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About Three Bears Lodge at Mount Rainier

Luxury vacation rentals near Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington.

Our Mission and Values

Our mission is to spoil our guests with exceptional amenities and outstanding customer service. We work hard to exceed their expectations with thoughtful amenities. We provide luxurious furnishings, high quality linens and beds and fully stocked kitchens. Our homes should make our guests feel like they are at a friend's fully equipped vacation home. We listen to our guest's feedback and continuously improve. We strive to provide accommodation that is as good as any vacation rental cabin you'll find in Washington.

• Respect and Caring for our guests and each other, as people diverse in background and perspective, as a team and as members of the communities we serve.
• Honesty and Integrity. We will conduct ourselves in an open, honest and fair manner building trust in all of our working relationships.
• People are our greatest strength. We hire the best talent. We train, motivate and empower them in an environment where everyone has the opportunity to flourish. We unleash their potential and recognize and reward their contributions.
• Teamwork. We believe the team is stronger than the individual. We build on each other's ideas and talents because we know that together we make better decisions and experience more success.
• Service is our passion. We go above and beyond to create loyalty one guest at a time.
• Excellence. An unwavering commitment to quality and innovation. We constantly raise the bar in all that we do to sustain our competitive advantage.
• Fun is essential to our success. For our guests and for ourselves.
• Privacy. We never share any customer information with any entity outside of Three Bears Lodge, LLC. Our customer information and emails are strictly and securely protected.
• Environmental and Community Support. We support a variety of organizations through volunteering and financial contributions. $5 from every guest paying by check instead of credit card is donated to the Washington National Park Fund. We also belong to several vacation rental associates which help maintain excellence in vacation rentals by certifying it's members rental property quality.

Our Staff

Melissa Harwood is an owner and the Customer Experience Manager. She focuses on providing outstanding service to every customer. She also ensure we offer the finest accommodations possible for the best value. Melissa worked for many years as an Alaska Airlines flight attendant. She insists that when we put the customer first, our business will prosper.

Kevin Harwood is an owner and the Systems Engineer. He is responsible for managing our office computer network, developing our web site and the photography. Kevin works as a software developer in Seattle.

Starr Korvin is our Operations Manager. She helps our guests with their reservations and manages the properties. She ensures that every guest is well cared for and that our business resopnds to the needs of our customers. Before joining the crew at Three Bears Lodge, Starr worked for 15 years as a manager at Nordstrom's in Seattle. She brings the core values of Nordstrom's exceptional customer service to Three Bears Lodge.

Paula Welsh is our head housekeeper and manages our house cleaners and maintenance crew in Ashford Washington. Paula is a lifelong resident of Ashford and works hard to gaurantee that our cabins are impeccably cleaned and maintained for every guest that stays with us. She makes herself available 24/7 for customer questions and emergencies and is an invaluable asset to our Three Bears Lodge.

A little history of Three Bears Lodge

Three Bears Lodge was founded in 2005 after a serendipitous trip to Mount Rainier National Park. It was Mother's Day present to Melissa that took the Harwood clan on their very first visit to Mount Rainier National Park. They planned a long weekend of hiking and exploration with evenings spent in the hot tub back at a small vacation rental near the park entrance. Upon arrival they noticed a realtor across the street erecting a 'For Sale' sign in front of a very cute cabin tucked under giant cedars and firs. They asked the realtor if they could do a quick walk through while the he was staging the home for sale. As some of you may know, it is very dangerous to take your wife shopping unless you are ready to buy something. Of course they immediately fell in love with what would soon become Three Bears Lodge.

Instead of visiting the park, the Harwood's spent the weekend visiting local businesses and talking with the residents of the town of Ashford. It became clear that Ashford was a thriving gateway community to Mount Rainier National Park. Ashford offered a variety of tourist activities and amenities, first class accommodations, a selection of restaraunts and exceptional outdoor scenery. They decided to make an offer and closed the deal on Father's day.

From the start, they worked hard to build the best vacation rental cabins in the Cascades and Three Bears Lodge was an immediate success. The Harwood's love to spend each spring tackling big landscaping projects at their cabins. With a love for gardening, they've installed the stone walkways, steps, fire pits, flower beds and patios found at each cabin.

In the summer of 2006 they purchased their second cabin, Little Bears Cabin. This home was custom built in 2004 by a snowbird who spent the winters in Arizona and the summers in Ashford. The home was built with special attention to durability to survive winter when the owner was out of state. It has a commercial grade metal roof and rain gutter system, heavy duty insulation, central heat and air conditioning and a wrap-around Trex deck. The owner installed gravel throughout the yard and the owners spent much of that first winter and spring re-landscaping the yard. They had to remove four inches of gravel everywhere except the driveway. They installed an 8' Clearwater spa, laid stone pathways and flowerbeds, and installed sod throughout the backyard. They also put in large natural stone stairs leading up to a private sitting area above the home, tucked away under the tall douglas firs and looking out onto Mount Osborn.

In the fall of 2006, they purchased the Dancing Bears Lodge. This home was owned by a beloved Mount Rainier National Park ranger who relocated to small ghost town outside Mammoth Lakes California. The Park Ranger purchased several wooded acres about 1990 and built a small mill onsite. He timbered the trees and built then built a drying shack for the timber. From the first trees he built a large woodworking shed where he would live while building the main house. Legend has it that nearly the entire town of Ashford turned out for a grand barn raising event to set the first timbers for the home. He built the entire home using traditional post-and-beam construction. There is not a single nail used in the main home and beautiful posts secured with dowls open the living room. Guests love the heavy timber construction reminiscent of traditional lot home architecture. Above every door in the home, he created a scene from the mountain or a silhouette of an animal found in the park. The bathrooms, kitchen and living room have custom built cabinets made from the exceptional pieces of local timber found on the lot. They feature wonderful mountain scenery and animals. One cabinet has food chain themed drawer pulls complete with Orcas, Salmon and Herring. The Harwood's love spending time at the Dancing Bears Lodge and host their family reunions at this cabin every June.

In 2008 they purchased Lazy Bears Creekside Cabin. This cabin required a full remodel from the studs out. The replaced the electrical, plumbing and septic systems. They added bedrooms, replaced the kitchen, bathrooms, flooring and windows. They added a river stone fireplace, game room and large deck. They installed sod, flower beds, a dry creek and cedar bark chips to make for an inviting, fully landscaped yard. The 5-bedroom home now sleeps 10 comfortably and sits just 30 feet back from Big Creek, a year-round creek flowing down from Mount Osborn and into the Nisqually River. It has become the Harwood's favorite cabin for weekend getaways with their kids.

What started as a whim has turned into a full time business for the Harwood's. They love having the opportunity to bring their two children to the mountains so often. And they cherish the relationships they've established with our many repeat guests and love helping people create the vacation they've been dreaming about.

The Harwood's with the Tatoosh Range in the background

High up on the Skyline Trail above the Paradise Meadows

Playing at The Dancing Bears Lodge

Gifford Pinchot National Forest with Mt. Adams in the Background

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