Rush Creek Lodge at Yosemite

The first major new lodge near Yosemite in living memory sits just outside the park gate on Highway 120, and it reads as a quiet argument that "national park lodging" doesn't have to mean thin walls and sad buffets. Rooms are clean-lined and contemporary without trying too hard, and the villas sit somewhere between hotel suite and vacation home. The spa and restaurant both punch past what you'd expect from the genre.

One honor, in evidence: