The Kansas City Midland Bridge Company constructed the steel suspension bridge over the Little Colorado River in 1911, making travel across the gorge more convenient. Brothers C.D. and Hubert Richardson saw an opportunity as they anticipated that this road would see more traffic following the bridge’s completion. In 1916, the Richardson brothers purchased 112 acres south of the bridge and built a wooden cabin as the center of their trading business. They served local Navajo and Hopi communities by trading livestock, rugs, skins, and wool in the company’s early years. As a public business in a remote area, increasing numbers of long-distance travelers visited Cameron Trading Post looking for a place to rest. Cameron Trading Post became a convenient rest stop for travelers within the Four Corners region. As the site saw more patronage in the 1920s, the Richardson brothers constructed fuel pumps, a hotel, and a dining room adjacent to the trading post. Toward the mid-century, the Richardson family reported an influx of wealthy automobile tourists making stops at the Cameron Trading Post when traveling to and from the Grand Canyon. This adventurous class of automobile tourists traversing the Southwest sought the “authentic” regional experience at the trading post. Recognizing this site’s popularity, the Fred Harvey Company began including Cameron Trading Post as a stop along their Indian Detours, where guides drove tourists along rugged dirt roads to visit sights like the Painted Desert and the Grand Canyon. Cameron Trading Post was a routine stop along these tours. To cater to these travelers’ interests, the Richardson brothers filled the gift shop with cowboy hats and Native American arts and crafts. Tourists could browse from various Navajo and Hopi baskets, blankets, concho belts, pottery, and turquoise and silver jewelry. Cameron Trading Post’s convenient location near the Little Colorado Bridge continued to attract droves of tourists when the federal government began regulating highways in 1925. The U.S. Bureau of Public Roads established the first stretch of Highway 89 that year, a route between Thistle, Utah, and Flagstaff, Arizona. This route provided travelers with convenient access to multiple national parks, including the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce Canyon. Cameron Trading Post became a popular secondary tourist attraction along this route, offering travelers lodging, dining, and shopping with a uniquely Southwestern flair. The Cameron Trading Post changed hands in 1966 when Hubert Richardson sold the business’s lease to Standard Oil and subleased the hotel, restaurant, and gift shop to the Fred Harvey Company. The trading post remained an international hub for trading Native American arts and crafts. Toward the end of the 20th century, Cameron Trading Post continued to add uniquely Southwestern elements to their business, including a fine art gallery displaying works of local artists, Navajo weavers demonstrating their craft while seated in the gift shop, and the option of ordering a Navajo taco in the dining room. Cameron Trading Post continues to offer an entertaining rest stop experience for travelers along Highway 89.

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The Americana Motor Hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona is a brightly colored testament to the survivability of the Googie aesthetic in the modern day. The Americana Motor Hotel was built on the outskirts of in 1962. Located at 2650 East Route 66, the Americana has provided accommodations for tired motorists for the past sixty-three years. Its technicolor colors and avante garde shapes are a textbook example of the googie aesthetic.      The colors, starbursts, aesthetics and origin of the American Motor Hotel situate firmly as an example of Googie architecture. The first thing a traveler to the Americana Motel Hotel sees is its striking sign that exemplifies the googie look. Vibrant pinks, greens, tangerine orange, and banana yellow come together in the sign’s neon starbursts and a stylized outline of the mountains that ensconce the city. The porte-cochère at the lobby of the motel is emblazoned with neon yellow and orange stripes that wrap around the dark blue paint of the roof. Oranges, blues, and nearly every other color of the rainbow collide in a cacophony of geometric shapes and lines on the walls and carpet of the lobby. Outside of the lobby on the far side of the porte-cochère there is an installation of aluminum wind art sculptures that whirl happily in the Arizona breeze. The two levels of hotel rooms that stretch out behind are similarly adorned in the vibrant colors that make up the themes of the hotel and all eighty-eight suites face towards a central recreation area with a large pool with the logo of the motel painted at the bottom.      Googie architecture rose to prominence in the mid-century and is characterized by a commitment to futuristic designs, geometric shapes, neon and bright colors. This style of architecture is most commonly found in the Southwestern United States and often coincides with the arterial mother road of Route 66. Googie designs often feature the same bright colors, futuristic starbursts, and aluminum details that decorate the Americana and the hotel leans heavily into its mid-century themes.      The Americana Motor Hotel was once Flagstaff’s largest motel and had provided a respite to the stars who passed through on Route 66 in the mid-century. The motel originally had a large dining room and 24 hour coffee bar during its heyday, but as the years wore on the facade of the hotel began to exhibit wear and tear. In 2021 the property was bought by Americana Hotel Ventures for $7.37 million dollars. After extensive renovation efforts the motel re-opened with a fresh redesign that honored the original design and spirit of the motel. Since its re-opening the Americana has become a well loved traveler’s retreat on Route 66 once again. Bright colors, atomic starbursts, and neon details all hearken back to the motel’s beginning while drawing in a new generation of travelers. The motor hotel connects visitors with a nostalgic space-age future and helps to keep googie and mid-century architecture from belonging to an ephemeral past.

