After staying the night at Slough creek campground and camping for several day's we really looked forward to staying in a cabin with a kitchen and a hot shower. Luckily I called a week and a half in advance and reserved two rooms with a shared kitchen between them at "Big Bear Lodge" so we are all set for a two night stay in comfort. Yes...

NOT!at least not at Big Bear...

Normally if I don't have anything good to say about something I won't say it at all but this deserves a little attention so that no other unfortunate family has the same thing happen to them. Let me explain... 

After packing up camp we drive toward the northeast entrance of the Park. The scenery is beautiful as we drive through the Lamar valley and out of the Park through Silvergate & Cooke city. As you get just outside of Cooke city the road is undergoing some construction and you have to wait for a pilot car which takes a while. Finally we make it through and pull into "The Big Bear Lodge" to unpack and get a hot shower, heck we might even take a hot tub since there is supposed to be a rec. room and hot tub available to guests. Now keep in mind that I called a week and a half in advance gave my credit card info and reserved two rooms with a kitchen for two nights for both my family & my brothers family. So Christina, Myself, Tim, Carmin, Nathaniel, and Emma unpack as I go in to get the keys. When I went into the office the lady that was checking me in seemed confused when she found my reservation and said she would get Matt who was the one who booked me earlier in the month via the phone. After handing the key's to one of the rooms to me she left to go find Matt. We unlocked the door and started unpacking our things. I walked into the kitchen and found it a mess with dirty dishes and beer cans all over the place. We then took a look at the Rec. room that indeed had a hot tub. The only thing was it was empty of water and broken. It was about that time that Matt showed up. Needless to say we were not happy and asked Matt what was going on with our other room and the obviously still being used kitchen? Matt was very rude and said that he gave the kitchen and other room to someone else who was working on the  construction crew. He said "I would rather give it to him" and I thought wow that was kind of you. Matt said that "we could find a kitchen somewhere else" and we might be able to use one of the other rooms for the second room that I had reserved. Did I mention that I called a week and a half earlier with my credit card and reserved BOTH rooms AND attaching KITCHEN. Matt also said that "I should have made it clear we wanted the kitchen" when I reserved the rooms. As my wife is putting her bags back into the truck I'm thinking hmm... What is UNCLEAR about specifically requesting the two rooms WITH the adjoining KITCHEN for the nights of 8/31/05 and 9/1/05? Matt didn't even offer an apology as he walked away. We were dumbfounded and the kids were asking where we were going to stay now. It was peek tourist season on the last big weekend of the summer with all of the campgrounds full and I didn't have an answer for them. Thanks Big Bear Lodge! I've been going to the greater Yellowstone area every summer for 20 years now and have never been treated like this. Before I go on with the story I wanted to mention that you can let them know at Big Bear how you feel about their version of customer service or let them know what you read on this web page by emailing them at Feedback or info@stillwateroutfitters.com I wouldn't try to make reservations though. After you drive across two states you might be disappointed and left high & dry with no place to stay. 

After returning our keys we went to the lodge across the road and although they didn't have any openings for the night the lady was kind enough to make a few calls for us and directed us back down the road to "The Silver Gate Cabins" so we kindly thanked the lady and headed down the road. After arriving back in Silvergate we checked in at the Silver Gate cabins and found the customer service like night and day. The owners were very gracious and made us feel right at home. I would recommend the Silver Gate cabins to anyone and would encourage you to visit them. You can visit them on the web here: http://www.silver-gate-cabins.com/ and I'll bet that you can make reservations too. Oh and The Yakima Chimps also recorded an avant garde improvisational song to commemorate the occasion you can listen on the music page at www.blairntcentral.com Alright now lets get back to the journal...

After we settle in at our newly acquired cabin Tim and I spend the evening on the Lamar river while the ladies & kids color National Park pictures. Here Tim works the fly rod and I work the camera.

Tim gets the Trophy of the day award. If you want to actually see the fish you'll have to click on the photo to enlarge it. Look at this guy always showing off.