Yosemite Valley Lodge

The Yosemite Valley Lodge (formerly "Yosemite Lodge at the Falls" and "Yosemite Lodge", often known colloquially in Yosemite as simply "The Lodge") is a lodging accommodation, in western Yosemite Village, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite National Park, Mariposa County, California, located at 9006 Yosemite Lodge Drive. The Lodge is one of only two lodging options in the valley that encompasses only hotel rooms. The other is The Majestic Yosemite Hotel (formerly known as the Ahwahnee Hotel), and the two establishments compete for the large patronage that visitors to the park offer. While The Majestic Yosemite Hotel is the more high-scale of the two hotels, Yosemite Valley Lodge is much less expensive and has a cozy, ski-lodge type atmosphere. Formerly known as Yosemite Lodge, the hotel was renamed "Yosemite Lodge at the Falls" in the mid-2000s due to its location being close to Yosemite Falls. Delaware North Parks and Resorts' 1992 winning bid for primary concessions led to the company's eventual acquisition of the management of Yosemite Lodge. Delaware North departed Yosemite as concessionaire, making way for incoming Aramark, on March 1, 2016, and Yosemite Lodge at the Falls, now Yosemite Valley Lodge, was one of several properties to change names on that date due to a name change dispute with Delaware North and the National Park Service. The Lodge has a total of 245 rooms. It is composed of 241 traditional rooms, with either one king, two doubles, or one queen bed and a set of bunk-beds; and 4 "family rooms." Instead of having every room in a single building, the rooms are spread out over a total of 15 separate buildings, each with anywhere from nine to thirty-one rooms. The Cedar Building is the only one of these buildings to contain the family rooms. Each building has different decor and a different layout; some have exterior corridors, some have interior ones. The buildings are named after species of flowers or trees. 189 cabins and 108 hotel rooms were destroyed or badly damaged by the January 1997 flooding of the Merced River, which runs near the Lodge, meaning the Lodge had 546 rooms/cabins before the flooding and that 54% of lodging was ravaged.