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The Monterey Motel is a stellar example of googie architecture along Albuquerque’s stretch of Route 66. Googie architecture became poplar in the western United States in the mid-twentieth century and the style is characterized by a futuristic and slightly industrial appearance. The building oozes a functional and futuristic aesthetic. The original steeply pitched roof of the motel was a hallmark of the type of commercial road-side buildings that make up the bulk of examples in googie architecture. A decorative aluminum band wraps around the entire structure and contributes to the futuristic styling that demarcates it as googie. The Monterey is especially interesting since its construction predicates the googie design as a cognizant genre. The most iconic attribute of the Monterey is its original neon sign, drawing travelers in for generations with its saturated colors and mod font, easily read from the road. The design motif of sharp acute angles is carried over to the sign, with the large sans serif letters being illuminated with the glow of the hand blown neon tubes.      The motel was the brainchild of an Albuquerque businessman named Norman Bugg. In 1937, Bugg was one of the first to realize the economic promise that Route 66 held for those who would invest in it. The site he picked for the Monterey is directly across Route 66 from Albuquerque’s Old Town district, a hot spot for tourists as they traveled down the Mother Road. The structure has managed to retain its original status of a mid-century modern traveler’s paradise and was restored in 2018 as part of larger efforts to reinvigorate Albuquerque’s historic stretch of the Mother Road.      The Monterey Motel and its many sibling motor courts across the Duke City were thrown into flux with the construction of I40 in the late nineteen fifties. The coming of the highway created a marked difference in how vehicle tourism would function in Albuquerque. Motels gave way to budget hotels as the accommodation of choice for most travelers across the U.S. and the construction of googie motor courts like the Monterey gradually dropped off. Interestingly, the Albuquerque’s numerous motels fared decently well throughout the years despite the dip in tourism along the Mother Road. Many of the courts still operate today in some capacity, either as accommodations or as new boutiques and eateries, with the stylistic charm that once drew tourists in being re-packaged as retro flair along historic Route 66.      Similarly, in July of 2024 the Monterey participated in an event held for fans of the Borderlands games. The staff of the Monterey covered the updated facilities with decrepit neon signs and rusted metal siding to provide photo-ops and entertainment for fans at the event. This sort of community engagement highlights the public’s interest in the liminal spaces and aesthetics that googie structures like the Monterey represent. The hotel has come into a new era via a greater public interest and nostalgia for what Route 66 and its historic architecture, commercial or not, represent to the American public.

