Friday, September 11, 2009

The Stanley Hotel

by Karen on September 11, 2009

in Interesting Links, Quilting on the road

Yes something different for this post — I thought I would stray away from wildflowers, mountains and animals for a change of pace.

Have any of you heard of the “Stanley Hotel”?  It is located in Estes Park outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.  It is a wonderful hotel built 100 years ago.  It is a place that the rich people went for their vacations back in the early 1900′s.  (now anyone goes) Each time we have gone to the Estes Park area we stop at the hotel and wander through the lobby, the grounds and sometimes the basement level where there is a small museum type of room telling us all about the book that Stephen King wrote that is based in part on the Stanley Hotel - “The Shining”.  Have any of you seen it?  I have more than once and read the book several times as well.  If you read the book or see the movie and then go see the hotel you will really get the feeling of ghosts in the air :)

Mike and I actually stayed one time at the Stanley Hotel – a splurge for us, we stayed 2 or 3 nights I don’t remember for sure and it was about 8 years ago or so.  We wanted to experience it and as we were walking the old fashioned carpeted hallway to our room one evening I was asking Mike if he could see the ghosts of the twin girls – I know I was being silly but  there you go – gotta have some fun right!

So anyhow seeing as we were here once again last weekend we decided to go up to the hotel and take some photos and wander through the grounds and lobby like all the other tourists were doing :)   Here are photos.

the hotel viewed from the road complete with the dark cloudy stormy sky - how approperate was that?

the hotel viewed from the road complete with the dark cloudy stormy sky - how appropriate was that?

the hotel up close

the hotel up close

Now I really got a laugh out of this one. When Mike can't get the whole picture he wants in one shot he takes several one after another moving the camera just a little. Then he use a program on the computer which "stitches" the photos together to get a panaramic view. When he does this occasionally something funny happens - like in this one. Evidentally one or two people where moving around when he was shooting his pictures when he stitched the photos together the people appear as "ghosts". Or maybe they really are ghosts? :) LOL no I think it was just one of those weird happenings but you can never tell!

Now I really got a laugh out of this one. When Mike can't get the whole picture he wants in one shot he takes several one after another moving the camera just a little. Then he use a program on the computer which "stitches" the photos together to get a panoramic view. When he does this occasionally something funny happens - like in this one. Evidently one or two people where moving around when he was shooting his pictures -- when he stitched the photos together the people appear as "ghosts". Or maybe they really are ghosts? :) LOL no I think it was just one of those weird happenings but you can never tell!

The check in area of the lobby - isn't that old wood magnificancent

The check in area of the lobby - isn't that old wood magnificence

The grand staircase in the middle of the lobby. There is a sign posted at the end of the staircase that tells all tourist they are to go no further - paying guest only :)

The grand staircase in the middle of the lobby. There is a sign posted at the end of the staircase that tells all tourist they are to go no further - paying guest only :)

more of the lobby and all the people that were wandering around

more of the lobby and all the people that were wandering around

outside dining in the back courtyard, lots of people here in the afternoon or early evening

outside dining in the back courtyard, lots of people here in the afternoon or early evening

The movie "The Shining" written by Stephen King starring Jack Nicholson was made in the late 1970's. It is rumored that Stephen King stayed in room 217 when he went there for inspiration and he wrote a good part of the book there.

The movie "The Shining" written by Stephen King starring Jack Nicholson was made in the late 1970's. It is rumored that Stephen King stayed in room 217 when he went there for inspiration and he wrote a good part of the book there.

If you travel around the western states you will find a lot of these great old hotels where it use to be that just the rich and famous stayed.  Now the prices aren’t too bad for a night or two for most people and you do not dress fancy or anything like that anymore.  Yellowstone National Park has several great lodge/hotels that really need to be experienced and also up in Glacier National Park area in northern Montana and across the border in Canada.  If you can ever spend just a night or two at one of these places you will enjoy the atmosphere tremendously.

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Black Canyon of the Gunnison – South end

by Karen on September 11, 2009

in Quilting on the road

The other day we drove over to see the Black Canyon of the Gunnison on the south side.  Today we are going back to see the north end – you have to drive further and go in a completely different side to do this and then you see the canyon from a different view.

The following are photos taken from the south side.

the visitors center - this building is pretty new, this place use to be a national momument now it is a National Park (about 8 -10 years ago the change was made).

the visitors center - this building is pretty new, this place use to be a national momument now it is a National Park (about 8 -10 years ago the change was made).

a pretty rock wall by the parking area. I like how the rocks were placed, opposite of what you normally see.

a pretty rock wall by the parking area. I like how the rocks were placed, opposite of what you normally see.

one view looking down into the canyon - isn't that tall skinny spirial rock neat

one view looking down into the canyon - isn't that tall skinny spirial rock neat

another view of the canyon

another view of the canyon

we took the road that drives through the park and from this point we could see the visitors center across the way

we took the road that drives through the park and from this point we could see the visitors center across the way

we drove to the bottom of the canyon - this is about half way down. You drive down 8 miles on a road that is a 16% grade (very steep) it goes all the way down to the river that you can see when you are above. This photo is about half way down.

we drove to the bottom of the canyon - this is about half way down. You drive down 8 miles on a road that is a 16% grade (very steep) it goes all the way down to the river that you can see when you are above. This photo is about half way down.

a view of the river

a view of the river

another view of the river

another view of the river

a view of the top of the canyon looking up - and yes the sky was once again getting cloudy! every afternoon!

a view of the top of the canyon looking up - and yes the sky was once again getting cloudy! every afternoon!

and another view

and another view.

Every afternoon it seems like we get rain showers.  Yesterday though it was just plain rain.  We had been out for awhile looking shops and things in Ouray and stopped and had coffee and cake in the middle of the morning at a neat little bakery in town.  Then went into the mountain for a drive and have lunch.  We had brought our little fold up table and canvas chairs with us and had lunch by the river.  Sounds nice huh – except the temperature had dropped and it was in the mid 50′s and you could tell it was going to start to rain – where the heck had the sun went!  What was going to be a leisurely lunch turned out to be a hurried lunch and hop back into the car to warm up!   Then it did start to rain and continued until about 8 in the evening.  We ended up spending most of the late afternoon and evening back at the campground as we just didn’t feel like wandering around in the rain.

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