It is well worth staying within the national park as the distance from the gates and traffic queuing to get in negates the slightly higher cost of accommodation. This lodge is central and serves a purpose. You have to remember you are a captive audience so food outlets are limited. On this site is a shop where you can get free boiling water, take a flask! And sandwiches, fruit, alcohol and microwave food. There are two eateries which get very busy with functional food but not great. Accommodation was adequate, no kettle, hence the need for a flask, no wardrobe which was a pain as we were there for a week and the cleaning left a bit to be desired, it wasn't dirty but not cleaned everyday.

We stayed here in August, and the convenience of staying in the park was absolutely worth it. The hotel is nice, clean, and modern, the staff was extremely pleasant in all interactions, everything was relatively new and very clean. I think people should remember, this is a contractor who is providing in park lodging but it is not luxury accommodations. The point of being in the park is to experience it, not spend your hours on Wi-Fi and watching tv. It is an easy walk from the restaurants and shops at Canyon Village and the Cayon area location is a great central location to drive to other parts of the park. We had no complaints staying here and the location was excellent!

Upon arrival, check-in was pretty quick. Parking is sufficient but it gets filled fast after 7pm. They do have a shuttle bus which runs every 15mins. You can take the bus to the main Canyon Village which has an eatery, café, a grill, and an ice cream parlor. There is also 3 gift shops and a General/grocery store onsite. They do have an Education center and don't forget to do the Ranger Program if you have young ones....or even for the adults. In our room, there was a small fridge in our room but you could only fit a few drinks. We brought our own cooler filled it with drinks and food prior to our arrival. The room was spacious for the four of us. There are no drawers to put your cloths in and no iron. Available upon request, but there was not one while we were there. There was a coffee maker in our room and they do have bottle water stations on the main lobby entrance. Nice to fill your water bottles and water packs for the day. They do have complimentary shower gel and shampoo. There is spotty cell reception, no TV and no Wi-Fi (unless purchased upon arrival). There is no air conditioner but there was a portable fan in our room. But you can easily open your window for ventilation. We choose this hotel merely for the central location. For either hotel you choose, there will be some driving to go to all known attractions. Most are a short distance from the parking lot. At times you have to park on the side of the road as it gets busier after 9am. Have patience and go really early or late in the day. The overall price for the room is ridiculous but we felt it was better to stay within the park then outside. When we did leave the park to Grand Tetons, that park entrance was really back up. There are several gas stations within the park and there is one near the Canyon Village. TIP, for money savings, do bring a cooler with groceries and snacks prior to your stay. Bring a mini iron if you need one.

After visiting the Grand Tetons we headed up to Yellowstone. I tried to get a reservation at the Old Faithful Lodge, sadly it was booked. I finally made a reservation at the Canyon Lodge. After a day of touring we arrived at the lodge to settle in for the night. Canyon Lodge is a series of several separate self contained buildings. They look very new and must be of very recent construction. The front desk is in one of the buildings when you first arrive into the complex. The front desk and lobby was not much to talk about, very basic with a small cafe bar. To get to our room we had to drive through the complex. The building looked very new. Our room was very nice and spacious. There are no restaurants or shops within the lodge. Front desk said we can drive or take a short walk to the village. We decided to walk to have dinner. It wasn’t that far and it took us about 10 or 15 minutes, but we do walk slow. The path to the village was not that pleasant. We had to walk across a dirt road used by park utility vehicles, then we had go through a dirt parking lot for the park employee residence. When we got near the village we had to walk up steep stairs to get to the level of the village. The dining choices were not that good, but we were hungry so it was fine. Visiting and touring Yellowstone was great and a must do for anyone wanting to see the wonders of nature. My first choice would have been to stay at the Old Faithful Lodge, a distant second is to stay at Canyon Lodge. The rooms are very nice and comfortable, but it needs more to be considered a lodge.

We stayed here for one night. There were no instructions as to where to go to check-in. The map I found online was created before the Canyon Lodge area was redesigned so the prior location apparently near the Post Office is not the current check-in area. We drove around in the darkness to no avail and finally asked in the Gift Shop where we were supposed to go. Registration is in Washburn Lodge which is one of 6 separate buildings. We checked in and were told which building we were in. They mentioned that there was a wounded animal around the lodge and that there were bears around so bear spray would be a good idea (we didn't have any). Finding a parking spot was the next challenge - there was nothing anywhere nearby and you can't pull up to your building to unload AT ALL. No offer of bell service was made at check-in. So we found one luggage roller in our building and proceeded to wheel it down and back from our car for about half a mile. Thankfully we didn't encounter the bears. There has just got to be a better way! The room was modern and the one saving grace was a fridge which we appreciated. Not worth the aggravation of staying there though. We also stayed at Lake Yellowstone Hotel and Old Faithful Inn which were much better options.