Kaibab Lodge

Description:

• Open from mid-May (the opening date is weather-dependent) to November 2, Kaibab Lodge feels as warm and comfortable as a beloved summer camp. It has an open-framed ceiling and enormous pine beams that date from its construction in the 1920s. Guests tend to congregate in front of the 5-foot-wide fireplace (where there are Adirondack-style chairs), in the small television room, or at the tables across from the counter that doubles as the front desk and the beer bar.

  Each cabin-like building houses two to four of the guest rooms, each of which sleep from two to five people. (In summer 2007, eight new rooms were added.) The rooms are spare but clean, with paneling of rough-hewn pine. Most have showers but not tubs, and there are no in-room phones or TVs. Because the older units' walls are very thin, it's best just to share a cabin with friends. Roughly a quarter-mile from the highway, the rooms open onto the soothing, broad expanse of DeMotte Park, one of the large, naturally occurring meadows on the Kaibab Plateau.

• © Frommer's 2013