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The La Concha Lobby located at 770 Las Vegas Blvd is a striking sight. With its undulating roof swinging in dramatic arches from the ground to delicate apexes and large parabola shaped window panels underneath, the structure resembles more of an organic entity than something fabricated by human hands. Comprised entirely of glass and thin shell concrete, the La Concha embodies its seashell namesake in both color and form. The interior of the lobby is akin to the inside of a dome or a big top tent. The curves of the roof fly high into dome of the interior space and the arched windows fill the white space with light during the day. Hanging lamps illuminate the lobby that now serves as the entry to Las Vegas’ Neon Museum. The space still contains a circular front desk and behind it sits a large decorative plaque of the motel’s distinctive logo and name rendered in sparkling Formica and glass. Originally, the motel had a dramatic neon sign with the same logo posted out front. The sign’s sparkling colors and dramatic neon shapes were right at home with the once plentiful instances of googie design along the Las Vegas strip. Now a multitude of signs are housed behind the La Concha lobby in Las Vegas’ Neon Museum, an archive of the art of hand-blown neon signs that hum their harmonic tone above Sin City.      Googie architecture is defined by a commitment to futuristic stylism, bright colors, and the highlighting of materials like concrete and neon. Las Vegas became the home of a multitude of googie commercial structures in the mid-century. The famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign is a piece of googie design, featuring atomic starbursts rendered in bright neon with modern sans serif fonts. The La Concha is a perfect example of googie with its funky shape, bright interior colors, undulating wave forms, and commitment to eye-catching design.      The man who designed the La Concha Motel was even more remarkable than this striking structure. Paul Revere Williams had been educated at the Los Angeles location of the Beaux Arts Institute and went on to contribute his largest body of work to the American West. He served as architect to the stars of his age, designing houses for Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Desi Arnaz among others. He penned many designs for the Las Vegas cityscape in the mid-century, designing the El Morocco Motel and the Royal Nevada Hotel and Casino, and the Guardian Angel Cathedral. Born in 1894, Williams’ was the first African American man to be admitted into the American Institute of Architects. Its been said that he refined the art of sketching upside down so as to not alienate his white customers by sitting on the same side of the table as them. This speaks to his immense skill as a draftsman and the racial prejudice he lived under. Williams spent his life achieving runaway success in his field while advocating for equality for African Americans.

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In 1874, Bryce Canyon became part of a cattle ranch owned by Ebenezer Bryce. His ranch was unsuccessful, but automobile tourism revitalized the area when passable roads reached what is now Zion National Park in 1917. In 1921, Utah’s state legislature accepted a proposition from Park Service director Stephen Mather that protected Bryce Canyon as a state park. Utah made no attempt to develop the area for public use, but the Union Pacific Railroad spurred development in Bryce Canyon by creating the Utah Parks Company in 1923. This connected the Union Pacific’s Cedar City spur line to Bryce Canyon, the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, and Zion via bus lines. By establishing a network of parks and resorts, the Union Pacific aimed to compete with other successful railroad companies such as the Northern Pacific, Atchison-Topeka Santa Fe, and Great Northern. These companies had established successful tourist attractions at the South Rim of Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, and Glacier National Park. As tourism brought in profit, road construction improved access to rural points of interest like Bryce Canyon. In 1924, Congress established Utah National Park, and the Utah Parks Company constructed Bryce Canyon Lodge and Deluxe Cabins in the same year to provide visitors with accommodations. Congress enlarged Utah National Park and renamed it Bryce Canyon in 1928.  The Utah Parks Company enlisted Gilbert Stanley Underwood, one of the Union Pacific’s consulting architects, to design Bryce Canyon Lodge. Underwood’s designs are notable for their commitment to rustic architecture, which used natural materials and textures to blend a building with its natural surroundings. He utilized locally quarried stone and large, exposed wooden details throughout the structure, figuratively connecting the building to its location. After the company completed the original building in 1925, it added two new wings in 1926 to make room for an increasing number of visitors. The Utah Parks Company constructed fifteen deluxe guest cabins the following year in a pine grove near the main structure. Their design used rough stone and natural wood to imitate the design of Bryce Canyon Lodge.  During the 1950s, the National Park Service renovated Bryce Canyon Lodge to make room for updated amenities. The hotel originally housed a barber shop, but the Park Service replaced it with a soda fountain. The Park Service also enlarged a road at the hotel’s front entrance to make room for larger vehicles, but the Park service expanded a plaza outside Bryce Canyon Lodge’s front entrance by removing the original bus lane in 1989. In 1985, the Park Service removed sixty-one of the lodge’s original sixty-seven standard cabins. The Sunrise Motel and Sunset Motel replaced them. In 1995, the National Register of Historic Places officially listed forty-two buildings in Bryce Canyon, including Bryce Canyon Lodge. This restricted future renovations, allowing the complex to retain most of its architectural significance. Today, Bryce Canyon Lodge operates as a historic hotel alongside five standard cabins and fifteen deluxe cabins.

