The Stanley Hotel

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 appropriate was that?

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 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 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

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

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.