I feel like this is the trip that almost didn't happen.
Let me take you back. I received in email in October 2022 saying that I had WON a trip to The Stanley Hotel in Colorado. This trip included a two night stay and flights. Amazing, right? Initially, they wanted us to come out for Halloween but, unfortunately, that was too soon. I thought it would be a great idea to go over my birthday (December 3rd) so we booked the trip for December 3-5. Two days before our trip, I started getting a sore throat. Not the "I'll be okay to fly and travel" light sore throat, but the "This is going to turn into something" sore throat. And it did. I cancelled our trip and, although they said it had to be used by the end of 2022, I somehow managed to have them push it out through the end of 2023. I ended up with COVID on my birthday. And it lasted three weeks.
Now we are in 2023. Kevin and I decide that we want to go in October of 2023, so one year later.
Backtracking to September 2023, that was a nightmare of a month. On September 1st, at 3pm, one of the boys on our property was pounding on my door. He told me there was a fire at the street so I called Kevin, changed, and headed outside. By the time I had headed out, the fire was in the front, side, and backyard of our owners home. We stood by our gate (1/4 mile from our home) and watched the fire completely destroy their home. It was devastating to say the least. They literally had nothing but the clothes on their back. PG&E had turned their power off because their house was gone, and, unfortunately, they didn't realize that our home existed (sometimes it's hard to see from the main road) so we were without power for 5 hours.
Days later was me trying to get renter's insurance (I've had a hard time getting it because I'm told that we aren't close enough to a fire station), the power was out again, our water was out for 1.5 days, and I had $600 stolen from me. It took two weeks for me to get a new debit card, I had a hard time with my temporary card getting approved through Samsung Pay and we have been having so many issues with people coming onto the property to look at the fire. Kevin spoke with one couple who had driven on the property when I went to the market for 20 minutes, and they broke the lock on the gate and knocked out the light.
So what does all of this have to do with our trip? The morning of our trip, I am taking Jace to school and we see a note on the gate from CalFire saying there had been (another) a fire at the home at 1am. One of the storage units on the property burnt down. I hadn't seen or heard anything, but I called the owners and let them know. They said they didn't have a storage unit or trailor so maybe it was the neighbors but they were heading this way and calling CalFire to confirm what happened. Come to find out, someone did go onto the property at night (with the gate closed, I still have no idea how), went to this small trailer, TOOK ITEMS (furniture and books?) from the trailer, and burned it down. All within less than 1/4 mile from us. CalFire was there from 1:00-4:00am and somehow we all slept through it. Imagine if they saw our home and just decided to steal from us and burn our home! I will never understand people.
So the morning we were planning on going to San Jose, CA, to start our trip, I was told that CalFire would be speaking with me to question me about what happened. They asked for my I.D. and I provided it to them. I put their phone number and I.D. on the counter, so, come time to leave for our trip, guess who FORGETS their I.D.? Not only that, but the hotel was 2 hours and 15 minutes away and I notice it was missing 1 1/2 hours in. So we left around 2pm. We didn't get to the hotel until 8pm. Let's just say it started off really, really, really bad.
But, by the next day, we only had an 8 minute delay on our flight and besides that, no flight issues at all. This is where the good part begins.
I honestly didn't know much about The Stanley Hotel. I was reading some reviews in the shuttle ride up to the hotel. I recommend Estes Park Shuttle if you want to a take a shuttle vs your own car. Negative reviews discussed the parking at the hotel and how much of a nightmare it is. The shuttle ride is an hour and a half from the Denver airport but it was nice. I loved the scenery (so much green and mountains! We don't have mountains in California) and the drivers were very nice both to and from the airport. Just for future reference, make sure to have cash and tip your drivers :)
We arrived at the hotel around 5:30pm on a Saturday in October. It was PACKED but the check-in was super quick, there was only one person in front of us. The hotel has a different vibe than a normal hotel and it is so full of history (most of which I didn't know beforehand). The hotel itself was so unique and gorgeous and looked just like the photos.
We stayed in room 223 which was only six rooms down from where Stephen King stayed when he came up with the book The Shining. My goal was to watch the movie before we arrived, but come to find out, none of it was actually filmed at The Stanley Hotel and Stephen King actually didn't really like the movie. Which is why I ended up buying his book. I am currently reading Prince Harry's book "Spare" so when I'm done, I will move to The Shining. The super interesting fact about the book that I didn't realize is that it was based on a nightmare that he had in the hotel. He dreamed that his 3-year old son was out in the hallway and there used to be a fire hydrant right outside the room and the fire hydrant basically attacked him and went around him like a snake. I had a nightmare the first night that I thought would be cool to turn into a book but that's for a little bit later :)
We didn't take the elevator since we were only on the second floor, so we took the stairs. The stairs had two grand entrances with photos of all of the previous owners as well as mirrors upon mirrors. It was something straight out of a movie.
Our room was right off the stairs, pretty big, king size bed, TV, and in the bathroom there was a window that just opened up to fresh air and we had an amazing view. There were also some really cool pictures on the wall of The Stanley Twins (more on them later), and people outside the hotel in 1910. This hotel is more than 100 years old. There were also some older, vintage pieces in the hotel room, such as the bathroom doorknob (straight out of Alice in Wonderland).
