Sitting Pretty: The view out over Lodge Pond (courtesy, Boulder Mountain Lodge)
8. BOULDER MOUNTAIN LODGE Boulder, Utah
If public lands were appraised like prime real estate, you wouldn't find a swankier address than Boulder Mountain Lodge's. It neighbors the vast 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument, and Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion national parks are
DETAILS
Boulder Mountain Lodge: Doubles, $85-$109 per night
800-556-3446, www.boulder-utah.com
Killarney Lodge:
$134-$259 per person per day, double occupancy, including meals and gear
705-633-5551 (May to October),
416-482-5254 (November to April), www.killarneylodge.com Cabañas Andina:
$250 per angler per day, including meals, lodging, guide, license, and transportation. Non-anglers pay $85, including half-day excursions and use of mountain bikes. 011-54-29-7242-6187, www.cabandina.com
practically down the street, with Glen Canyon and Lake Powell as nearby attractions. You won't encounter an adventure base camp that better hews to the rule of location, location, location.
Room & Board: Frolic in the ocher-and-ecru desert like a Monkey Wrench Gangster by day and retire to sweet comforts like sleigh beds topped with hefty down comforters in the 20 guest rooms by night. The lodge's three wood-and-stucco metal-roofed buildings adjoin a bird sanctuary in a grassy oasis along Utah 12, the most remote thoroughfare in the continental United States. (The town of Boulder, population 180, was still receiving mail by mule train in 1941, the last spot in America to do so.) Mealtimes are savored at the lodge's Zagat-endorsed Hell's Backbone Grill, with clever offerings like Southwestern-French chocolate-chile cream pots for dessert.
Out the Back Door: Hike to Calf Creek Falls, a 126-foot waterfall that blasts into a perfect swimming hole (the trailhead for the five-mile round-trip is a 20-minute drive from the lodge). The cliff-hugging trail follows a clear stream full of brook trout and passes Fremont Indian pictographs wallpapered onto red sandstone. Road riders, however, will prefer the vigorous climb up the eastern shoulder of 11,124-foot Boulder Mountain or the 31-mile paved portion of the Burr Trail, a rolling, mind-bending route leading south from the lodge's doorstep to Capitol Reef National Park.
Cabin Fever: Grab your paddle and go! (courtesy, Killarney Lodge)
9. KILLARNEY LODGE Algonquin Provinical Park, Ontario
Killarney Lodge sits beside the Lake of Two Rivers on the quiet southern edge of Algonquin Provincial Park, prime timber-wolf territory. You're more likely to see a moose than to spot a single tail hair from the elusive carnivore. But if you're struck with the impulse, you wouldn't be the first guest to paddle out onto the lake and bay at the moon.
Room & Board: Prime spots to idle include the vicinity of the woodstove in the guest lounge of the lodge, which was built in 1985 of dark-stained logs and trimmed in red to mimic the surrounding 1930s cabins spread around a 12-acre peninsula that juts out into the three-mile-long lake. The 30 pine-paneled cabins each have one or two bedrooms with lakefront decks and a private bathroom. The lodge's menu changes every day, but you can always count on a fish option—like the pan-fried pickerel, an Ontario staple—at dinner.
Out the Back Door: Each cabin comes with a 15-foot Kevlar canoe, which you can paddle two-thirds of a mile across the Lake of Two Rivers and portage a thousand yards to the seldom-paddled Provoking Lake, accessible only on foot. Serious paddlers with plenty of training can attempt a one-day circuit that covers 25 of the park's 930 miles of canoe routes. There are also two mountain-bike trails near the lodge, an easy six-miler and a more technical 16-mile ride.
10. CABAÑAS ANDINA Dan Martín de los Andes, Argentina
Cabañas Andina sits in the heavily forested mountains above the hip Patagonia ski town of San Martín de los Andes, in the lake country—and piscine paradise—800 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. A skilled angler with a little luck could cast from his bed and hook a brown trout in the Quilquihue River, which flows just yards from the cabins and dining hall.
Room & Board: Guests stay in one of 17 simple, roomy log cabins set among groves of cypress and beech overlooking Lake Lolog. The stylish red-brick main lodge provides plenty of lounging space, and the kitchen cranks out an elaborate offering of smoked venison, lamb barbecue, and a free-flowing array of Argentine wines.
Out the Back Door: Once you've fished the home waters of Lake Lolog from the lodge's boat and waded into the Quilquihue, your guide will take you on day trips to fish the nearby Malleo and Chimehuin rivers, famous for trout. Or go trekking in neighboring Parque Nacional Lanín, which encompasses the spine of the towering 12,000-foot Andes along Argentina's border with Chile. Day hikes in the park around Lake Huechulafquen will take you past 150-foot-tall monkey puzzle trees and lead to lookouts from the shoulder of Volcán Lanín, a 12,389-foot, snow-capped cone that dominates the Andean skyline.
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