The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park--America's Most Haunted Hotel?

As I wrote in my last post, my husband and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary in early October. After a special dinner celebration in a local restaurant with our family, we decided to also celebrate by spending a few days in one of our favorite places in Colorado--Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park and the surrounding areas were hit hard by flooding last September, when over 14 inches of rain fell on consecutive days, and the rivers swelled and overran their banks with water and mud. Tourism is one of Estes Park's major commodities, and they lost millions because the damaged roads and businesses from the floods halted one of their busiest seasons.  They worked hard under the motto "Mountain Strong" to rebuild, and we wanted to support their efforts by spending time there.   Estes Park is about 73 miles north of where we live, and to get there we drove the very scenic Peak to Peak Highway.  As you can see from the photos above, the views along this road are spectacular!  There was still plenty of autumn foliage remaining that made it even prettier.

As we drove into the town of Estes Park we saw the beautiful and historic Stanley Hotel standing on a hill in the distance.

We were excited to have a three-night reservation to stay at this hotel, and our excitement grew even stronger when we saw this enormous herd of wild elk grazing on the grass of the hotel's front lawn!

September through October is the "rut season" for elks, where elk bulls gather elk cows into harems, and aggressively guard their harems against other bulls. The bull elk for the harem that was in front of the Stanley Hotel this day was very busy herding his many cows to a place under the trees to eat and rest. He kept a close eye on them to keep them from harm.

The Stanley Hotel was built in 1909 by F.O. Stanley, the inventor of the Stanley Steamer. He had been sent west by his doctor, a few years earlier, as it was thought that mountain air would improve his health. He did feel better staying in the town of Estes Park and fell in love with the area.  He bought land from Lord Dunraven and built his magnificent hotel there--a complex of eleven buildings, some of which are still in use today.

The hotel is full of vintage photos, and historical markers.  F.O. Stanley can be seen in the collage above in the upper right.

As soon as I stepped onto the front porch of the hotel I could see why it is world renown.  Its views of the Rocky Mountains are outstanding! Longs Peak has particular prominence in the distance.  I took a short movie of the clouds passing over Longs Peak, while I was sitting on the front porch of the hotel, which you can view on my blog's Facebook page click here.

The main staircase inside the hotel.

Views from the back of the hotel, inside the main lobby, special side rooms, and the staircase.

Our very comfortable room was on the third floor in the front side section of the hotel and had three windows that looked out at the mountains and the town of Estes Park.

That evening we had dinner in the hotel's Cascades Restaurant.  Inside the restaurant, there is also a Whiskey Bar and Lounge that offers almost 600 different brands of whiskey!  The menu is American steakhouse style, with an emphasis on locally grown Colorado foods.  We had a view of the Stanley Hotel's backyard cascading waterfall from our window as we dined.  I enjoyed the Crispy Prawns as my appetizer, followed by Braised Boneless Short Ribs, while my husband had Burrata Mozzarella served in a wild mushroom fino sherry jus, followed by a Colorado Lamb Shank served over wilted Swiss Chard and Lentil Ragout.  Afterward, we both enjoyed Irish Coffee as our dessert.  It was a memorable and delicious anniversary dinner!

Some views of the Stanley Hotel at night. Our hotel room can be seen in the top right photo.

The Stanley Hotel has a long reputation for being haunted!   The hotel even offers tours that highlight all this paranormal activity. The novelist Stephen King was a guest in the Stanley Hotel in the haunted room 217, and he found the experience so unsettling that it inspired him to write his bestseller novel "The Shining."  I've always thought that The Shining was the scariest book I've ever read--it is much scarier than the movie version--and I was intrigued by the thought that this hotel could be haunted, although I really don't believe in such things.  Like all older buildings, we did hear squeaky stairs and rattling windows, but I slept very soundly all three nights, without any sight of a ghost.......
............. But wait.........look at what I found when I downloaded the following photos........

Please click on this collage to enlarge it for easier viewing. The photo on the left shows the back of Hotel Stanley's reception desk. When we were checking in I noticed that the old-fashioned room keys hanging on the wall grid behind the reception desk began to glow and flash.  I wanted to ask the reception clerk if that was a special effect of some sort, but because my husband was conversing with the clerk I did not want to interrupt and took this photo instead. Soon after I took the photo the keys stopped flashing, so I did not mention it to the clerk or my husband.  Imagine the chill I had when I finally saw this photo!  Do you see the streaky shadow to the left in the photo?  If you look closely you can make out a hand......or at least I can see that......do you?
The photo on the right is even creepier. My husband and I walked down to see the outside of room 217 --the room that is supposed to be haunted, and the room Stephen King stayed in.  I took a photo of the door and thought no more of it.  Can you see what I see in the flash reflection on the door? At a quick glance, I see a face!  Do you?  I can't say I believe in ghosts, but I did think these photos were pretty uncanny! What do you think?