My family is considering a stay at the Roosevelt Cabins during our trip to Yellowstone in June. Has anyone stayed in the Frontier cabins? They are supposed to be less basic than the rustic, but do they have heat? Are they clean and comfortable? Any suggestions are appreciated.

I do not know about the cabins but make sure you eat some ribs in the restaurant. They are the only meal in Yellowstone worth a detour We had some good or decent meals in the other restaurants but they were not memorable.

We also saw our only bear just outside Roosevelt.

How many days are you going to be in Yellowstone? My family spent 5 nights there in 2003 and we spent 2 nights in Canyon, 1 in Mammouth, and then 2 nights in Old Faithful. We drove through Roosevelt and spent about a half a day there, but I wouldn't recommend staying there the entire time. If you desire to stay in 1 location within Yellowstone and taking day trips, then my suggestion would be to stay in a cabin in Canyon which is one of the more spectacular areas of Yellowstone and closer to the other major attractions. Mammouth and Roosevelt can be seen in a day, while Old Faithful and Canyon take at least 2 days.

I took a look inside one when visiting last summer. The accommodations were sparse but certainly clean. A pair of beds, a small table and two chairs. I think the Frontier cabins are heated by propane but you'd probably want to check that out for sure. The more rustic ones had woodstoves.

We enjoyed some of the best wildlife viewing in this part of Yellowstone (bears and wolves).

The road between Canyon and Tower was closed during all of the 2004 season which made Roosevelt a substantial distance from other parts of the park. Check the National Park Service site to see when it's supposed to reopen.

We divided our time between the OF Snow Lodge Cabins and Canyon Frontier Cabins. Beds were comfortable, decor was modest.

Whatever you decide, don't linger about making a booking. We planned our June 2004 trip last December and found in-the-park lodging options limited. We loved our trip to YS, one of our most memorable vacations.

Thank you all- marigross, noblsm,and obxgirl-for the helpful advice. We are dividing our time (approx. 8 days) among Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Jackson, and Cody. It's been a bear to plan, especially after finding out that 2 of the major airlines won't be flying into Jackson this summer. But I'm making progress and appreciate the help. Thanks again.

If you are going to be in Yellowstone in mid-June or later, try to go on Roosevelt's chuchwagon dinner. I miss it every time because I'm there too early in the summer!

As the previous posters said, if you are looking into staying in a single place in Yellowstone go for Canyon which is very centric.

Roosevelt is the bottom of the Yellowstone lodging barrel in my opinion. The Roughrider Cabins are just that -- rough.
They have wood burning stoves for heat.

But two summers ago, heat was the last thing I needed. What I craved was air conditioning!!

The bathroom for the Roughriders is communal - which means you take a walk to get to it.

I looked at the availability charts on the Xanterra Yellowstone website and I could find no openings for the Frontier cabins for this summer at Roosevelt. I did not check every day of every month, however.

There may be extremely limited availability but I suspect that the Yellowstone Institute has them tied up right now for the people taking summer classes. As time goes along some of them may be released.

Given that Old Faithful Inn is closed all of June for renovations, other rooms in the park will fill up faster than usual.

My suggestion is to look at the cabins at Canyon and at the Lake. Each place has different levels of cabins.

There are several levels of cabins. The best cabins are the Western Cabins followed by the Frontier, Pioneer, and Roughrider Cabins.

My suggestion is to decide which location or locations you want and then call the reservations number. The reservations personnel know the system far better than I do and they can be very helpful. Sometimes the reservations people know of a vacancy when it does not show on the website.

307.344.7311 is the phone number for a person to help you with a reservation.

I wish you good luck in your planning.

You might want to read my comments from a couple of years back. Do a search for "Roosevelt Lodge" and scroll down to question #39, which is entitled "Roosevelt Lodge Questions." My nickname was "traveler" back then. Toward the end of the thread, I give a trip recap. We loved the Roosevelt Lodge.
#39. Roosevelt Lodge Questions

We stayed in Roosevelt for 3 days last September and had a blast. We were in the most basic cabins as everything else gets booked really quickly.

Yes they only have a stove and communal shower blocks but that to our mind was part of the charm - firing up the stove in the morning; scuttling through the crisp air for a shower.

It is a really beautiful part of the park and quiet even over Labor Day weekend. Loads of wildlife. I would give it a go for a couple of nights - we didn't regret it.

Thanks, everyone, for the added advice...it was really helpful. I have made the necessary calls and things are beginning to fall into place. We do want to do the Chuckwagon dinner, but reservations cannot be made until Feb.1. Also as was mentioned, the road between Canyon and Roosevelt will be closed this summer, and the Old Faithfull Inn will not open until July 1. American Airlines and Continental are now only flying into Jackson Hole during ski season. BUT, we were able to change our itinerary and work it all out, finally. Thanks so much for all the responses and advice. It was a great help.

Just wanted to add that you can choose horseback or covered wagon as a means of getting to the Chuckwagon dinner and it is fun! We took the covered wagon but kinda wished we had taken horseback. It's a trail ride with leader and takes longer then the covered wagon but looked like a lot of fun.

Thanks, cd, for the added advice. The horseback ride sounds more appealing to me, too. I think we'll go for that. Thanks again!