Our stay at the Stanley Hotel was in celebration of our son’s graduation. It was a surprise gift to him as he was a fan of the movie Dumb and Dumber staring Jim Carrey and many of the scenes from the movie were filmed throughout the hotel. Before leaving Denver, on our way to Estes Park, we watched the movie The Shining, just to get us in the mood! Our son of course didn’t know what the connection between watching The Shining and our upcoming trip to Estes Park was but he would soon find out.

The Shining Hotel

In the lobby of the Stanley Hotel there was a Stanley Steamer Car on exhibit that was really cool to see. After arriving at the hotel our son of course was excited to check out the hotel and some of the locations where scenes from Dumb and Dumber were filmed. And now he knew we were also at the hotel where Stephen King was inspired to write The Shining. He had no idea, and neither did we, what kind of night we had in store for us!

Our Stanley Hotel Ghost Story

After dinner we drove to a nearby market to purchase drinks and snacks for our evening at what we were now calling the Shining Hotel. We watched TV, ate our snacks and retired for the evening. NOT! I don’t think any of us slept much that night. I closed my eyes and the closet door, which had been closed all evening, suddenly POPPED open with a creaking sound that startled us all. My husband closed the closet door, climbed back into bed and the door POPPED open again. OK, we’ll just leave the closet door open. No problem. Back to bed – again. No one is sleeping of course and now our ROOM door starts rattling!

Oh, my, God! We can’t believe this. We check and no one is at the door but it continues to rattle periodically like someone is trying to get in. By now we are all in quite a panic but calling the front desk at a hotel that is supposedly haunted is NOT going to get us much sympathy!

I don’t recall what time of night it was but apparently some of us had managed to doze off. By now my daughter and I had taken some of the blankets and pillows and we were sleeping on the floor beneath the open window. I don’t know why! Is this night ever going to end? Remind me please to NEVER watch The Shining before staying at the Stanley Hotel! Whose idea was this anyway?

Things Seem to be Calming Down (but not for long…)

Everything seemed to have calmed down but there was an eerie howling sound coming through the window. The hotel, located at the base of the mountains must get a lot of wind current blown over it daily. The wind was slowly blowing the thin white curtains up in the air, which was casting shadows all over the walls from the full moon light outside. The shadows looked very weird especially playing against the old wall paper. It was a very strange setting, but nothing else had changed so everyone eventually fell asleep.

Our son explained to us that while sleeping he had a sense of something extremely close to his face. When he opened his eyes he saw his right arm fully extended toward the closet door that had sprung open earlier. He quickly yanked back his arm and got out of bed and lay down under the table near the rest of us. This was when in his mind he had seen enough. He covered himself up with blankets but within a minutes time he began to hear noises. But this time they seemed to be coming from right above him on top of the table that he just laid down under. IMPOSSIBLE is what he said he was thinking. The sounds continued and sounded like bags crunching, but they were loud enough that there was no mistaking that they were there in the room with us. About 30 seconds later, a bag of chips fell off the table and hit our son in the face. The only small part he actually had exposed from under the covers. He leaped up to confront whatever the heck was there in the room with us….

OMG…there is something in our room, on the table, dragging our bag of dinner rolls off with it! It jumps onto the windowsill of the open window and drags the bag of rolls with it. It then jumps out the window onto the ledge outside of our room -in the dark of the night. WHAT THE HECK? IT’S A RACCOON!

A raccoon had been in our room, walking around, (while we were sleeping on the floor) eating our food and now he’s sitting on the ledge outside our window eating what’s left of our bag of rolls RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! Ok, now this is getting funny…he not only took our rolls with him but he had been sitting on our table eating our Lemon Meringue Pie while we slept. THEIF!

I don’t know how, but we somehow made it through that night. Dismayed as we were about our closet door springing open again and again and our room door rattling repeatedly like someone was trying to get in, it was the raccoon that topped that night off at The Stanley Hotel!

The Raccoon Thief at the Stanley Hotel!

