The Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge is located in Ashford, Washington, just a few miles away from the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park. The twenty-two-acre property has sixteen total units and a restaurant. The cabins on the property can sleep from two to sixteen guests, with private hot tubs, kitchens, and outdoor areas. Firepits and yard games are available for guests to use at any time, and a pond on the property is stocked with trout, and visitors are encouraged to go fishing in its waters. This family-friendly property has an outdoor wedding venue and event center that can be reserved during the warmer seasons of the year for events.
The Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge, also known as the Great Getaway, is located at the entrance of the Mount Rainier National Park in Ashford, Washington. The property is comprised of twenty-two acres of woodland with open grassy areas, well-established gravel pathways, and parking in front of each cabin or lodge. The center yard of the property is cleared for guests to play yard games or set out chairs to visit. Firepits are spread all throughout the property that guests are welcome to use at any time. Picnic tables and gazebos on the property provide covered areas for visitors to eat and relax. A small creek leads to the property's pond. The pond is stocked with trout, and guests are encouraged to fish there during their stay.
There are sixteen total units available for reservation at Copper Creek. The restaurant on the property, The Copper Creek Restaurant, has three rooms above it. The rest of the units on the property are cabins. Each cabin varies in size, sleeping anywhere from two to sixteen people. Each of the cabins is set back from the main areas of the property, surrounded by trees and thick forest foliage for privacy. A gift shop is open on the property daily in the main office where Mount Rainier National Park themed souvenirs, clothing, and essentials are sold. The area surrounding the property is known for its wineries. Some of this wine is sold in the gift shop, along with art curated from local artists in the area.
Although breakfast is not served at the inn, the restaurant on site is a convenient addition to the property. Open all day, the restaurant serves not only guests at the inn but also those passing through the area. Take-out is offered at the restaurant, which gives guests the ability to take their meals back to their cabins or to eat at any of the picnic areas throughout the grounds. For breakfast, visitors can order french toast, eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs benedict, and more. The lunch menu is even more extensive, with salads, chowder, pasta, sandwiches, and burgers. Locally brewed beer and wine are served during the dinner hour, along with a menu of steaks, fillets, and plates of pasta. The restaurant's famous Blackberry Pie is served at all times of the day. With the original recipe developed by Jennie Zuelich in 1954, the blackberry pie attracts visitors from all around Washington.
The cabins and suites at the Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge are all outfitted differently with traditional log exteriors, large windows, and newly updated furniture. Private hot tubs sit at each cabin with full kitchens inside and plenty of outdoor space around the cabins with seating. A few of the cabins have creekfront views. Soap, shampoo, lotion, kitchen essentials, and french roast coffee beans with a coffee maker as just a few of the basic amenities included in each unit. In the grassy clearings throughout the property, yard games are available for guests to use; these include corn hole, volleyball, and horseshoe. The four thousand square foot lodge recently built on the property can house up to sixteen individuals with living space, a full kitchen, and a dining area.
Mount Rainier is the most prominent attraction to the Ashford area. The park is almost 400 square miles of dense forest and grassy meadow. Within the park, guests can go skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, or mountain biking. Besides exploring the park's network of trails, nature tours, and guided animal hunts are offered in the park. Many mountain top restaurants are located in the area as well. The Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge is open year-round with an increase of guests during the summer due to the warm weather at Mount Rainier National Park and the weddings held at the property.
Catharine Gallagher, the owner of the Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge, purchased the space to not only start a lodging business but to create a location in the solitude of the mountains that guests can stay in comfort. Catharine says, "Our staff at Copper Creek wants every guest to feel content. We want them to go away wanting to come back." To help create a welcoming environment, the team at Copper Creek strives to put their customers first. They try to always have a staff member that is always available to answer questions and address concerns guests may have. In addition, those who visit the restaurant on the property can expect equally accommodating service. "While the Copper Creek Inn and Restaurant has an unassuming roadside presence and fits into the scenery as well as one can reasonably expect, it provides a welcome stop after a day spent hiking on the mountain. The staff was very attentive and friendly," said a guest.
The main focus of the Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge is Mount Rainier. The lodge is a resting stop for travelers stopping in the area before hiking the many trails in the national park or coming home from a weekend spent on the mountain. An effort is made to keep the cabins clean and the grounds of the property well maintained. The focus of the Copper Creek Inn is nature. Catharine and her staff want their guests to notice the natural and historic beauty of the area and appreciate the solitude it offers. A guest at the property said, "Our cabin was secluded in a near rainforest, surrounded by a creek within feet of the deck. Minutes from the entrance to Mount Rainier National Park and all that it has to offer for hiking and beauty."
The typical demographic of guests who visit the Copper Creek Inn, Cabins, and Lodge is very broad. Because of the size and solitude of the cabins and lodging, the property is family-friendly but also caters to smaller, more intimate groups. Frequently school group trips, corporate retreats, church group getaways, or family reunions are held on the property. Conversely, many of the guests at the Copper Creek Inn will book cabins for intimate romantic getaways. During the summer months, the property's outdoor venue is used for weddings. The property can host not only the wedding but also all of the wedding guests. Around fourteen weddings take place at Copper Creek each summer.
Catharine Gallagher is the current owner of the Great Getaways Mount Rainier Vacation Rentals. Raising her children in a historic home in Washington, she decided that she would transform the house into a bed and breakfast once they moved out. An old mill owner built the historic home, and she enjoyed sharing the history of the space with all of her guests and knew that she would like to purchase another historical property in her future endeavors. She ran the bed and breakfast from 1991 to 2001. She then sold the home and started to buy individual cabins throughout the Washington mountains to rent out.
After discovering the cabins and restaurant near Mount Rainier National Park, she decided it would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her to purchase the surrounding cabins and restaurants to rent out. The restaurant started as a lunch counter and gas station in the 1920s. Following the lunch counter's creation, cabins began being built in the 1930s. For the next decade, they were used as private family cabins till the lunch counter was turned into a restaurant in 1946. The Copper Creek Restaurant is now the longest continuously operating restaurant in the state of Washington. More lodging was soon added around the property and across the street.
When Catharine came across the cabins, they were all run down. She spent years renovating each of the cabins fixing their foundations, mending roofs, re-running sewage lines, repainting the interiors, adding new flooring, replacing furniture, and getting all new beds. For seven years, there was a full-time carpenter on the property for renovations. An eleven-acre property across the street had a few cabins, and Catharine decided to purchase them as well. On the property, she added the Tahoma Canyon Home. This four thousand square foot home was built in 2002.
35707 SR 706 E
Ashford, Washington 98304
United States
Bed and Breakfast
Catharine Gallagher