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Constructed at the edge of what is now Swiftcurrent Lake, Many Glacier Hotel provided the Great Northern Railway’s second grand hotel at Glacier National Park. It served as the center of the Great Northern’s network of chalets and tent camps alongside the 1910 Glacier Park Hotel. From the grand hotels, tourists could access chalets and tent camps in Glacier’s backcountry. Visitors accessed these locations on horseback, but automobiles later drew tourists away from them. The Great Northern brought an unprecedented level of development into Glacier, and it spent approximately $1.5 million on hotels, chalets, campsites, trails, and roads by 1917. Many Glacier Hotel cost $400,000.  Designed by Great Northern architect Thomas D. McMahon, the hotel comprises three separate buildings connected by covered walkways. The central portion opened in 1915, but the railroad did not complete the hotels’ north and south ends until 1917. Its rough stone siding and foundations resemble the rustic architecture that was becoming increasingly common in national parks. The architect further emphasized this feature in the lobby, which included a grand fireplace and tall wooden support pillars. This imitated the “forest” lobby at Glacier Park Hotel, which uses massive Douglas fir trees as pillars and includes an open fire pit. Many Glacier briefly featured an indoor pool, but the Great Northern removed it due to sanitary issues.  The railroad also intended Many Glacier to match the Great Northern’s other buildings in the park, which imitate Swiss chalets. The hotel’s three sections look like individual Swiss chalets from a distance. Wooden pieces called moldings adorn their windows and balconies, and these pieces feature cutout patterns inspired by the Swiss chalet style. This created a unified sense of place in the region and emulated Glacier’s status as the “Switzerland of North America.” Early advertisements capitalized on this idea during World War I, encouraging guests to “see America first” instead of spending their vacation money to visit foreign locales. The Great Northern hired numerous artists to paint Glacier National Park, and their work hung in train depots and ticket offices. The railroad displayed a variety of paintings from the See America First in Many Glacier Hotel, but only a few remain today.  While Glacier National Park quickly became a popular tourist attraction, the Great Northern’s vast building network became increasingly expensive to maintain. Initially, the railroad kept its resort system to draw train passengers into the park, but it made numerous attempts to sell the hotels as more visitors began to arrive by car. In 1957, the Great Northern hired the Knutson Hotel Company to prepare Glacier’s hotels for sale, and Glacier Park Inc. purchased them in 1960. In 2001, the National Park Service funded a $42 million restoration project that replaced the lodge’s roof and siding, restored original architectural features like balconies, and reinstalled an original circular staircase that the Knutson Hotel Company removed from the hotel lobby in 1957. Xanterra Parks and Resorts currently manages Many Glacier Hotel.

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The Great Northern Railway constructed Glacier Park Hotel in 1913 to provide visitors touring Glacier National Park with a starting point along the railroad. From Glacier Park Hotel, these tourists entered a complex system of smaller chalets and tent camps. Each hotel and chalet included a guide operation that provided saddle horses to visitors, who entered the area from a train depot connected to the Glacier Park complex. Resorts in Europe inspired this system, and an American national park had never utilized it. The resort brought an unprecedented level of development into Glacier, and the Great Northern spent about $1.5 million dollars (about $36 million today) on hotels, chalets, campsites, trails, and roads by 1917.  The Great Northern Railroad executive F.I. Whitney encouraged the railroad to seek out tourist attractions in the Glacier region as soon as it reached the park’s southern end. Famous conservationists like George Bird Grinnell and John Muir, who brought Glacier to the attention of railroad founder James J. Hill and his son Louis, reinvigorated Whitney’s efforts. The failure of local oil and copper and oil industries provided a political opening for conservationists, and James J. Hill soon began to advocate for the area’s protection. However, Hill opposed the conservationists’ idea of a vast forest reserve at Glacier, and this ultimately shaped the park’s development. President William Howard Taft signed the bill that protected Glacier National Park in 1910.  Luxurious chalets in Switzerland inspired the architecture of Glacier Park Hotel and the Great Northern’s other buildings, which catered to the tastes of wealthy travelers. Louis Hill, who served as president of the Great Northern during construction, chose this style. It connected the system visually and advertised Glacier’s reputation as the “Switzerland of North America.” Glacier Park Hotel, designed by Samuel Bartlett, is particularly famous for its massive log pillars, which support the hotel’s vast roof. These logs vary in size, with the largest being over forty feet tall and three to four feet wide, and they are most prevalent in the hotel’s lobby. Advertised as a “forest,” these log posts retain their bark, emphasizing their organic nature and contributing to the idea of an indoor forest. The lobby even includes a fire pit in its center. These features emphasized the hotel’s environment and emulated the rough, handcrafted style popularly defined as rustic architecture. The luxurious complex included a music room, writing room, a sun parlor, and a hospital in case of emergencies.  In 1957, the Great Northern hired Knutson Hotel Company to renovate its hotels for sale. The $3 million project expanded the hotel gift shop, installed bathrooms in all the guest rooms, added a swimming pool to the hotel complex, and renamed the hotel Glacier Park Lodge. In 1960, Glacier Park Inc. purchased the Glacier resort system from the Great Northern. The National Park Service granted Xanterra Parks and Resorts concession rights in Glacier in 2013, but Glacier Park Inc. retained Glacier Park Lodge and several other properties.

