Roosevelt Cabins in Yellowstone National Park: A Review
See why your family should stay in the Roosevelt cabins in Yellowstone National Park!
In this review, I’ll cover everything you need to know in order to get ready for your stay at these historic cabins at Roosevelt Lodge.
You’ll also find photos of a standard 1-bedroom cabin, and tips and tricks to make your time there comfortable and cozy.
Experience a part of Yellowstone National Park that has stayed true to its Wild West roots for over a century as you experience what it was like to stay in a cabin on the Wyoming range.
The Camping Kiddos at Roosevelt Cabin 11
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What are the Roosevelt Cabins at Yellowstone National Park?
The Roosevelt Cabins are part of the lodging at Roosevelt Lodge inside the park.
Originally, only the lodge was at this location.
After the first cabins were built here in the early 1920s, even more of the small wooden cabins were collected from all over this area and brought to their current location.
Today, the 110 small cabins are rustic reminders of the way that people lived in this area before electricity and modern conveniences.
Thankfully, many of those modern amenities have been added to the cabins so you can balance that rustic feel of the Old West with electricity, comfortable bedding, and more.
Ultimately, the Roosevelt cabins are a unique accommodations experience within Yellowstone National Park that should not be missed on your next family vacation!
The Roosevelt cabins at sunset
Where are the Roosevelt Cabins in Yellowstone?
The Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins are located in Tower-Roosevelt in the upper middle section of Yellowstone National Park.
If you imagine the Grand Loop Road that runs through Yellowstone as a figure 8 with an upper and lower loop connecting in the middle, the cabins are at the top of the upper loop.
PIN ME!
It’s also halfway between Mammoth Hot Springs near Gardiner, Montana, and Cooke City, Montana.
However, the Tower-Roosevelt area is in Wyoming, as the road between the 2 dips south slightly.
Once you come into the Tower-Roosevelt area, you’ll see a 3-way stop between the Grand Loop Road and the Northeast Entrance Road.
The Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins property is located just off of this intersection, and it is well marked.
The Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins are the closest accommodations in the park to Lamar Valley, the park’s Petrified Tree, Tower Falls and Hellroaring Suspension Bridge.
It’s also right next door to the Roosevelt Corral, where you can go for a tour on horseback or meet up for the trail ride to the Yellowstone Old West Dinner Cookout.
In fact, the cookout is one of our favorite kid-friendly things to do in the park, and it is NOT to be missed!
Check out more suggestions in our comprehensive Yellowstone Family Vacation guide.
MOM TIP: There’s A LOT of driving in Yellowstone as you cover the vast distances within the park.
Make use of your time driving by listening to the GuideAlong app, which I can’t recommend enough for families.
We used it while driving all around Yellowstone National Park, and it was as good as having a live guide in the car.
It was actually better since we could stop and get out whenever something appealed to us, and we could repeat a particular section of the tour if the kids were asking questions.
The app uses GPS to determine where you are, and then provides in-real-time recommendations on what to see and do.
The guide, Dave, also shares fun tidbits about the geology, history, and animals you’ll see in the park.
For less than the price of a burger and fries back in Jackson, you’ll be able to learn so much about the park via this easy to use app.
>> Download the GuideAlong tour for Yellowstone National Park here. <<
NOTE: If you’re doing to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park together, there is a dual tour for those. You’ll save about 30% by buying the bundle over each park separately.
Cabins at Roosevelt Lodge: A Complete Review
Since these cabins are such an unusual choice within the park, they fill up extremely quickly.
If you’d like to stay here as part of your Yellowstone family vacation, I’d suggest booking 8-12 months in advance for the highest likelihood of getting the cabin type you want.
You can book through Xanterra’s website for Yellowstone National Park, which is the lodging vendor for the park.
Note that Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins is seasonal and is typically open from mid-June to early September each year.
Cabin types
One area of Roughrider Cabins with the Lodge in the background
You’ll need to select from the 2 types of cabins available.
The Frontier Cabins are larger with a private shower and electric heat. These cabins come with a standard layout of 2 beds.
The Roughrider cabins do not have their own bathing area, but have a variety of layouts to include 1, 2, or 3 double beds.
We stayed in the 1 bed Roughrider cabin. Prices for the 1-bed Roughrider cabin begin at $125 for the 2024 season.
While both cabin types are fairly rustic, the Roughrider cabins don’t have central heat for a true Wild West feel.
In the Roughrider cabins, you’ll instead be able to heat the room with the cast iron wood-fed stove.
These cabins do come with a free stack of wood to get you started, a set of instructions on how to light the fire, a block of fire starter, and the world’s worst book of matches.
About those matches: they are the cheapest, flimsiest I’ve ever seen, and I went through half a book just trying to get one to not bend in half while I was attempting to light it.
I’d recommend asking for an extra book of matches just in case.
Once the match actually does what it’s supposed to do, lighting the fire is easy.
The cabins are small, so they warm up quickly. Just be careful with any small kids in the cabin—those iron stoves get very hot on the outside once the fire is going.
The 2 different cabin types are scattered around the Roosevelt Lodge in three separate areas.
We stayed in the area closest to the parking lot, which I thought had the prettiest views of the hills across the Grand Loop Road.
Room Overview
What is included in the cabins at Roosevelt Lodge?
