Cornell, Michigan · On the Escanaba River

Cook’s Big Trout Lodge

Fish · Ride · Explore · Relax

Open year‑round · Sleeps 8 · Riverfront

You may know this place as Big Trout Cottage.

Same river, same bend, same fire pit. The name is new — Cook’s Big Trout Lodge — and so is a good deal of the care going into it. Everything you remember about being here is still here.

If you’ve stayed before, welcome back. If you haven’t, you picked a good year.

The place

A cottage on the Escanaba, with the river at the bottom of the lawn.

Two bedrooms, room for eight, and a deck that looks at moving water. Kayaks in the yard. A fire pit for the end of the day.

8Sleeps

2Bedrooms

4Vehicle parking

365Days a year

Year-round

Two very different places, depending when you come.

November – March

Sled season

Snowmobilers welcome, with room to park a trailer
Ice fishing on the hard water
Snowshoeing and winter hiking from the door
Woodsmoke, and the river running black through the snow

April – October

River season

Trout water at the bottom of the lawn
Kayaks and life vests included
Hiawatha National Forest, eleven miles out
Long evenings on the deck, grill going

Memories

Years of this place, in photographs.

A year at the lodge, in order — the two-track in, long evenings on the deck, the maples turning, snow to the eaves, and a brown trout at the end of it.

Stayed here before?

If you have photos from a stay — a fish, a sunset, the dog on the deck, sleds lined up in the yard — send them over and we’ll put them up. This gallery is built out of years of them.

Send photos

Site in progress

More is coming — but you can book right now.

We’re building this out properly: full photo galleries, the story of the place, local guides for both seasons, and direct booking. Everything you need to reserve a stay already works.

Check availability

Cook’s Big Trout Lodge

The river doesn’t care what we call it.

Neither do the fish. Come back and see us.

Check availability