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Before the Atchison-Topeka Santa Fe Railway reached Grand Canyon Village in 1901, only a few rudimentary hotels served the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. These establishments relied on a local stagecoach line, which operated between Flagstaff, Arizona and a ranch near the rim. Because the twenty-dollar journey took three days to complete, the railroad provided a more efficient way to reach the canyon, and its arrival shifted the center of activity at Grand Canyon Village away from Thurston’s stagecoach line. Fred Harvey, a hospitality company whose Harvey houses provided quality food and lodging to passengers on the Santa Fe Railway, constructed El Tovar near the railroad tracks to draw in train passengers. The hotel cost $250,000 to construct, providing the Grand Canyon’s first luxury lodgings.  Opened in 1905, El Tovar hotel predated the Grand Canyon’s designation as a national monument in 1908 and a national park in 1919. As a national monument, the Grand Canyon received less funding and attention than established national parks like Yellowstone. However, as tourism increased, calls for the area to receive further protections intensified. Ford Harvey, who served as president of the Harvey company until 1928, routinely advocated for Grand Canyon’s national park status at conferences. Conservation efforts gained strength when Arizona became a state in 1912, but many Grand Canyon residents opposed the national park proposal due to concerns about land and mineral rights. Regardless, President Woodrow Wilson officially signed the bill that established Grand Canyon National Park on February 26, 1919, and the Harvey company secured a hospitality contract from the new National Park Service (created in 1916) in 1920. Architect Charles Whittlesey’s design for El Tovar used the rustic architectural style, which aimed to establish a connection between buildings and their environment. Whittlesey designed the log siding on the first floor to resemble the wall of a log cabin. Natural building materials like rough stone and logs appear throughout the building, reinforcing this style. Whittlesey combined these rustic features with the architecture of traditional luxury resorts, which catered to Victorian tastes and a desire for exotic destinations. Decorative wooden poles known as balusters, which mimic Swiss chalet architecture, enclose El Tovar’s porches and balconies. The design also includes a small round tower known as a turret, which echoes resort architecture.  El Tovar originally featured luxurious amenities, including hot running water and electric lighting. In the 1950s, the Harvey company added a new cocktail lounge to the hotel’s dining area. A 1983 renovation exchanged the hotel’s sparse public restrooms with private facilities, added carpeting, replaced windows, and included a new heating system. For this reason, El Tovar currently houses seventy-nine rooms instead of the original ninety-five. In 1968, Hawaii-based hospitality company Amfac purchased the Harvey company and gained control of El Tovar. In the 1990s, Amfac created Xanterra Parks and Resorts to control its concessions at the Grand Canyon, and Xanterra still manages El Tovar today. 