Well the front desk is certainly going to hear about this in the morning! Explaining about our little intruder and how he entered our open window on the 2nd floor in the middle of the night and made off with our bag of dinner rolls giving us all a fright…well let’s put it this way, it seems the Stanley Hotel hears ghost stories much more bizarre than ours!

Needless to say this surprise celebration of our son’s graduation turned out to be one our family will never forget and one that we love to share with others. I hope you enjoyed reading about it and that you will check out The Stanley Hotel when you visit Estes Park in Colorado. It’s a fabulous hotel and one well deserving of its reputation!
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And, if you’re interested in deals on other lodging options while in Estes Park you can find them at Booking.com.

Do you have a ghost story to share?

Have you ever wanted to visit a Ghost Town?
Read about our recent visit to Bodie California – A Ghost Town in Arrested Decay.

Have you stayed at The Stanley Hotel? Did you experience any unusual happenings while you were there?

Tell us about your experience at the Stanley Hotel in the comments below.

The Aspens were in full splendor in October and we spotted Elk all over town. There were literally herds of Elk walking all over town!

Where to Shop in Estes Park?

The shops in Estes Park are full of beautiful items, something for everyone can be found here. You will find ice cream shops, candy stores, leather goods and of course many restaurants to choose from. Be sure to stop by The Taffy Shop where on some days you can watch taffy being made. If you are looking for a souvenir or some outdoor hiking goods, you’ll probably find it here.

Where to Stay in Estes Park?

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park is a grand place to stay. Some say it’s haunted. We have our own story about that. Let me just say we had a “spooky” experience while staying there! The Stanley Hotel is where novelist Stephen King was inspired to write The Shining after he and his wife Tabitha stayed at the hotel in 1974. The hotel was also the setting for many of the scenes filmed in the movie Dumb and Dumber staring Jim Carrey.

You can find lodging deals for any season at the Stanley Hotel on Booking.com.

It wasn’t good. Severe weather was headed our way so we headed for lower ground and put our plans for a Rocky Mountain National Park vacation on hold. Changing our course we headed for Mesa Verde National National Park in Cortez, Colorado. Much lower elevation and hopefully away from the blizzard!

Estes Park is a great place to visit but we didn’t get to spend all the time we planned on spending in the Rocky Mountains. We enjoyed the shops, restaurants, and the unforgetable scenery surrounding Estes Park. If you’re planning on visiting the Rockies, Estes Park can make a great home base. You can find lodging for any season in Estes Park on Booking.com.

Have you been to Estes Park and/or Rocky Mountain National Park? Let us know about your experience in the comments bleow. We’d like to hear from you too!

We arrived at the top of the mesa and, as I mentioned it’s a 20-mile drive up a very winding, narrow road to get to the visitor center and we find…the visitor center is closed. Darn. Well, that’s OK we can drive around the park, view some of the dwellings, take some pictures and come back in the morning to take the tour. Well, that was our plan. Little did we know that the weather was making other plans for us.

Cliff Palace is the largest of the ancient dwellings at the park and has 150 rooms as well as other open areas. You can purchase tickets to take a ranger led tour. The tour involves climbing several 8-10ft ladders and walking 1/4-mile round trip. From the Visitor Center, it’s an 8-mile drive to the overlook where the tour begins.

More Places to Explore in Arizona, Utah & Colorado!

• Monument Valley – Arizonia
• Bryce Canyon Nat. Park – Utah
• Canyonlands Nat. Park – Mesa Arch – Utah
• Zion Nat. Park – Canyon Ovrerlook Trail – Utah
• Estes Park – Colorado
• Garden of the Gods – Colorado

This is Oak Tree House as seen from the canyon rim. We drove the Mesa Top Loop Road and were able to view and photograph many of the sights in the park. Interpretive signs along the way explained the history of the area and the people that once lived here. 

The Snow has followed us here!

The entrance to the park was covered in snow! Things are just not going our way on this trip. We woke up in the morning to find that the snow had followed us to Cortez. It really did look beautiful and it wasn’t enough snow to dampen our desire to visit the park so off we went again. The drive from Cortez to Mesa Verde is approximately 1-hour. The snow was beginning to come down harder now but we made it this far and we really wanted to take the tour so up we went.