When we had first arrived, I had asked about places to eat. By this point, I was starving as we didn't have lunch. We were referred to two places on the property - Brunch & Co. and The Post.
We tried Brunch & Co for dinner. ★★★★★
After dinner, we walked to a Safeway (within walking distance there is a Safeway, McDonalds, Subway, and a few cafes in a little strip mall area. Due to the elevation, it WORE us out. It felt like we walked a thousand miles instead of just a 10-15 minute walk. Adjust accordingly with the elevation, I wish I would have!) and then we went back to the hotel room and just hung out.
That night around 10:30pm I heard what sounded like a kid riding his scooter and doing tricks right above us. It was the same type of noise over and over for about an hour straight. I was wondering why a child would be riding their scooter for an hour this late. We also heard a knock on our door around maybe 8pm. No one was there. This hotel is full of hauntings and I'm not entirely sure if I believe in ghosts, I'm just telling you what we heard and let you decide. Flora Stanley (more on her later) also did seances in the hotel quite often so that could also explain the noises.
I took a melatonin and finally fell asleep. In my dream/nightmare, our bed was facing the opposite way, up against the wall by the window. I had woken up in my dream and the dresser had moved by itself. I went to wake Kevin up (still in my dream) and apparently I had a friend at the hotel and grabbed them so we could start recording this. The dresser moved again. Stuff on top of the dresser moved. And there was a fork that had been on the dresser and it curled up. I woke up and told Kevin that this could be a book....the attack of the fork. That would actually hurt, just sayin'. This book is coming soon:)
The next day I had booked The Stanley Historic Tour for us. I learned so much on this tour, and I also did my own research because of how intrigued I was.
The Stanley Brothers were twins and super smart. They were born in 1849 in Maine. They were inventers. They invented the steam engine in cars (the "Stanley steamer") and had their own manufacturing company - Stanley Motor Carriage Company, they had a violin business, and one of the brothers invented the airbrush/dry plate which sped up the process of processing photos at the time. They were both geniuses.
One of the twins, Francis, died in 1918. He was driving his 1918 model 735 Stanley Steamer (which, by the way, was very quiet compared to our cars now, yes it took awhile to get the steam going, but it also won't ever blow up like cars now, and it's the fastest and most powerful car you can buy) and he saw two people in the middle of the street. Instead of hitting them, he drove off the side of the road and died.
His other brother, Freelan Oscar Stanley (F.O. as they called him) had Tuberculosis not once, not twice, but three times. By the third time, at age 53, he was told by his doctor that he only had months to live (possibly six months to a year) and to basically go somewhere where he can pass away in peace. Although him and his wife, Flora, were from the eastern part of the US, they were told by the doctor to find a climate that was high and dry. They found Estes Park.
He ended up recovering and living to be 92 years old.
By the time he arrived at Estes Park, he had sold his businesses and was very wealthy. Him and his wife, Flora, stayed at a hotel in Estes Park initially but decided to build another house that they could fit all of their elite friends in and visit every summer. For the first 20 years, The Stanley Hotel was a place for family, friends, and children of the wealthy Stanley family.
Unmarried women and men could not sleep under the same roof so he created a section for the men and a section for the women to stay. The children had the 4th floor all to themselves.
The Stanley Day Tour took us to different parts of the hotel, including the Billiards Room - this is where the men played pool. Next door, was the Music Room. Flora was a pianist and was gifted a piano so the piano is in the middle of the two rooms.
This pool table is an original, there were initially four pool tables in this room. If the women wanted to come in and watch them, they could sit against this bench. It was super uncomfortable but it was a posture bench, made to help the ladies with their posture.
The pool balls were made from ivory which was very expensive.
We were also told to take photos in the mirrors in the Billiard Room because there have been rumors of ghosts appearing next to you. We didn't see any.
Next we went to the theater room -Aiden Sinclair's Underground - which is still used today. Events include magicians, comedians, masquerade balls, The Nutcracker, and more.
We went upstairs and saw posters for different events. We weren't allowed on the stage.
And this light fixture is original to 1910 and is worth millions of dollars.
Next, we went and saw Stephen King's room where he stayed (only from the outside) and the hose is removed because a lot of people were reenacting his dream and of course, that could be a liability for the hotel.
And finally, we went underground. This tunnel underground was made for the employees and workers of F.O. and Flora. For those who stayed in the home, they didn't want employees to be seen. The tunnel/cave is used today but the entrance that employees were using at the time has been moved up by 3ft so you can't actually go in.
I took three photos underground that didn't quite turn out. A ghost maybe?
After our tour, we watched the Broncos game and football, had Subway and McDonalds and then went to The Post for dinner. The Post is actually shown on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives which was cool. I liked the food but the service wasn't that great. ★★★★
Here are some additional photos:
That night was tough to sleep. The elevation had really affected me by that point. I was up until 1am the morning we had to leave due to the elevation. We had another knock on our door today with no one there (our room gets passed when they do the tours, so someone could have just knocked on their way to room 217) and we also heard the same scooter sound above us around the same time, 10:30-11:30pm.
Overall, the trip was AMAZING. It was a whirlwind, quick trip but a lot of fun. If you go, want to go, or have gone, please comment below. I would love to hear your experience!
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