In Yellowstone, for instance, dinner at the elegant Lake Hotel might mean elk medallions pan-seared in huckleberry butter and accompanied by a broiled lobster tail with roasted red potatoes and seasonal vegetables, or grilled Angus beef tenderloin drizzled with rosemary cabernet sauce alongside a mound of buttermilk mashed red potatoes. Vegetarians need not worry about piecing together side dishes of vegetables, either, as Chef Chapman offers pomegranate-glazed tofu with summer squash hash and Israeli couscous served with a saffron coconut cream at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.

You will need a hearty appetite to order the signature dinner at the Old Faithful Inn – its foundation is a roasted "steamship" round of bison surrounded by peel-and-eat shrimp, baked herb chicken, Caesar salad, a bowl of the house soup, roasted red potatoes and seasonal vegetables – followed by bread pudding with vanilla cream sauce.