Men's Journal

For rustic comfort on a budget, you still can’t beat a WPA lodge.

By Hunter R. Slaton

It’s been more than 70 years since the first stimulus package helped lift the nation out of a depression — and, true to common wisdom, they did bailouts better back then. Roosevelt’s New Deal and the alphabet soup of agencies it created (notably, the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps) built magnificent, uniquely American campgrounds, lodges, and cabins in state parks across the country — many of which are still open. Why visit them now? Because they’re less expensive and more authentic than any comparable lodging built since the 1930s. Here ——————————————————are the five best.

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Timberline Lodge

Timberline Lodge, Oregon
Mount Hood is home to the crown jewel of the WPA. FDR dedicated the Timberline — you’ll recognize the exterior from The Shining — in 1937; the U.S.’s second ski chairlift opened here two years later. Most people still come to Timberline for the prolific snowfall — it has the longest ski season in the U.S., including lift-accessible summer skiing and snowboarding. But the handcrafted rooms are the real draw (from $115; timberlinelodge.com).

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Devil’s Den State Park

West Fork, Arkansas
Of all the CCC projects, the cabins built in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks are among the finest. The 17 native stone-and-wood cabins come fully equipped with kitchens and fireplaces and seem as much a part of the environment as the scores of caves snaking beneath the park’s sandstone terrain, many of which can be explored year-round. Above ground, 11 trails offer superb hiking, with options to overnight (from $100; arkansasstateparks.com).

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Monument Lake Resort

Weston, Colorado
The rock formation that gave the resort its name toppled in the late 1990s, but this quiet 100-acre lake still brims with browns, rainbows, and splake; the lodge was built by the WPA with a little help from a local conservation league in the late 1930s. Stay in one of 20 rooms with fireplaces, or choose from among 13 low-slung adobe cabins and cook your catch in your own outdoor fire pit (from $80; monumentlakeresort.com).

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Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Canyon, Texas
The Palo Duro Canyon, by some measures America’s second largest after the Grand Canyon, is 120 miles long and, at its maximum points, 20 miles wide and 800 feet deep. Perched on its rim, three vintage CCC cabins offer up some of the most striking views you’ll find anywhere. By day, take five-hour horseback rides through the canyon ($140; oldweststables.com) and look for the rare horned aoudad sheep (from $60; palodurocanyon.com).

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Giant City Lodge

Makanda, Illinois
A 4,000-acre wonderland of faulted sandstone, southern Illinois’s Giant City State Park is named for its massive bluffs, which looked to early visitors like a titan’s metropolis. Numerous trails surround the lodge and its 34 spartan cottages. Book one of the four secluded Bluff Cabins for panoramic views of Shawnee National Forest (from $69; giantcitylodge.com).

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This article originally appeared in the September 2010 issue of Men’s Journal.