Sanitation & Water

Both yurts share a Cadillac vault toilet. This is the top of the line toilet--they simply don't get any better than this. The location of this facility is roughly half way between the two yurts. Since yurt users are the only people frequently this facility, it's in basically pristine condition. There is plenty of extra toilet paper and a broom to sweep out the place should you so desire.

Small signs at each yurt urge visitors to refrain from urinating in the snow. Nobody likes yellow snow so please heed the advice of the sign. If you think you're going to have trouble going to and from the toilet during the night hours, bring along a plastic pickle bucket for your liquid waste. We've been using such an arrangement for years and years. It helps keep all our campsites clean and fresh and sweet smelling.
All of our urine goes into the bucket and then into the vault toilet where it belongs.

We hauled in a 2.5 gallon container of water because no one told us that the water was "live" during the winter. Most parks shut down their water lines during winter so we wrongly assumed Harriman would do likewise. Nope. There's a "live" frost-free spigot near the Cygnet yurt and it works just fine, thank you.

We think it would probably be a good idea to double check with the park staff during extra cold weather to see if the line was still flowing. This is a real nice perk and will cut down greatly on our sled weight for our next trip.

Obviously, "pack it in, pack it out" is the order of the day at the yurts. Our trash fit nicely into our five gallon "P Bucket" upon our departure. On the next trip, we think we will bring a second bucket simply so that two days worth of trash will be out of sight and smell inside the second bucket. It's just a good common sense housekeeping detail.