Driving slowly and cautiously we made our way up the winding, narrow, steep road. I know, I keep adding more adjectives to the road description but all are true about this road to the top of the park.

It was snowing harder towards the top of Mesa Verde and at this point it was time for us to turn around. We didn’t want to get ourselves into trouble so back down we went. We gave it our best shot to make it to the top despite the snowy conditions. We would just have to find other things to do that day. What would you do if this happened to you while you were on vacation?

My best advice would be – when on vacation make the most of every day and HAVE FUN!!!

Even though we didn’t get to take the tour and enter the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde we still enjoyed our first day there. We drove through the park, photographed the ruins from the overlooks and saw the area that the Ancestral Puebloan people called their home for so many years. Mesa Verde is an historical treasure, one that I feel privileged to have visited. We loved seeing the dwellings at Mesa Verde and would highly recommend it to anyone visiting this area.

Here is the link to the National Park Services Mesa Verde Plan Your Visit page: http://www.nps.gov/meve/planyourvisit/index.htm

Have you had to change your vacation plans due to bad weather? What did you have to do and how were you able to adjust? Let us know in the comments below.
We’d like to hear from you!

Garden of the Gods has been referred to as “the most striking contrast between plains and mountains in North America” and it’s easy to see why. The huge sandstone rock formations jut out of the otherwise level ground giving them a strange appearance of being totally out of place. Does anyone have any idea on how something like this is formed??

At Garden of the Gods, Colorado there are miles of trails throughout the park for hiking, walking and horseback riding. You will find an easy paved 1.5 mile trail running throughout the heart of the park. This path brings you to the base of the highest rock formations and is relatively level. Spectacular! Technical rock climbing and mountain biking are also popular activities in the park. We saw several rock climbers making their way to the top of rocks the day we were there. And even more bikers and hikers on the trails. All one-way roads through the park also have paved bike lanes.

We spotted several different species of birds as well as many deer. The deer seemed unafraid of the moving cars and wandered slowly across the road. Cars traveling through the park are moving at a slow rate of speed but it’s a good idea to be on the lookout for wildlife as you drive through the park. The beautiful blue colored bird is the Western Scrub-Jay.

It was late afternoon when we arrived at the park but there was still plenty of time to explore. We took the paved drive around the park and viewed the formations from our car first. There are several areas for parking or to pull over to view the formations from your car. After touring the park in our car we hiked one of the trails taking time to climb some of the smaller formations where we could get a better vantage point. The scenery here is dramatic. We visited in October and the air was cool and fresh. What a glorious day to be outdoors surrounded by nature in all her glory!

Garden of the Gods is located in Colorado Springs approximately 10 miles west of Pikes Peak and 130 miles south of Estes Park. Pikes Peak can be seen from Garden of the Gods and makes a splendid background for the park. There is something for everyone to enjoy here. Hiking, biking, rock climbing and horseback riding. Entrance to the park is free. There are 2 picnic areas in the park and charcoal Bar-B-Q grills are available for your use. There is also a Visitor & Nature Center at the entrance to the park. We were fascinated by these unusual formations and the beauty of the surrounding area. We enjoyed our visit and look forward to returning on our next trip to Colorado!

Garden of the Gods was quiet an experience. The pictures really don’t do it justice. In one of the photos above there is actually a guy hiking near one of the trees, those are full size pine trees btw. Maybe I should have zoomed up on the hiker, or somehow given a better angle.

You can find lodging deals for any season in the Colorado Springs area at Booking.com. And while in the area be sure to visit Pikes Peak, one of Colorado Springs most popular attractions. Pikes Peak, is one of Colorado’s fourteeners (mountains over 14,000′), and was the inspiration for Katharine Lee Bates to write “America the Beautiful” in 1893. A plaque with the inspiring words of the song was placed at the summit of Pikes Peak.

Have any of you been to Garden of the Gods before? Or know any interesting facts about Garden of the Gods? Let us know in the comments below!
We’d like to hear from you!