A century-old sanctuary in the heart of Yoho National Park, Emerald Lake Lodge sits 8 km from the rail town of Field on the shores of Emerald Lake. Built by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1902 as a wilderness satellite to Mount Stephen House, it served affluent Victorian travellers who arrived by horse-drawn carriage from the Field station. The lodge is a surviving example of the CPR’s rustic “Swiss Boat” style—hand-hewn hemlock timber, preserved to this day. See Emerald Lake for history (name, Indigenous context, rail access).

Architecture. The main lodge is the original 1902 structure. The walls contain horsehair and newspaper insulation—a turn-of-the-century technique zealously preserved. The Kicking Horse Saloon Bar in the lounge dates to the 1890s; it was built for a Yukon saloon and salvaged after the Gold Rush decline, installed here with nicks and marks from Klondike-era prospectors still visible in the oak.

O’Connor restoration. By the late 1970s the lodge had fallen into disrepair; a summer-only operation with uninsulated cabins uninhabitable in winter. In 1979 the O’Connor family; founders of Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts (CRMR); acquired the property. They preserved the main lodge but dismantled the rotting original guest cabins, replacing them with new structures on concrete stilts that mirror the rustic aesthetic but are fully winterized. The lodge reopened in 1986 as a year-round destination—birthplace of its “winter magic” reputation. CRMR also operates Deer Lodge, the Post Hotel, and Buffalo Mountain Lodge.

Rocky Mountain Cuisine. The Mount Burgess Dining Room is the birthplace of “Rocky Mountain Cuisine”—formalized by CRMR but tracing its lineage to the Swiss guides hired by the CPR, who required high-protein, game-heavy meals for their ascents. The lodge focuses on indigenous ingredients: bison, elk, caribou, wild berries. CRMR raises game at the Canadian Rocky Mountain Ranch in the Alberta foothills; a closed-loop culinary system that mimics the hunter-gatherer diet of the early pioneers.

The lake. The lodge sits on the shore of Emerald Lake—beneath the Burgess Shale fossil beds. See the lake page for geology, ecology, seasonal dynamics, and conservation (including Whirling Disease).

Digital detox. There are no televisions in guest rooms, no air conditioning, and Wi-Fi is restricted to the main lodge. This is intentional; a curated preservation of the “wilderness retreat” philosophy—the silence of 1902, the crackle of the wood-burning stone fireplace, the Yoho Valley as Victorian travellers first experienced it.