The Grand Lodge

While we’re away at the lake I thought I would share photos I promised to share quite awhile ago.  You may remember that I told you about our winter-time trip up the mountain here and I promised to take you inside the Timberline Lodge.  I started editing photos of the grand lodge and then life took me in some other directions.  So, come with me as I take you for a winter visit to this wonderful historic lodge.  As we walk through the big front doors and cross the main lobby we see a sign that gives us a bit of direction.Before we go upstairs to enjoy more of the old building let’s walk around the main level where we can see some interesting parts of the lodge.  This is just one of the interesting, old, hand-crafted doors throughout the lodge.Just beyond the door, inside one of the meeting rooms, you will see huge quilted drapes that are very heavy.  They are lined and insulated with some kind of thick material that helps keep cold drafts out of the room.  The design is the same for drapes all through the building.  I’ve never noticed them before and I suspect they are taken down and carefully stored during the summer months.  I’d like to take a closer look at the details.  The workmanship is exquisite!  Every detail is perfect!  What a great idea!  Quilts made just to be used as winter drapes – this might is a good idea for anyone who lives where there are extremely low temperatures in the winter. Just down the hall there’s another interesting doorway.  The lights are low in the hallways and my photos don’t do justice to the details.Out in the main lobby, close to where we came in, a multi-sided fireplace waits to warm winter visitors.  I’m always attracted to the incredible workmanship of the fireplaces and other details inside the building. There are wooden seats and wood and iron chairs with seats that look like rawhide scattered around the lobby.  Nearby are displays and reader boards with information about the history and the geography of the lodge.  In a small room to the side of these chairs a movie play many times through the day giving visitors a look at the history of the lodge.  Seeing actual film footage of the conditions the workers endured to build this grand, old lodge is pretty incredible.   Upstairs on the second level you see how much the snowdrift has begun to melt.  It completely covered the window through much of the winter.  In the summer time you have a great view of the mountain from here.
Let’s take a closer look at the snowdrift.  The textures are fascinating.A warm fire is waiting for us when we reach the third floor.  I love the old handmade wrought iron lamps around the fireplace.  It’s not unusual to see people sitting close to the fire while they rest or visit with friends.I’d love to sit and enjoy the fire but I can’t stay away from the big windows that give us a view of the peak of the mountain.  In the summertime it seems that the mountain is so close you could reach out and touch it. If you turn around and look up you will see the huge hand-hewn timbers that support the roof. Enormous lights hang from the timbers high above our heads.  Heavy chains and iron rods hold them in place.It’s time to start heading downstairs but I can’t resist one more look at the mountain from up here.  Shadows cast a silhouette of the peak of the roof, the cupola and the weathervane high atop the Grand Old Lodge.  I could stay here all day!We turn and begin to walk around the fireplace.  On the other side you see this sign that gives us interesting information about the lodge and its relationship to the mountain.  I’m sorry the quality of my photo is so poor – it was quite dark on this side of the fireplace. An interesting handmade door gives access to the elevator.  We’ll pass and take the stairs down. Let’s take a side staircase.  There’s no traffic there right now and we can stop to look at one of the many hand-carved newel posts in the building.  It’s a beaver, a symbol of our state - Oregon is the Beaver State.Some day I want to go up and down all the staircases and see them all – they’re all different.
We won’t be far from here while we’re at the lake this week.  I imagine we will take an afternoon drive up to see this grand place – we usually do.  It will look different this time.  Winter has gone.  Summer has arrived.