Mariposa Grove is a sequoia grove located near Wawona, California, United States, in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. It is the largest grove of giant sequoias in the park, with several hundred mature specimens. Two of its trees are among the 30 largest giant sequoias in the world. The grove attracts about one million visitors annually.
The Wawona Hotel, located in southern Yosemite National Park, California, is a historic late Victorian mountain resort and one of the largest intact hotels of its kind within a national park. Originally established in the 1850s as Clark's Station, a pioneer stop, it soon evolved into a bustling stagecoach stop and later transformed into a grand New England–style resort, complete with manicured grounds and refined amenities. Its design catered to East Coast and European visitors, aligning with the era’s trend of exclusive grand hotels.
National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create buildings that harmonized with the natural environment. Since its founding in 1916, the NPS sought to design and build visitor facilities without visually interrupting the natural or historic surroundings. The early results were characterized by intensive use of hand labor and a rejection of the regularity and symmetry of the industrial world, reflecting connections with the Arts and Crafts movement and American Picturesque architecture.
The Rangers' Club is a building in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park that was donated by the independently wealthy first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Tyng Mather. He intended it to be used by the newly hired park rangers who were taking over from the departing army troops. He specifically intended it to blend into the natural environment. Its use of rustic stylings was part of a trend to the use of rustic design and natural materials in Park Service buildings until the 1940s.
The Kishenehn Ranger Station in Glacier National Park was originally built in 1913, but a fire burned it down in 1919. They rebuilt it in 1921. Located nearly five miles south of the Canada–United States border, the log cabin was one of the earliest administrative structures in the park. The cabin was designed in an early version of what became the National Park Service Rustic style.
The Skyland Camp-Bowman Lake Ranger Station in Glacier National Park was originally built as the Culver Boys' Military Academy. The main building, known variously as the Skyland Camp Messhall, Culver Boys' Military Academy Messhall and Skyline Chalet, was built in 1920 and is a good example of National Park Service Rustic architecture. The main cabin, known as "Rainbow Lodge" was built by the boys of the academy in 1920 from red cedar logs, and is more elaborate and carefully detailed than typical ranger stations of this period. The interior is dominated by a stone fireplace.
The Lower Logging Lake Snowshoe Cabin and Boathouse were built in 1933 in Glacier National Park near the southwestern end of Logging Lake. The National Park Service Rustic boathouse stores rangers' canoes for patrolling the lake and their journeys between Upper and Lower Logging Lake patrol cabins. The Lower Logging Lake snowshoe cabin is nearby. They are a significant resources both architecturally and historically, constructed for backcountry patrols.
The Tuolumne Meadows Ranger Station and Comfort Stations are examples of National Park Service Rustic design in Yosemite National Park. They are within the Tuolumne Meadows Historic District at Tuolumne Meadows. The ranger station was built in 1924 using peeled log construction. The ranger station doubled as the park entrance station for the Tioga Road. Its function was partly superseded by a newer structure in 1936, using larger quantities of stonework.
The Cabin Creek Ranger Residence and Dormitory, also known as the Cabin Creek Ranger Station, were built in 1934 and 1935 in Sequoia National Park by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The three-room wood-frame residence and the two-room dormitory are examples of the National Park Service Rustic style.
Merced Grove is a giant sequoia grove located about 3.6 km (2.2 mi) west of Crane Flat in the Merced River watershed of Yosemite National Park, California. The grove occupies a small valley at an elevation of 5,469 feet (1,667 m) and is accessible by a 2.5 km (1.6 mi) dirt trail.
Camp Curry, now known as Curry Village, was established in 1899 at the base of Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park. Developed as an alternative to the first-class Sentinel Hotel, it offered a more affordable, rustic lodging experience. The camp became an iconic part of Yosemite's history, known for its family-oriented atmosphere, nightly campfires, signature tent cabins, and the reinstitution of the Yosemite Firefall. Camp Curry’s success helped lay the foundation for modern park accommodations and had a lasting influence on the development of national park concessions.
