Heavenly Rockies hideaway: Former miners' cabins turned into resort with all the amenities
By Laura Robin

There is a new place where you can get away from it all in the Rocky Mountains.

Cathedral Mountain Lodge has reopened for the season with 10 new guest cabins, bringing the total to 29, and a stunning new centerpiece lodge, which includes a sitting area and restaurant.

It's actually incorrect to say that Cathedral Mountain is new. There have been buildings on the spectacular site near Lake Louise, Alta., since bunker cabins were built for miners there in the 1930s. But it's never looked like this before.

Nancy Stibbard, the dynamo businesswoman who owns Vancouver's Capilano Suspension Bridge and Moraine Lake Lodge, bought the former Cathedral Mountain Cabins in 2002. Since then, she's been patiently wading through the red tape involved in making any changes to a property that's on Parks Canada land.

Cathedral Mountain is in Yoho National Park, which, along with adjoining Banff, Jasper and Kootenay national parks, forms part of the Canadian Rocky Mountains UNESCO site.

There are only a handful of lodges like this tucked away in the Rocky Mountains and many have fallen into disrepair since the owners can't afford the huge expense and hours and years of environmental assessments and other hurdles that must be cleared before changes are made.

"It's been a long process," Stibbard acknowledges. "But it's turned out beyond my vision, which is pretty amazing."

She hired Vancouver architect Brad Lamoureux to design the new lodge, which houses the Riverside Dining Room and what they call the Great Room, where guests can read, look at the view or attend daily 5 p.m. interpretive talks, accompanied by wine and cheese.

The lodge was built with reclaimed Douglas fir posts and beams, has 24-foot vaulted ceilings, a deck overlooking the Kicking Horse River, a massive indoor/outdoor river-rock fireplace and 18-foot-high windows offering views of mountains all around.

"Old ore carts have been made into the bar," says Stibbard, who obviously takes delight in weaving local history into her properties, from interpretive signs telling the history of Capilano Suspension Bridge to authentic antiques in Moraine Lake Lodge.

Replacing the former restaurant, which was built in 1933, was a calculated gamble. The old one was a funky little place reminiscent of a miner's cafe and was beloved and written up in Where to Eat in Canada five years running.

The new one is more grand -- and able to serve more guests and has a more ambitious menu. Appetizers include dishes such as warm wild B.C. mushroom tart with pancetta crisps or Salt Spring Island goat cheese and walnut terrine.

Main courses cover the country, from Alberta lamb loin to Quebec duck. If you also opt for the warm whisky bread pudding, with honey creme anglaise and bruelled figs for dessert, you may have difficulty waddling back through the woods to your cabin.

Almost invisible among the towering spruce and fir trees, the cabins sleep two to four and all have private decks. You won't have a phone or TV but you will have down duvets, deep soaker tubs and logs and kindling delivered daily for your fireplace.

Cathedral Mountain Lodge is nestled in the midst of 500 kilometers of some of Canada's greatest hiking trails, from nearby Takakkaw Falls, the second highest in Canada, to the Iceline and Larch Valley trails and the beautiful ones that take you up to rustic teahouses near Lake Louise.

You can also take a guided hike to the Burgess Shale UNESCO World Heritage Site, go whitewater rafting, fly-fishing or horseback riding.

"I think this lodge will attract the more hard-core outdoors person," says Stibbard. "I actually have to say that I like this one even better (than Moraine Lake) -- it's more away-from-it-all, more remote.

"I think it will attract the more serious hiker, who still enjoys the fine wines and the fine foods and a soak in the tub at the end of the day."

IF YOU GO
- Where: About a 45-minute drive east of Golden
- Cost: $380 to $475 per night per cabin.
- What you get: All of the rooms include complimentary continental breakfast, weekly hikes with the hotel general manager (a Rockies local), evening naturalist presentations on the Great Divide in the Grand Room (three to four times per week), Aveda bathroom amenities and complementary canoe rental on Moraine Lake.
- More information: Call 1-250-343-6442 or visit online at www.cathedralmountain.com

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