Day 5

It’s hard to describe the peaceful beauty of Brooks Lake Lodge.  We woke up in our cabin “Solitude” and were greeted by a beautiful view of the lake and surrounding mountains.  Our cabin consisted of a living room complete with a wood stove, a bedroom with twin beds and it’s own bathroom, a master bedroom with a king bed and whirlpool bath, and a small loft space.

The main lodge consisted of a couple of gathering spaces with large wood-burning fireplaces, the restaurant, a bar/game room with foosball, shuffleboard, darts and chess, and a hallway of guest rooms.  We were welcomed by a hard-working and friendly staff and the dog, Moose.

The Lodge offered a buffet breakfast with slightly different options each morning.  We had the option to sign up for a morning and afternoon activity each day.  For our first day our family all signed up for the trail horseback ride in the morning, and then we split up in the afternoon.  My husband and the girls opted for archery and I decided to try fly fishing.

After the morning and afternoon activities the Lodge served tea which consisted of coffee, tea, cocoa, hot cider, cheese and crackers and cookies.  Our adventure guides encouraged the kids to come outside and play frisbee, and the rest of the guests enjoyed time in their cabins/rooms or in the main lodge.  My older daughter especially enjoyed played pond fetch with the lodge’s dog, Moose.

Dinner was served at 7pm and then the junior adventurers watched a movie with the guides while the adults enjoyed time at the bar and in the game room.  Since our group consisted of mostly teens, they watched the Avengers instead of the usual animated selection.

Day 6

The weather didn’t look promising for our last day at the lodge, so we ended up having a more laid-back day than originally planned.  My husband and I had hoped to do the long hike up the mountain, but we were told that even if we didn’t mind walking in the rain, the trail would be too muddy.  Instead our hiking guide drove us to a couple scenic nearby locations where we were able to do smaller hikes.

Our daughters had opted out of the hike and asked to have some additional riding time so they could ride at a faster pace than the trail ride had allowed.  They went to the arena with one of the wranglers and trotted around for a while in the rain until their session was cut short by two of the horses from the trail ride coming back without riders.  As it turned out, one of our fellow guests had been bucked from her horse during the trail ride.  She was uninjured, but was walking back on foot along with another member of the group, so the horses went back themselves.  Both our guides and the lodge staff took the incident very seriously and were very concerned about the guest’s welfare.

Lunch was buffet style–on this day there were hamburger sliders, hot dogs and chili, as well as fries and ever-popular tater tots.  After lunch my husband and daughter did some archery (they moved the targets so that the archers could stand under the lodge’s porch and not get very wet).  I opted to just relax and enjoy the lodge.  My daughter got some wrangling lessons from the staff.

After our final dinner we enjoyed a tasty s’mores dessert and then watched the video that the guides had made of photos from our week together.  After the presentation some of the kids opted to try out the outdoor hot tub and the adults and other kids socialized in the main lodge until they were ready to turn in the evening.

Day 7

We woke up and packed our bags before heading to breakfast on our last morning in Wyoming.  I got some last minute photos of the beautiful wildflowers and spotted two deer grazing right by my cabin.  The lodge staff loaded up all of their larger vehicles with luggage and passengers and caravanned our group to the Jackson Hole airport for departure.

The airport is small and very easy to navigate.  There was a nice national park bookstore in the waiting area where we did some last minute gift shopping, and I picked up some eclipse viewing glasses.  We said goodbye to the other guests who were all also waiting to fly out, and our adventure guides who had finished up for the season and were also headed home.

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This trip review is from our Adventures by Disney Wyoming trip.  I book my ABD trips through Archer Luxury Travel.  My camera for this trip was the Fuji X-T20 with with the 100-400mm lens for wildlife and the 18-55mm kit lens for around town (as well as my trusty iphone 7).

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