miracle foot The crown jewel of Yosemite dining, the dining room in the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite is magnificent, with its 34-foot-high beamed ceiling with large sugar pine trestles, granite pillars, floor-to-ceiling windows, and wrought iron craftsman-style chandeliers. The Ahwahnee Hotel located in the heart of the Yosemite Valley, opened in 1927. It is a premiere example of National Park Service Rustic architecture, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It was designed to attract “the affluent and influential traveler.†Today, it is a major attraction to visitors to Yosemite, an example of a unique relationship of architecture and nature. Photographer Ansel Adams was so taken with the building that he wrote: . . . yet on entering The Ahwahnee one is conscious of calm and complete beauty echoing the mood of majesty and peace that is the essential quality of Yosemite. . . . against a background of forest and precipice the architect has nestled the great structure of granite, scaling his design with sky and space and stone. To the interior all ornamentation has been confined, and therein lies a miracle of color and design. The Indian motif is supreme . . . . The designs are stylized with tasteful sophistication; decidedly Indian, yet decidedly more than Indian, they epitomize the involved and intricate symbolism of primitive man . . . (We just visited the tour-worthy lodge…didn’t stay or eat there…the Ahwahnee is a regular stop on the valley bus line, and you needn\'t be a registered guest to avail yourself of the public areas. ;-)
