Good food and national parks aren't always discussed in the same conversation, but there are some great meals to be had in the parks.
Places such as the Metate Room at Mesa Verde National Park or the Mammoth Springs Hotel in Yellowstone National Park can compete with many fine big-city restaurants.
But there are other lodge dining rooms that, well, still have a ways to go in terms of elevating their menus.
With that understood, which restaurants and meals in, or nearby, the national parks would you recommend to your friends?
For instance, I frequently recommend the Jailhouse Cafe in Moab, Utah, for breakfast before heading off into Arches or Canyonlands national parks, the Park Cafe in St. Mary, Montana, outside Glacier National Park lives by its motto -- Pie for Strength --, and when in Bar Harbor, Maine, during visits to Acadia National Park I've had some great meals at Cafe This Way.
So, what say you? What restaurants/dining rooms in, or nearby, national parks would you speak highly of?
Comments
As for food inside a park, I'll have to go for the beanie weanies off my camp stove. Not very appetizing, but at least I can AFFORD it.
The Starlight Theatre in Terlingua is just outside of Big Bend NP. It has the best food in a 100 mile radius. Menu items include Wild Boar Sausage and Chicken Fried Antelope. After a long day of hiking in the park the Diego Burger will fill you up. Or just hang out on the front porch and drink a cold refreshment and soak in the local ambiance that does not resemble anything you have ever seen before.
If you're going to do it yourself, then why not go all the way?
I know this will tick off Kurt, but this is possibly my ideal place to prepare my own meal - the picnic area at Drake's Bay Oyster Farm in Point Reyes National Seashore. I just hope it's still around by the end of the year.
If it's not too windy, just bring your own grill, buy a dozen large oysters (some that I bought were 10 inches long), and barbecue some next to the tables. Maybe bring a camp stove and cook your own clam and/or mussel stew with shellfish purchased at the farm. And no - this is not a potential wilderness area. You'll heart the faint sounds of the workers sorting shellfish and the entertainment is likely to be the Mexican Norteño music playing from the workers' boom box.
C'mon, y_p_w, I like a good plate of oysters like everyone else...
Short Ribs at the El Tovar, salmon at Old Faithful snow lodge,lobster at stuman's in Bar Harbor
YP, do you mean I have to grow my own beans and hogs? Thanks, but I'll pass.
One of the most memorable meals I've had near a park was a couple of summers ago when I got to West Yellowstain very early so I could have a chance of snagging a campsite at Norris. I stopped at the McD's just across from the Grizzly Center. The breakfast burrito was still semi-frozen in the middle and I found a huge clump of long black hair in my mouth. (Twasn't bear hair . . . . )
When I went inside to inquire about a refund, I found that all the employees were RUSSIAN! No kidding.
This is one little old gray head who will NEVER stop at that particular Mickey's ever again.
I wasn't suggesting growing your own. However, there are NPS sites that do just that. Slide Ranch in the Marin Headlands (GGNRA) raises lambs and probably grows beans. Maybe something special like goat sausage. It's really a teaching farm devoted to teaching about how farms work, but I'm pretty sure they do slaughter some of their animals.
But seriously - you'd buy your own shellfish right at the oyster farm. If you really insist, I think there are some NPS sites where it's legal to hunt feral pigs.
I've certainly heard Eastern Europeans in the most remote places. When we got breakfast in Gardiner, MT our waitress was Eastern European. Back in 2007 most of the employees at the Lodgepole store and snack bar in Sequoia NP were Russian. We even saw a large group of them taking the shuttle to get around.
And I have been to that McDonald's in W Yellowstone. Stopped there on the way out to head for Utah driving from the Tower-Roosevelt area. Didn't have the experiences you had, but they had no dollar menu and the prices were considerably higher than other McD locations (comparable to NYC). Even other McDonald's locations on our trip near NPS sites were normally priced - including the one in Jackson, Moab, and even Tusayan.
We made it as far as Price, UT that day. We also tried to find a restaurant that was open in Utah on a Sunday, which is not an easy thing.
As for dining in and around NPS units in Utah, we've had some doozies. I've talked about the total waitress meltdown I saw at the Bryce Canyon Lodge dining room. The food was fine, but there was a late lunch rush and only a single server for about a dozen tables. The server started slamming food down when people started complaining that they hadn't ordered yet or were waiting for their orders, then screamed out loud in the kitchen that she couldn't take it any more. The manager took over. We asked our busboy what the issue was, and he said that they didn't have enough staff that late and she just lost it.
That night we didn't feel like dining in the park, but Ruby's Inn seemed a little too hokey, so we headed to Tropic and ate at Clarke's. That's actually pretty nice even though it was a little place out in the middle of nowhere.
Oscar Blues brewery in Lyons, "near" Rocky Mtn National Park.