Early June in Yellowstone is a great time to visit, the crowds and traffic are manageable. The Canyon Lodge provides a great centrally located hub to see most of the park from. We stayed two nights at one of the "cabins", which was perfectly adequate for us, though not as modern as the lodge rooms. The cabins are walking distance to the food and shopping locales in the village. An overnight snow knocked all by emergency power out to the entire village for about 6 hours. The staff was on top of the situation with road closure updates and free coffee. The snow added a beautiful backdrop to most of my morning photos and only proved to be a minor inconvenience to our special trip.

We had a room in the building with registration. It was very small, with little more room than necessary to accommodate a queen bed, a small round table and two straight back chairs, and a dresser. The sink was in the room at the foot of the bed, the toilet was behind a sliding door next to the bed. There are a number of lodges,separated by some distance from each other. Each is for sleeping rooms only, no restaurants, bar, etc. We were the closest lodge to the restaurants, about a five minute walk. Other lodges were farther away. They run a shuttle between lodges and the restaurants for a few hours every morning and late afternoon, but you have to drive or walk the rest of the time. The appearance and quality of the resturants, bar, gift shops, etc. is like a nowhere airport, not even any franchises. Menus are similar to all the other lodges in Yellowstone. The atmosphere is definitely airport, at best. The quick food places had long lines, like 20 minutes to get to the counter for breakfast. The "good restaurant" was solidly reserved until well arter 9:00 pm even in the afternoon but again just standard Yellowstone fare.

Compared to our other Yellowstone stays this trip (Old Faithful Inn and Mammoth Hot Springs Cabin) this was our least favorite. The location for exploring parts of Yellowstone was good, but that's the only plus here. Dining and shops are not centrally located from the cabins, and we really felt like the intent here was to pack in as many people as possible in a location without caring about the overall experience (another reviewer mentioned tour buses coming through and maybe that's why it's designed the way it is). We would not stay here again nor recommend it to anyone. Look at all other options before staying here.

We had a cabin among the pine trees and I really liked having a sliding door open to the wilderness. We asked for extra blankets and they showed up immediately. Where to check in is confusing for sure. We also enjoyed the food and service in the dining area.

This is a beautiful part of the park, featuring wonderful views of the canyon just a short drive away. That said, we were never happy here. Largely because of the lack of dining venues available, most of which get slammed when the tour buses pull in but also because there is just not enough seats/choices for the many folks that stay at the multiple lodges. (Dinner ended up being a couple of lamb sliders at the bar when we could not access the two miniscule dining halls, both of which pretty much require reservations. Good luck there.) We were okay with our room, but very glad we turned our two-night reservation into one night before the deadline for changes. We stayed in what was called a Western Cabin with 2 queen beds. These alleged "cabins" are located at the bottom of the hill a ways from the village (not walking distance for most folks). These are kind of grubby looking tri-plex and duplex and four-plex units, with litter scattered here and there by the gigantic crows that tear into the plastic garbage bags if housekeeping leaves them outside too long. Decent parking and ice machine available near one of the units. The interior of our cabin had bed posts and a small table designed to look as though they were hewn from a mighty oak, so as to make us feel we were in a cabin (I suppose). Not terrible, but also not very roomy. Noisy little heater near the bed. Small bathroom. No mini-fridge. Less expensive than the actual lodges up in the village, but I cannot convince myself that our one-stay was worth $328.95. There are just not many affordable choices in this corner of the park. If I had a do-over, I would probably have stayed an extra night at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge and simply driven to this area to enjoy the canyon for a few hours, then driven back to the Snow Lodge. Much nicer lodging for the money, plus many more dining opportunities.