Staying in Ranger Cabins or Lookouts

Hi...

We are a family of four (kids 8 %26amp;12) planning a vacation in July 2008. I was looking at some of the park ranger rental cabins and lookouts. I am wondering if anyone has stayed in these before.

The statements concerning bear safety make me wonder how safe these are to stay in. Just wondering if anyone can give me any insight.

Thanks!

Staying in Ranger Cabins or Lookouts

I have never heard of ranger cabins or lookouts available for rental in Yellowstone. I have heard that the National Forestry folks have some which they rent out. Could you supply some additional information or links -- I looked through the National Park Service site, as well as general google search on the net and couldn%26#39;t find anything on these. If you have a link or further information, I would be very interested in it.

Even if there were ranger cabins available for rent in Yellowstone, unless your family were experienced back packers and campers, I would not consider it, as these would all be in the back-country.

Now there are ';cabin'; accomodations available for rent, but these are 1940s or 1950s cabins near the hotels and facilities. You would be fine in any of these -- certainly there is wildlife throughout the park and you need to be careful. We stayed in the cabins by the lake last summer.

Staying in Ranger Cabins or Lookouts

okay....this is fustrating....I can find what I am looking for every where but yellowstone.

The web site is (I think)

www.fs.fed.us

then got to recreational and then reservations.

I found the site (I think) on this site....and I have looked at it several times while deciding my travel dates and of course now I can%26#39;t find my way back. Of course I have spent endless hours on line but this is a start.

The cabins and lookouts run from backpacking in to very rustic cabins to ones that you can drive to and have kitchens and electricity. Rates run from $25-$60 or so.

I have a feeling that they go fast.....I was concerned with food on the premises and no one near and no cell phone service....they are after all old ranger stations.

I%26#39;ll keep looking....I%26#39;m sure I will figure it out....it is driving me crazy now.....let me know if you get any info...and I will post when I do.

Thanks!

I thought you might be looking at Forest Service instead of National Park. Yellowstone is a National Park. There are National Forest Lands outside of the park. There are NO cabins with cooking facilities available to the public in Yellowstone National Park.

Actually you are going to have trouble getting reservations IN Yellowstone now.

I checked your website which is the Forestry Service. I found their list of cabins and outlooks, but there isn%26#39;t anything that would be close enough to Yellowstone, to make it worthwhile, if your intent is to see the sights at Yellowstone.

If however, you want to enjoy hiking, fishing and the forest, the cabins look pretty interesting. And to answer your question about bears, yes, they (both black bears and grizzlies) are always a concern in the backcountry, particularly around food.

Thanks....I think we are going to save the lookout for when we get to Washington and go with friends who know the area. We are going to stay in the lake cabins in the park for two days and then move somewhere close to the northwest entrance to then head to flathead lake and glacier.

Thanks for your help!

We stayed in a forest service lookout a couple of years ago and it was such a fun experience that I highly recommend it! You can drive right to a lot of them, but one word of caution for when are doing your planning, consider that you will be driving very slowly on dirt fire roads in remote areas of the mountains. I didn%26#39;t allow enough time for this, and we ended up getting to our fire tower much later than we had intended.

No worries about bears, you are 40 feet up in the air!

Quita,

Did you stay in Yellowstone or adjoining forestry lands? Do you have links or contact info? I just haven%26#39;t been able to find anything out about this.

The cabins and fire towers are in National Forests.

You can find them through the forest service website, or recreation.gov, which is where you make the reservations.

Link to the Gallatin National Forest site (west and northwest of Yellowstone):

www.bozemannet.com/summer_cabins/#Article

Here is a link to page of rentals in the Targhee-Caribou National forest (just west of Yellowstone Park in the Island Park, Idaho area). We really like the Warm River Hatchery cabin. Bishop Mountain is high on a hill (lots of trees.

fs.fed.us/r4/…index.shtml

Vigilante station also has cabins available.