Review and report of the ABD Wyoming trip, August 17, 2025

[Eastridge]

Hayden Valley and Lake Yellowstone Hotel

After the hike, we drove through Hayden Valley, which is a good spot to see wildlife. We saw many bison, but they were off in the distance. The bus never stopped so it wasn't easy to get good photos.



We ended our tour of Yellowstone by taking a rest stop at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, which is a very nice hotel. It has the best gift shops we saw in the park.





The guides handed out the Day 4 pin here.

Pluto does not like Biscuit Basin​

After this, the bus drove us to our final destination: Brooks Lake Lodge!

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (grounds)

It was a 2.5 hour drive to Brooks Lake Lodge. We gained about 2000 feet in altitude and the average temperatures went down 10 degrees. We arrived around 6pm.

Brooks Lake Lodge is the reason to do this trip. It's in a stunning location with grand scenery, a variety of activities, spacious cabins and great food. There's a beetle that is killing some of the trees, but otherwise it's a great spot for soaking in nature.

Pinnacles mountains​

 

[sayhello]

Oh, My!!! That *is* a gorgeous setting!!!

Sayhello

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (facilities)

The main lodge building has a bar and lobby area with various activities: shuffleboard, a poker table, a foosball table where the yellow team has two broken men, a guitar with a missing string, a ukulele (really), a piano, cornhole, darts, and lots of books and table games.

The bar was pretty popular at night. The activities and food were all included in the trip, except for most alcohol. But you could ask for non-alcoholic drinks at the bar and those were free.

Tea room with piano​

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (facilities continued)

A separate building housed the hot tub and fitness center.







Another activity was ax throwing. Fortunately, these were plastic axes. Apparently, even plastic axes can be a little dangerous when 10 year old boys get their hands on them (in previous trips this season).

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (cabins)

Guests either stay in rooms inside the main lodge, or in cabins separate from the main lodge. The cabins can be more spacious. But if you don't want to walk, particularly at night, I suggest talking to the ABD guides before you arrive so they can put you in the main building.

The rooms and cabins vary. We were assigned the Solitude cabin, which the lodge staff said was one of their best. And I believe it. It was the most spacious room I've ever had on an ABD trip. It had a main living area, two bedrooms, each with its own bathroom, and an upstairs loft. You could sleep 8 people in this cabin. It was also a short walk from the main lodge.

Compared to the Old Faithful Inn room, it was a joy to stay in this cabin. And we had three nights here; half of the total hotel nights for this trip! I never touched the climate controls because the temperature was always perfect. WiFi was strong with high bandwidth, curing us of the Internet withdrawals we had at Old Faithful Inn.

Cabins​

Our cabin​

Bedroom 1​

Bathroom 1​

Bedroom 2​

Bathroom 2​

Loft​

My son happily claimed one bedroom/bathroom and disappeared into the room with all his stuff.

As usual, the ABD guides go above and beyond to keep guests happy. One group of guests had a problem with their room assignment, so Lili exchanged rooms with them and solved that problem.

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (cabins continued)

I could get used to this. Until winter.​

Each room had bear spray and a flashlight. At night, you carried the flashlight to the main lodge and there were storage spots for each cabin to place the spray and flashlight. Our cabin was so close to the main building that we just took the flashlight.

When ABD stays at Brooks Lake Lodge, the Disney group takes over the entire place. So there are no other guests. That, combined with being far away from anything, meant you didn't need to lock your room unless you were really paranoid.

We've stayed in other rooms on an ABD trip that were ritzier, but I think this is my favorite.

 

[georgiagirl2]

Beautiful Brooks Lake Lodge!

I completely agree with you that staying there is the reason to take this trip. Your pics brought back many great memories. Your family's cabin was amazing! We stayed in two very nice rooms in the main building.

Oh, I want to go back to BLL! DH and I have looked at their winter packages that include snowmobiling as an activity option but we've never made time for it. I think we need to re-evaluate our vacation planning.

 

[jimmymc]

I agree that Brooks Lake Lodge is the reason to do this trip. I tend to do national parks differently than AbD, but the inclusive nature of the lodge seems like it would be amazing.

 

[Eastridge]

Oh, I want to go back to BLL! DH and I have looked at their winter packages that include snowmobiling as an activity option but we've never made time for it. I think we need to re-evaluate our vacation planning.

I was going to mention this at the end of the report: ABD used to offer a "Winter in Wyoming" trip. I saved an itinerary, It was shorter (5 days) and focused on Yellowstone and Jackson, but had different activities including snowshoeing and a dog sled ride. That trip did not go to Brooks Lake Lodge.

