Here are some interior shots I took inside Lake McDonald Lodge in Glacier Park. Every time I got to Glacier I like to spend a little time hanging out in one of the old Lodges. The Lake McDonald Lodge is the coziest and smallest of the old timber framed Lodges. There is a lodge like this in private hands on Flathead Lake. The main floor in the Lobby of these buildings are usually stone. I took this shot from the top of three levels looking down into the lobby. You can read about some of the history and renovations HERE It's a pdf file download and has old photos.
This is the balcony shown in the first photo. This would be a good place to sit and read on a rainy day in the park or write a few post cards home or just write in your journal. I don't think they have wireless internet here so you might have to use a tablet and pen. The Lodge was built in 1913 and the first electrical system was primitive. It had a generator that was water driven by a stream and provided DC electrical to the Lodge at a max of 50 watts. Kind of cool if you think about it now.
Here is a photo of the big fireplace and some of the mounted animal heads and bodies. Notice the bird in the upper left. I didn't take a close look but I think that's a golden eagle. A few years ago someone came into the park on snowmobiles in the winter, broke into the lodge and took many of the old wildlife mounts. My heart sank when I heard about it. I guess they found some of them brought them back, but I remember an old pronghorn antelope head that I don't see anymore. The old mounts were more crude and many like that antelope were actually "stuffed" with straw much like a teddy bear. So they can look kind of goofy in compairison to a modern mount in which the hide is tanned and then stretched over a plastic head. The new ones are much more lifelike. But the old ones are quaint, and shame on the people who took them.
These lanterns were originally in the Prince of Wales Hotel in Canada in Waterton Lakes Park just north of Glacier. They wanted a british theme, so in the late 1950s they moved these parchment lanterns with their native american pictograph motifs to Lake McDonald. I think they are in an arts and crafts style with perhaps a Japanese lantern/ asian influence. Something like that. I just think they are about as cool as they could be, and a couple of them would look cool hanging in my front room as I have a tall ceiling and my own hunting mounts. Of course they belong in the park for everyone to enjoy. But it does give me some ideas for my place here.
3 comments:
Wow... that place is beautiful! I would love to go there to stay during the winter! Very cozy looking!
Definitely cozy! Looks kind of dark though. I'm not sure I like that so much.
Courtney, the lodge isn't open during the winter. I think it is open between May 25 to September 13th. The park is beautiful in the fall.
Diane, It might be just my photos that make it look so dark. I played around with the exposures trying to capture the colors and not have the photos look over-exposed. But it is kind of on the dark side in there.
That's why in my house I painted all of my main living room walls white. People thougth I was crazy but it worked out great. I don't have to turn on lights in the middle of the day and the walls take on colors from the outside.
But I do like the color of the walls in that lodge.
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