The Wonderland Trail is an approximately 93-mile (150 km) hiking trail that circumnavigates Mount Rainier in Mount Rainier National Park, Washington, United States. The trail goes over many ridges of Mount Rainier for a cumulative 22,000 feet (6,700 m) of elevation gain. The trail was built in 1915.
The Paradise Historic District comprises the historic portion of Paradise developed area of Mount Rainier National Park. The subalpine district surrounds its primary structure, the Paradise Inn, a rustic-style hotel built in 1917 to accommodate visitors to the park. The Paradise Inn is a National Historic Landmark. Five other buildings are included in the district. The district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 1991. It is part of the Mount Rainier National Historic Landmark District, which encompasses the entire park and which recognizes the park's inventory of Park Service-designed rustic architecture.
The St. Andrews Patrol Cabin was built by the National Park Service in 1922 as part of a network of stations near the boundaries of Mount Rainier National Park for rangers on patrol. The one-room log structure stands along St. Andrews Creek and St. Andrews Creek Trail near the Westside Road and the western boundary of the national park. The exterior of the cabin features a porch to the front. The interior is finished with varnished logs and tongue and groove flooring. The cabin was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 13, 1991. It is part of the Mount Rainier National Historic Landmark District, which encompasses the entire park and which recognizes the park's inventory of Park Service-designed rustic architecture.
The Nisqually Entrance Historic District comprises the first public entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. The district incorporates the log entrance arch typical of all Mount Rainier entrances, a log frame ranger station and checking station, a comfort station and miscellaneous service structures, all built around 1926, as well as the 1915 Superintendent's Residence and the 1908 Oscar Brown Cabin, the oldest remaining structure in the park. The buildings in the district conform to the principles of the National Park Service Rustic style that prevailed in park design of the 1920s and 1930s.
The Tioga Pass Entrance Station is the primary entrance for travelers entering Yosemite National Park from the east on the Tioga Pass Road. Open only during the summer months, the entrance station consists of two historical buildings, a ranger station and a comfort station, built in 1931 and 1934 respectively. Both are rustic stone structures with peeled log roof structures, and are examples of the National Park Service rustic style employed at the time by the National Park Service. Two log gate structures that had been removed since the site's original construction were rebuilt in 1999; the stone piers that supported them remain. The use of stone at Tioga Pass set a precedent for the extensive employment of stone construction in other park buildings in the Yosemite high country. Civilian Conservation Corps workers assisted in the entrance station's construction.
The Yosemite Village Historic District encompasses the primary built-up section of the Yosemite Valley as it was developed by the National Park Service for Yosemite National Park. The district includes visitor services areas, park personnel residences and administrative facilities. It is located to the north of the Merced River. The district includes the National Historic Landmark Rangers' Club.
The Hodgdon Homestead Cabin was built by Jeremiah Hodgdon in 1879 in the Aspen Valley area of what became Yosemite National Park. The two-story log cabin, measuring 22 feet (6.7 m) by 30 feet (9.1 m), was located in an inholding in the park, owned by Hodgdon's descendants. In the 1950s the family proposed to demolish the structure. The National Park Service acquired it and moved it to its Pioneer Yosemite History Center at Wawona, where the restored cabin is part of an exhibit on early settlement and development of the Yosemite area. In addition to housing Hogdon, the cabin housed workers on the Great Sierra Wagon Road in the 1880s, as a patrol cabin for U.S. Army troops who managed the new national park in the 1890s, and as a historic landmark at the old Aspen Valley Resort.
Architects of the National Park Service are the architects and landscape architects who were employed by the National Park Service (NPS) starting in 1918 to design buildings, structures, roads, trails and other features in the United States National Parks. Many of their works are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and a number have also been designated as National Historic Landmarks.
The Mariposa Grove Cabin, originally built in 1864 by Galen Clark, Yosemite's first guardian and discoverer of the Mariposa Grove, stands as an iconic symbol of Yosemite National Park. Located near the General Grant and General Sheridan trees, the cabin has been rebuilt three times on the same site, with the current structure dating to 1931. Although not an exact replica of the original, the cabin reflects a blend of Rustic style and minor Art Deco styles, showcasing natural materials and skilled craftsmanship.
