June Lake, California
The Chalet
A hand-built log home of four thousand square feet on the June Lake Loop, rented whole to one party of up to eight. Granite in every window, a creek through the grounds, and a hot tub under Carson Peak.
Filmed by California Through My Lens, the California travel writers, who stayed with us. Watch on YouTube.
- Who it suits
- Families and groups of up to eight
- Sleeps
- 8 in three suites, each with its own bath
- Yosemite
- 27 miles to Tioga Pass, 45 minutes to Tuolumne Meadows, late May to November
- June Mountain
- 1 mile; kids 12 and under ski free
- Season
- Open all year; the hot tub runs all year
- Arrival
- Parking for three cars, and steps up from the driveway to the front door
The hot tub
The outdoor hydrotherapy tub seats six and runs all year, just off the back deck, looking straight up at Carson Peak. Two creeks run through the two-thirds of an acre around it, and the national forest begins at the back fence. Most nights, Yost Creek is the only sound.
A word of warning: people get in this tub planning to stay ten minutes. Then the stars come out over Carson Peak and somebody brings out another round of cocoa, and now it is midnight and nobody can feel their responsibilities. Plan accordingly.
The Grand Room
The heart of the house rises twenty-one and a half feet over an open fireplace. The oak bar has its own row of bucket stools, each cut from local timber, and a collection of Kachina dolls watches from above the mantel.
It is the room where the day ends and tomorrow's plans get made.
The kitchen
Completely remodeled, with a six-burner stove, a double oven and a handmade copper sink from Mexico. It is stocked down to the coffee grinder and the garlic press. Bring food, your spices and your coffee, and maybe a pack of filters. There is no pod machine, and there never will be.
The dining room
A twelve-foot slab of local pine with benches on both sides, so nobody ends up at the kids' table. This is where the big dinners happen, and where the trip gets retold, a little taller each night.
The shelves are stacked with puzzles and board games, chess included. Somebody always starts a thousand-piece puzzle on day one. Nobody ever finishes it, and that is part of the tradition.
The family room
Off the kitchen, with a wood stove, leather chairs and windows onto the pines. It is where the late conversations end up.
The couch under the blanket is a pull-out futon, and it sleeps one or two. That is the seventh and eighth bed people ask us about.
The mud room
Every family knows the moment: four kids, four pairs of ski boots, wet gloves and somebody's waders, all coming through the door at once. Here they stop in the mud room, with a cubby for every person, a row of hooks for the jackets and a log bench to sit and pull off boots.
The snow stays by the door. The rest of the house stays dry.
The suites
Three bedrooms upstairs, each its own retreat with a private bath and a memory foam bed. The master has the house's indoor hot tub, a jacuzzi for two.
In the house
To soak
Two hot tubs: the outdoor hydrotherapy tub for six, open all year under Carson Peak, and an indoor two-person jacuzzi in the master suite. Plus a claw-foot tub in the Elsie Room.
To sleep
Eight overnight guests: two California Kings and a queen in the three suites, all memory foam, plus a pull-out sofa in the master suite's loft and a pull-out futon in the family room off the kitchen. Organic cotton sheets and towels.
To play
Five stand-up paddleboards and a kid-size one, a backgammon table by the fire, and, for a stormy afternoon, a climbing wall in the garage for the afternoon the thunderstorm rolls in.
To live
Wifi throughout, a high-end washer and dryer, a mud room for skis and boots, firewood waiting on arrival, and parking for three cars.
The chalet is heated by geothermal heat pumps, the first geothermal retrofit in Mono County, and finished in recycled tile and local timber. Read the press coverage.