The Old Faithful Inn is a hotel located in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, with a view of the Old Faithful Geyser. The Inn has a multi-story log lobby, flanked by long frame wings containing guest rooms. With its log and limb lobby and massive (500-ton, 85-foot) stone fireplace, the inn is an example of the "Golden Age" of rustic resort architecture, a style which is also known as National Park Service Rustic. It is rare in that it is one of the few log hotels still standing in the United States, and was the first of the great park lodges of the American west. Initial construction was carried out over the winter of 1903-1904, largely using locally obtained materials including lodgepole pine and rhyolite stone. When the Old Faithful Inn first opened in the spring of 1904, it boasted electric lights and steam heat. The structure is the largest log hotel in the world; possibly even the largest log building in the world. The Inn, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. Old Faithful Inn is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Wikipedia
Duck Lake in Yellowstone National Park is just off the Grand Loop Road and Yellowstone Lake can be seen in the distance. The Grand Loop Road is the primary road system in Yellowstone National Park. Grand Loop Rd. includes unsigned portions of US 20, US 89, US 191 and US 287, all of which traverse the park.
Wildflowers such as lupine and arnica often grow under the forest canopy, but the most conspicuous wildflower displays occur in open meadows and sagebrush-steppe. The appearance of beauties, glacier lilies, and steer’s head announce spring in the park. Soon colors splash the slopes, especially on the northern range—yellow from arrowleaf balsamroot, white from phlox, reds and oranges from paintbrush, and blue from penstemon and lupine. Goldenrod and asters indicate the coming of fall.—The Yellowstone is a wild-flower garden. Wander where you will, you have the ever-new charm, the finishing touch, the ever-refreshing radiance of the wild flowers.—Enos Mills, Your National Parks, 1917; Text: NPS
