end at Sunset Point if you’re more of a nightowl); try to spot the hoodoo named for Queen Victoria along the Queens Garden Trail; stop at Bryce Point and Insipiration Point to pick a favorite panorama over the unique landscape.
Four Seasons Hualalai
The crown jewel of Four Seasons’ Hawaii properties, the Four Seasons Hualalai is a 243-room brand-name hotel in a tried-and-true vacation destination that somehow pulls off the trick of feeling like your little secret. The magic at Hualalai is that this is no leis-and-luaus Big Island big box; the experiences draw on subtler cultural and natural touchstones – sandalwood oil from Háloa Áina’s native Hawaiian 'Iliahi forest on the slopes of Mauna Loa shows up next to your massage table, while rock salt from the local volcanic salt flats lends a mineral zing to the catch of the day. Sure, there are other fish in the sea, but every time our imagination starts wandering west, we find ourselves dreaming of Hualalai.
National Park Access
Volcanoes National Park (98 miles)
Hike through a lush ohia forest down into the Kilauea’iki crater; bring your flashlight and explore the Thurston Lava Tube (a tropical rainforest awaits at the far end of Nahuku for the intrepid); consult lava-viewing guides for updates on erupting volcanoes and watch the island change shape in real time.