Harriman State Park Yurt

Harriman State Park has two yurts. We recently stayed in the Sygnet Yurt. We are going to put up quite a few posts here to help you understand "the rest of the story" about staying in a Harriman yurt. You can find out a lot about the yurts from the Official Harriman State Park website. However, there are a lot of details that are either not expressed or poorly described. It is our hope information presented on this blog will help first-time yurt users have a much better experience. Our Yurt Posts are a "work in progress" so they may be frequently edited, rearranged or otherwise amended.

In this post, we will cover the financial and a few other basics as of January-February 2010. Technically, the yurts rent for $45 a night. However, you have to add Idaho State Sales Tax AND a $10 reservation fee. Two nights then becomes a net of $106 or $53 a night. A one-night cost of a yurt is slightly more expensive because the reservation fee isn't split over two nights (or longer).

You also need to be well aware of other added costs. Your daily park admission is covered in the cost of the yurt. HOWEVER, your trail user fee is NOT covered during the winter season. It is still $4 per person per day. A couple such as ourselves staying two nights owes the Park an additional $16 plus tax for the trail user fee.
In our case, we decided to buy the $35 winter season pass. With tax it comes to $37 and change. Our two night stay at the yurt was an out-of-pocket of $143.

We do plan on going back to Harriman several more times this winter so the season pass will be a "wash."

(NOTE: Non-winter users of the yurt do not have to worry about the trails fee--it is only charged in the winter to help offset the cost of grooming the trails.)

Whatever the cost of the yurt, it is a great gift to the people. It is well worth the price. Note that the financial turmoil roiling the waters of State Parks could well bring about a significant sea change in the pricing of the yurts and other rentals as well. Chances are the daily price of the yurts will take a quantum leap before the 2010-2011 winter season begins.

Here are some observations about yurt availability. Since the existence of the yurts is widely known and appreciated, there is a large number of people who wish to rent the yurts. Typically these people rent them on weekend days. Typically the same people reserve them months in advance. Unless you can look far into the future to arrange your schedule to rent a yurt, you are out of luck for any given weekend day.

Typically, there are a few weekdays available at any given time. Go onto the park website, and type in a date that you may wish to rent. Then click on "Check Availability." This will allow you to scroll through the calendar to see when dates might be open.

If it is less than 48 hours prior to the time of availability, you will have to call the park to reserve a yurt. Yes, you will be charged the $10 reservation fee, even though the park has the option of waiving this fee in such a case.

Prior to your use of a yurt, you are required to fill out some paperwork at Park Headquarters.  It's basically a rental agreement so they have some recourse in case a bad actor destroys the place. 

One other caveat you should know--you cannot occupy a yurt on your first day even one minute prior to 3 pm, even if the yurt was vacant the night before. This is a very illogical policy but it is what it is. We support Parks rules & regulations 150% so we aren't about to complain about this policy, even if it doesn't make any sense. Luckily, checkout time is a reasonable 12 noon. Just keep this in mind when making your travel schedule.

If you plan on enjoying the trails for a few hours prior to your occupancy of the yurt, you will have a fine day. However, if you show up hours in advance and then realize there are NO exceptions to the 3 pm rule, you might not have as good a time.
Be forewarned.

A word about the blog posts below: You can click on any of the tiny photos to see a much larger version.