At the heart of Disney World, guests of the Wilderness Lodge discover architectural storytelling at its best. They drive up a long road winding through a forest of soaring pines, occasionally getting glimpses of their destination through the trees. They pass under a tall bundled-log archway and embark on a resort experience where the unspoiled wilderness of the Pacific Northwest embraces the rustic Early American National Park Service architecture. From its steep sloping roofs with dormers and large chimneys down to the log, timber and stone interiors rich with crafted details, the Wilderness Lodge is designed to resemble an old timber lodge.
As guests enter at the second level, they can look over the treetops to the vast expanse of adjacent Bay Lake and its many islands. Building services and parking were located discreetly below the entry level. The grand seven-story-tall lobby is structured with four six-story high columns of bundled log, a baldachino where wildlife from various ecozones are carved into the columns' tops. This vast atrium space also showcases two 55-feet-tall totems that depict stories of the Haida Indians and an 82-foot rock fireplace that recreates the geologic stratas of the Grand Canyon. In the lobby, a spring emerges from the floor and cataracts down through the courtyard, flowing into a swimming pool and finally into the lake. At the edge of the lake, a steam geyser erupts at regular intervals imitating Old Faithful.