We did the night tour of the Stanley Hotel while visiting Estes Park in Colorado. If you are not familiar with the hotel, it's a historic landmark overlooking Rocky Mountain National Park. It was built in 1909 by Freelan Oscar Stanley of Stanley Steamer. In 1974 Stephen King, his wife and son spent holiday at the hotel. It however was because the road was closed due to snow storms that they happened to end up at the Stanley. Their reservations were for another hotel up the mountains, but could not get there because of the road conditions. The Stanley was shutting down for the winter and they were the only guests. They insisted to stay anyway and were alone in the hotel. King was having issues with writers block, but apparently during the stay is when he had new inspirations. He apparently had a dream where his three-year-old son was running through the corridors, looking back over his shoulder, eyes wide, screaming because he was being chased by a fire-hose. He awoke from the dream and the Shining was born.
We did the night tour because I love Stephen King and I love the Shining even more, who doesn't!? So I was totally stoked to discover we were so close by. Nestled into the mountain ridge, the hotel gleamed with lights in the night sky. When you enter there is all kinds of Shining paraphernalia. People say that the hotel is haunted and guests have experienced paranormal activity while staying there.
We arrived and waited with about 30 other people to go on the tour. The host took us around the outside of the hotel and into another building with a stage. We then preceded to go downtown stairs to where there were bedrooms of workers in the past that used to live there. One room was of little girl who liked to slam doors. As we all filed in, I happened to be standing right in front of that door. As the tour guide started to talk, the door quickly slammed shut right in from of me. You think I would have jumped in fright, but instead I felt absolutely nothing at all. I'm a highly intuitive empath and I feel the energies of everything. I walked into the room and checked out the door to see if it was rigged, along with other guests on the tour. We could not confirm nor deny that it was in fact rigged. However, I kept filming the door slamming shut as it did multiple times while we were there and nothing showed up on film either.
We went onto other parts of the hotel, but not actually in the hotel itself. Which was a little disappointing. I have never been on a haunted tour and really just wanted to know more about Stephen King, but we only got about a five minute story. The one I wrote here.
Sooo... is the hotel haunted? I'm really not sure. But no hairs went up on my neck. The only cold breezes were from the winter mountain air. Maybe if we stayed in room 217 where King slept with his family, then we would get the full effect. I dunno. Maybe you can go and see for yourself and let us know if you see any ghosts!
FYI I did watch Dr. Sleep, the sequel to the Shining, as soon as I returned to Florida. It just so happened to come out in the theater while we were in Colorado. Definitely worth seeing! Scarier than the Stanley :)
Follow me on my voyage as I take on nature in my 40s! I have traveled to 40 some countries and have tackled all kinds of new adventures in the second part of my life. Join me on my journey of traveling, writing and meditation. Find out more on my website www.tararichter.com.
