written by Lauren Kramer | photography by Mountain Springs Lodge
Situated in a valley at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Mountain Springs Lodge is a quintessential log cabin-style lodge that perfectly reflects the wild, rustic nature of its surroundings. Separated from Leavenworth’s bustling downtown by a twenty-five-minute drive on a winding mountain highway, guests at Mountain Springs have access to a 180-acre property filled with meadows, creeks, forests and mountains. It’s an uplifting location where you could hike or ski all day long or just soak in the hot tub and enjoy the scenery.
19115 CHIWAWA LOOP ROAD
LEAVENWORTH, WA
www.mtsprings.com
DECOR
The lodges at Mountain Springs feel exactly as mountain lodges should: rustic, deeply connected to the history of the land and, at the same time, wonderfully comfortable and homey. Guests warm up around fireplaces encased in rocks extracted from the land, and knotty pine walls and floors are complemented by pine seating and leather sofas. Antlers serve as door handles, and the lodge walls are adorned with old wood skis, snowshoes, saddles, antique rifles and the taxidermied heads of moose, bear and deer.
AMENITIES
Mountain Springs Lodge offers all the touches of comfort and convenience: fast wifi, superbly comfortable beds with great linens, bath robes, flat-screen televisions, in-room fireplaces and expansive bed-rooms with vaulted ceilings. Most guests have access to kitchen facilities and a hot tub. A swimming pool, horseshoes and volleyball are available during the summer months, as well as Leavenworth Ziplines, with nine ziplines suspended 190 feet over the Beaver Creek Valley. Located on-site, it is owned and operated by Mountain Springs Lodge. Winter brings sleigh rides, guided snowmobile tours and cross-country skiing on the Nordic ski trail that runs through the property.
HISTORY
Mountain Springs Lodge is situated on land that’s been in the Burgess-Newell family since 1895, when WW Burgess, the great-great-grandfather of its present-day proprietors, purchased it for $1,000. Their homestead has been moved from its original site, but it’s still a conspicuous, historic landmark at Beaver Valley and Mountain Springs roads. Until 1990, the land served primarily as horse pasture, alfalfa fields and a vegetable garden. That year, William and Diana Newell realized their dream of creating a series of hospitality-focused lodges using Northwest native woods and local rock. Mountain Springs consists of four lodges and two cabins, all constructed in rustic, log cabin style. Framed photographs of their ancestors, displayed on the walls of Beaver Creek Lodge, offer visitors a glimpse at the challenges of life in the valley 140 years ago.