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On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant officially signed Yellowstone into law as America’s first national park. The Yosemite Act of 1864 had restricted settlement in the Yosemite Valley and placed it under the jurisdiction of California’s state government, but the Yellowstone Park Act expanded upon this legislation by designating all of Yellowstone a public park. As a result, the Yellowstone Park Act contained many restrictions on private development and very few administrative procedures to enforce regulations or oversee public use. Poorly supervised independent companies called concessionaires, who paid park administrators a fee to use the land, ran Yellowstone’s public facilities. Only a few concessionaires ferried guests into the park, but the Northern Pacific Railroad quickly expressed interest in Yellowstone’s small tourism industry. When the Northern Pacific reached Gardiner, Montana, in the early 1880s, its presence provoked interest in Yellowstone’s tourism industry. At this time, only a few concessionaires opened small hotels and tent camps. One such concessionaire, the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, constructed the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel in 1885 to preserve its failing business. The Northern Pacific purchased its properties in 1885, gaining control of the Upper Geyser Basin Hotel. When fire destroyed it in 1894, the importance of a new hotel in Yellowstone became clear. At the time, many railroad hotels utilized conventional architectural styles that provided a sense of familiarity for their upper-class audience. The Northern Pacific’s Lake Hotel, constructed in 1890, followed this example. However, rustic architecture, which emphasized harmony with the natural environment surrounding a structure, gained popularity in the 1890s. Because distinctive architecture drew more attention from visitors, the Northern Pacific experimented with a rustic style for its new hotel.  The Yellowstone Park Association, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific, selected Robert Reamer to design its new rustic hotel. The railroad constructed the log building near Yellowstone’s most famous geyser, from which the Old Faithful Inn derived its name. The Union Pacific completed the central core of the hotel, known as the “Old House,” in 1903. The finished building was seven stories tall at its highest point, and it cost a total of $140,000 (about $4.9 million today) to construct. The Northern Pacific set aside a further $25,000 (approximately $875,000 today) to furnish the new hotel. Reamer designed his massive log structure to emulate Swiss chalets and Norwegian villas, and he utilized rough, unfinished wood logs obtained in the Park on both the inside and outside of the building to connect it to Yellowstone’s forested landscape. The hotel’s most prominent feature is its seven-story lobby, which features a vast fireplace made of native stone. A complex log frame that supports the hotel’s roof surrounds this room. The structure’s use of exposed wooden supports emphasizes the rustic nature of the lobby, and a series of wooden balconies overlook the main floor of the hotel.

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Bartholomew “Tim” Malan (1848-1913) came from a family of Italian immigrants that moved to Ogden when he was seven years old. In 1891, Malan purchased roughly 800 acres of land and began constructing a road up Taylor’s Canyon. The road led up the south part of the canyon and reached a basin at the peak of the mountain. Malan began building a hotel, which he called the Malan Heights Resort when it was finished in 1894. The nearby peak and basin also carry Malan’s name. A newspaper article, published August 20, 1895, reported, “B. Malan has now completed a road to Waterfall Canyon and is prepared to accommodate any number of pleasure seekers.” Another article noted that “he has succeeded in carrying out his plans done well.” Malan offered transportation services up the mountain at a cost of one dollar for a round-trip. One of the primary attractions of Malan Heights Resort was the view of the valley from the top of the mountain.  Tourists’ responses to Malan Heights Resort were overwhelmingly positive. Visitors were quick to note the beauty and grandeur of the mountain scenery. One tourist, Mrs. L.L. Rogers, exclaimed, “To say the scenery is grand, grand, my pen only feebly conveys the idea. One needs take the trip to fully realize and appreciate the grandeur of the affair.” An Ogden Daily Standard article reported that “the visitors exclaim that they never saw anything like the mountain scenery of the Wasatch range.” The mountains surrounding Malan Heights Resort provided stunning views that created an enjoyable environment for tourists. The resort offered such a refreshing experience for visitors that it could be compared to a “Copacabana of the West.” Malan chose a strategic location for his hotel, as tourists could enjoy both the hotel’s services and the extraordinary landscape. For the years the hotel was in operation, guests were treated to a prime vacation spot in the mountains.  Despite the beautiful backdrop, the hotel faced some unfavorable circumstances, including vandalism and property damage. According to an Ogden Daily Standard article, “visitors have pulled stones down from the sidewalls which protect the road” and “others have taken a delight in hurling stones from the wall down the mountain side, endangering the lives of those who might be walking below.” Malan created a ten-cent toll on traveling to the hotel to make up for the destruction, but was ultimately unsuccessful in reversing the hotel’s prospects. The hotel permanently closed in 1904, and in 1910, it burned down due to a forest fire. All that remains today is an old boiler and a memorial plaque that sits in the basin to inform visitors about the resort.  Today, visitors can still enjoy the breathtaking landscapes and hike Malan’s Peak and Malan’s Basin. After hiking through Taylor Canyon, visitors arrive at a sign with instructions to cross the bridge and start the switchbacks up Malan’s Peak. After reaching the Peak, one can continue on to Malan’s Basin concluding their hike after 2-3 hours with a total of 6.8 miles roundtrip. While the hotel may be gone, the scenery endures as testament to Malan’s vision of western grandeur.

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