Yellowstone Inn

My wife and I stayed at the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone this summer while on vacation. It is a rustic historic hotel that is very popular. The Inn is made of logs, and was built in 1903. You have to get reservations 6 to 12 months in advance.

I travel with a laptop, not just for internet or business reasons, but because I can recharge my ipod, download my photographs, and exchange map data with my GPS. I did ask, when checking in, if they had WiFi. The front desk clerk was very enthusiastic about the fact that they did not, in fact, there was no internet access anywhere in the park.

This is not exactly true. They take credit cards, which requires an internet connection nowadays to confirm the transaction. They also have webcams, which we had been checking on for months prior to going, that show Old Faithful erupting (among other things). This did not occur to me at the time.

It didn't matter. Sometimes it's good to get unplugged. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Yellowstone, and found we could completely relax without all the distractions of the modern world.

The room had only one light across the room from the bed and one outlet in the bathroom. There was also a radiator in the room, which was finicky, at best.

Don't get me wrong, the inn was beautiful and the experience of staying there was well worth it. But for some reason, I couldn't get over how stupid it was that there was no light at the bedside. They had obviously modified the inn to put lights and heat in, but the didn't make it convenient. At the time, I thought of a several clever rants about how stupid this was.

But in preparing for this post, I read the Wiki entry for the Old Faithful Inn, which says that when the inn was opened in 1904, it boasted electrical lights and steam heat. So maybe it's just the way it was when it was built.

If so, I'm a an idiot.