Interior photo of the 1-bedroom Roughrider cabin at Roosevelt Lodge
The Roughrider and Frontier Cabins both have comfortable double beds, wooden desk, themed Wyoming decor, coat rack, towels, table top fan, bedside table, lamp, alarm clock, luggage rack, and small bench.
The Frontier Cabins also have central heat and that attached bathroom with shower and toilet.
As I mentioned before, the Roughrider Cabins come in 1, 2, and 3 bed configurations, but in all, the beds, desk, stove, and bench are all in one room.
We stayed in Cabin 11, one of the 1-bed buildings, which is the smallest cabin type.
It was also the only one available by the time my kids and I decided to invite ourselves on my parents’ trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton!
While the 1-bed cabin is for 2 people, you might be able to squeeze a third smaller person in there if 1) you love that person very much, 2) that person is less than 4 feet tall, and 3) you put that person on this fantastic lightweight collapsable travel cot.
While the kids and I were very cozy with the cot set up, it was fine for a night or two, and we’ve certainly been in less comfortable sleeping situations while tent camping.
My mom and dad were in cabin 12 next door, and they had plenty of room for the two of them.
My daughter working at the small desk in the cabin, the cast iron stove, and the kids writing in their trip journals before bed
If you follow my 10 day Yellowstone itinerary, you’ll get to spend 3 nights here!
Bath house
For those visitors who are in the Roughrider cabins, you’ll have access to the bath house since the cabins don’t have showers, sinks, or toilets.
For the number of cabins using the bath house, I thought that the bath house was fairly small.
On both the women and men’s sides, there were 2 small shower stalls and 2 toilet stalls.
The sink area had 2 sinks set in a clean but worn Formica counter.
Overall, I felt that the bath house could get a bit of a face lift while still staying true to the Wild West feel of the lodge and cabins.
We’ve used many communal bath houses while on our travels, and these weren’t the best—but they also weren’t the worst.
The biggest issue with the bath house (other than it being small) was that one of the doors was completely off a stall on the men’s side, even further reducing the usable space.
We did stay at the Roosevelt Cabins at the very end of their season, so I’m hoping that the bath house is one area slated for some work before next season starts.
Included Breakfast
The cost of the cabins does come with a continental breakfast.
Given that this area is remote with no other options for breakfast (unless you bring your option), we appreciated the meal.
It’s not a fancy meal, but it was filling.
The meals are prepared and placed in brown paper bags. In the morning, guests go to the lodge and turn in their breakfast tickets that are part of your check-in packet.
We were each given an Otis Spunkmeyer muffin, hard boiled egg, pear and yogurt parfait, seasoning packets, and juice bottle.
There’s also free tea and coffee available.
This is the only meal provided as part of the room cost, though the Roosevelt Lodge does offer a lunch and dinner seating in the dining room.
Roosevelt Lodge at night
What else is on the property?
The lodge and cabins are the focal point of this property, though there is a small mercantile next to the lodge.
In the mercantile, you’ll find some Teddy Roosevelt-themed t-shirts and mugs, some Yellowstone National Park books, camping blankets, sweatshirts, and local pottery.
There’s a small ice cream freezer, and a refrigerator with beer, wine, sandwiches, and snacks.
Elsewhere on the property, you’ll find a short trail between the Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins and the Roosevelt Corral, which is where the stagecoach tours, trail rides, and Old West Cookout Dinners leave from.
>> Read my full Yellowstone Old West Cookout Dinner review here. <<
The cabins’ location near the park’s northeastern entrance is excellent for families who’d like to add a day trip driving the Beartooth Highway. You can pick up this scenic drive via Cooke City, which is less than an hour from Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins.
This drive has multiple lakes, including Island Lake Campground and Recreation Area, hiking trails, and beautiful overlooks.
Explore more at Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks!
Roosevelt Cabins at Yellowstone FAQs
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While they’re definitely less luxurious than a 5-star hotel, the cabins are comfortable and come with towels, bedding, a desk, double bed, and wood-burning stove.
Due to their age, the cabins do have the occasional small gap between the logs.
They don’t have traditional insulation, but we found that we were quite comfortable, even on a night where the temperature was in the upper 30s.
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The Roosevelt cabins do not have modern heating or air conditioning.
Instead, you’ll have access to the wood-burning stove. You’ll get free wood and matches with your rental.
There isn’t air conditioning in the cabins.
For warmer nights, you’ll be able to open up the windows, which have screens in them to keep the bugs out.
Each cabin also has an electric fan to keep the air circulating.
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If you’re staying at the cabins for more than a day, you’ll likely want to stock up on drinks and snacks.
Be aware that there are very limited snack and drink options at the small Roosevelt Mercantile near the lodge.
The closest grocery stores are a small one in Mammoth Hot Springs, the Gardiner Market in Gardiner, Montana, and the Cooke City General Store in Cooke City, Montana. Of these options, Gardiner Market has the biggest selection.
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No, the Roosevelt cabins have no wifi or cell service.
We were staying in separate cabins from my parents, so we decided to bring along walkie talkies.
These worked perfectly to communicate with them since we couldn’t call or text.
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Check-in was very easy at the Roosevelt Cabins.
We arrived in Tower-Roosevelt about an hour before the official check-in, but wanted to see if our cabins were available.
They were, so we were able to change for the Old West Cookout Dinner and rest for a few minutes.
Check-in is done inside the Roosevelt Lodge, which is in the middle of the 3 sections of cabins.
