Cooke City's Coolest Places to Sleep

Thanks to Cooke City’s (and nearby Silver Gate’s) slew of log cabins and rustic lodges, it’s easy to find homespun lodging that makes you feel like you’re staying in a remote, mountain-outpost town … since, uh, you are.

Buns n’ Beds Deli

Buns n’ Beds Deli’s three rustic cabins keep it simple—no phones, coffeepots or TV, just like when they were built, in 1938. Prepare to be seduced by the smell of the deli’s meat smoker, which churns out barbecued goodness for famished passersby.

Silver Gate Lodging: Silver Gate Cabins, Pine Edge Cabins and Whispering Pines Cabins

Three miles west, in Silver Gate, Silver Gate Lodging amasses the very distinct and all-different Silver Gate Cabins, Pine Edge Cabins and Whispering Pines Cabins. Four-wheeler and snowmobile engines are banned on premises, keeping the 26 cabins quiet—which also encourages more wildlife visitation. Pick a quaint cabin from the ’30s, a newly built knotty pine number or even a refurbished 1940s schoolhouse. (Some cabins are open year-round here.)

Big Moose Resort

Cruise three miles east of Cooke City to find Big Moose Resort, where four log cabins, a hot tub and an owner who doubles as a massage therapist welcome trail-weary travelers from mid-May to October. Given your mood, you can choose from a simple “efficiency” cabin or a homier one with a full kitchen, grill and gas fireplace.

Elk Horn Lodge

While mom-and-pop Elk Horn Lodge holds two timber-frame cabins with kitchenettes, you can also just nab one of their six cozy, simple rooms in Cooke City, year-round. Two words: hot tub.

Skyline Guest Ranch

If the whole cabin-thing doesn’t appeal, look to Skyline Guest Ranch, a few miles east of Cooke City and open for both a summer season (June through October) and a winter stint (January through March). While the three-story, timber-frame guest lodge was built in 1999 (from logs salvaged from the 1988 wildfires in Yellowstone, no less), the Jackson family has offered trail rides from this spot for generations. Let them set you up with a short trail ride, a multi-day pack trip, a hunting or fly-fishing expedition, then come back to hang out on one of the three porches or soak in the hot tub.

It’s not tough to find one-of-a-kind accommodations around Cooke City. Really, in this rugged tiny town on the cusp of the Beartooths, it’s more the rule than the exception.