Brooks Lake Lodge does have winter activities that are different than the summer offerings. E.g., ice fishing, snowmobiling and other stuff. I don't know how challenging transportation is during the winter. Some lodge staff mentioned having to dig through six feet of snow...

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (food)

The main lodge had a dining room where all the meals were provided:





The food varied from good to superb. The chef and kitchen staff are skilled and know what they are doing. I offer my compliments to them. Our meals were much better than typical ABD trip fare. It reminded me of the quality I experienced at Palo on Disney cruise ships.

We had three dinners. Each night they offered a choice between two entrees, plus a vegetarian option. Along with appetizer and dessert.

First dinner: cod, properly prepared. I was quite happy with this.​

Second dinner: pork chop. Excellent.​

Final dinner: I got a combo of the salmon and bison. The bison was superb. Soft as filet but with flavor.​

Breakfast each day was a buffet where the main items changed. On this day they had huge pancakes.



For lunch, there is a menu of options to choose from. Both the appetizer plates and main plates were enormous. I got a trout sandwich and could only finish half. We only had lunch once in the dining room, because the second day we did the Brooks Mountain hike and ate packed sandwiches at the top.

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (dogs)

Some of the staff have dogs, who seemed to have the run of the place:

Rudy and Newt​

Newt goes on some hikes, although he didn't participate in the death march we did to Brooks Mountain. I think he was the one herding horses(!) when they drove the horses out in the evening. He has his own merch in the gift shop:



Jed is an affection sponge. He would sit next to anybody, and stay as long as you pet and scratched him.

 

[Eastridge]

Brooks Lake Lodge (tea)

In the afternoon, the lodge provided tea with cookies and pastries in the tea room. This is not a fancy afternoon tea at the Ritz, but it was a nice snack.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Looks amazing!!! Great report

 

[Eastridge]

Day 5: On the Range

Brooks Lake Lodge operates on a schedule. There are windows for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In between, you choose a morning activity and an afternoon activity from the list of hiking, horseback riding, fly fishing, archery and canoeing.



You select your choices the night before with the lodge staff. Some hikes occur only on certain days/times. You can repeat activities: if you wanted to ride horses four times, you could. Or you don't have to select something if you just want to relax. But given what this ABD trip costs, we wanted to do most activities.

The schedule and food reminded me a bit of being on a cruise ship.

 

[Eastridge]

Horseback riding

Our morning activity was riding horses. My family doesn't have experience riding horses, and the way they ran this activity was perfect for our (lack of) experience.





They select a horse for you, probably based on your size and weight. To ride, you must be at least 8 years old and no more than 250 pounds.

My horse was Cash. My wife rode Barbie. My son rode Riot.

If I had to make up names for our horses, I would have picked Cash, Barbie and Riot. These really were their names.





The Brooks guides took us out on a trail that went to the end of Brooks Lake, then circled back through a wooded area. The horses walked the entire way, generally nose to tail. Joe from Legal insisted that we wear helmets. It was a sedate pace. We did have to hold the reins and steer your horse to follow the one in front.

The background is Brooks Mountain, where tomorrow's hike of agony goes to...​

You needed to lean forward or back when the horses climbed or descended. This experience was enough to convince me not to ride a mule down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Barbie stumbled at one point which was a little scary, but nothing serious.

It was a little tricky pulling out a phone to take pictures; I didn't want to drop my phone. It might have been better to bring a camera with a wrist strap. Since you aren't supposed to take your hands off the reins.

We were out for about 1.5 hours and this was perfect for a beginner like me. But if you are experienced with riding horses, this would feel like riding a tricycle in an elementary school playground. And maybe you wouldn't want to wear the helmet. The views are nice, regardless.

The last time I rode a horse was on the King Arthur Carrousel, so it was appropriate for me.

I like Cash​

Eileen rode Hobby​

 

[Eastridge]

Driving the horses to pasture

Toward the end of each day, the staff drives most of the horses out to pasture overnight. I'm not sure why this is done. I read it is healthier for the horses to spend time on their own outdoors rather than being in a stable.

The horses come back on their own in the morning, to get fed.

The speck on the far right is either Rudy or Newt​

 

[Eastridge]

Hiking options

There are multiple options for guided hikes. There was one very short and easy hike, then two intermediate hikes of 3-5 miles round trip with some significant elevation gain, and then the Brooks Mountain hike.



We didn't do a hike on this day, but I got pictures of Jade Lake from another guest.