The Stanley Hotel

Each month we want to make a tradition to do something new in our area.  I went online (as I don't really have any other network or knowing what is going on around here) and found out that apparently Colorado is REALLY into their ghost stories.  As a teenager I went to the Haunted Houses, Corn Mazes and things like that.  But here they truly believe in A LOT of different places being haunted.  It seems like every day this month on the radio we hear of another place on the radio or clips of recordings they have received from some paranormal activity.  It has been interesting.  

Anyway, we have been looking at this little town for a while because to be honest, it kind of reminded us of home.  It is called Estes Park, and it is just about the only little town right next to Rocky Mountain National Park.  It's only about an hour and a half away from where we live so we thought we would head up there.  We are actually planning on going there Thanksgiving weekend since we are not planning on having any company or anything come to visit.  But, the reason we went this month was because there is a hotel up there that is quite famous we learned.  It is called The Stanley Hotel - and it also happens to be one of the most haunted places in Colorado.  

Now before anyone thinks we are totally crazy - we are NOT paranormal activity seekers or anything like that.  We won't really go too much into what we believe in or not - but I don't really think spirits linger here to scare and torment people, or at least I like to believe that that is the way it is.  

Anyway, the main reason this placed appealed to us is because it is in a beautiful area and the history of the hotel is pretty cool actually.  So I went online and made reservations for one of their ghost and history tours a couple of weeks ago.  They have MANY different options for tours, anything from the little kiddos to die hard, middle of the night with your solar cameras and such.  We picked the kiddie tour.  The age limit was five and up on the first one we went on - so we were feeling pretty safe.  

We absolutely LOVED our tour guide.  And it was neat because we were able to go in rooms and things that we would never have been able to otherwise.  Just as a bit of history, in summary.  In 1903, F.O. Stanley (who was the co-inventor with his brother to the Stanley Steam automobile) came to Estes Park in the hopes that it would help with his tuberculosis.  Stanley's health improved tremendously, and in 1909 he opened the Stanley Hotel for his wife and their guests from back east that would come during the summer.  

This is the front of the hotel

I can't remember the proper title this room had, but it was pretty much the ladies room in the hotel.  I think I would have been just fine sitting here listening to this piano all day and looking out at this view down below!

This is the view from the "ladies room."  I loved the look of this room.

This was the dining room - beautiful!

 Other than its beauty, the Stanley Hotel is known for it's "haunted" nature.  Stephen King was inspired to write "The Shining" after he and his wife stayed in this hotel the night before it closed for winter.  We were the only people in our group that hadn't seen or read The Shining before but we were okay with that :) 

The Room #217 was the room that Stephen King and his wife stayed in when he was inspired to write the story.  We weren't able to go inside because the room is booked six months in advance.  I guess people ENJOY being scarred - personally, I enjoy my sleep :)

At the end of the tour was when they told more about the ghost stories of the hotel.  We went up to the fourth floor of the hotel which is where the maids and children used to stay - children met to met unseen and unheard it seemed.  Anyway, our tour guide says that they get calls almost nightly from people staying on the third floor asking them to tell the kids upstairs to stop running around - and of course there are no children running around...OOOOO.  

Anyway, the most haunted room in the hotel is actually Room #401.  This apparently was the maid's break room of sorts back in the day.  Now it is a regular room.  However, it is rumored that this Irish man (who ran the town's - well, I don't know the proper name for this either, but we will call it - place to make a friend with a woman).  I was lucky enough to be called to be the demo girl during the tour for this segment.  We were standing outside the door and he had me come to the front and stand there and he showed the rest of the group what most females experience when they go into the closet within this room.  Usually a hand going down their back or arm, up their thigh, twirling their hair - you get the picture.  It was rather creepy.  Then SURPRISE...apparently we were the lucky tour that was able to go in because it had just been cleaned and the guests that night hadn't checked in yet, so we were able to go in.  

Our tour guide then took us into the room.  By outward appearances I would never think that there was anything unique or odd about this room.  The tour guide asked if I wanted to go in the room - I flatly replied no.  There was NO WAY I was going in that room.  Three other woman volunteered, and although none of them came out screaming they all agreed it was pretty creepy.  Personally, I think you are going to feel what you want to feel.  So if someone tells you things are going to happen and it is going to be creepy...it's probably going to be creepy.  

Anyway, Mark and I both went away from this tour thinking it was really interesting to hear the history and see the hotel, and that it was just the right amount of "spookiness" for our Halloween season.  However, it actually ended up to be a better deal if we did two tours instead of just the one.  So we had signed up for the "Concert Hall" Tour.  The age limit for this one was ten and up, so we thought we would still be okay with this one.  

We had a different tour guide for this one and we weren't quite as fond of - Scary Mary as she called herself.  She took us over to another building, the Concert Hall.  We immediately took notice that Scary Mary's tour guide personality was far different than our first one.  Our first tour guide took a more realistic (we thought anyway) approach to the sometimes peculiar and "spooky" things that would happen.  Scary Mary was a die hard, go out pretty much every night and look for ghosts type of gal.  

She took us to the Concert Hall on the main floor and told us some stories there and then took us down to the basement...and then things got a little weird...too weird for our liking actually.  And Scary Mary proceeded to tell us this little tale.  Apparently the basement of the Concert Hall was left unfinished until 1995.  And in 1977 (I think) a young woman named Lucy, who apparently looks quite like me (Scary Mary told me - yea, VERY comforting) who was 23, five foot three, who lives in Estes Park with her parents had had a disagreement with her parents over a boyfriend she had been seeing and so she left home.  Lucy having no place to go broke into the Concert Hall and lived in the unfinished basement by the furnace to stay warm.  Since the basement was unfinished no one went down there to check in that frequently.  But in January a security guard found her and told her she would have to leave.  Apparently they found her frozen to death in the city park.  

But apparently Lucy still lives in the Concert Hall - and we were off to go visit her.  Ummm...I did NOT like where this was going.  Everyone else in the group seemed to be really thrilled at this idea.  I, on the other hand, honestly just wanted to leave.  So we went into this room where the furnace is, because that is where Lucy wants to be - nice and warm (words we heard over and over from Scary Mary).  Let me tell you, this whole experience on this tour was just bizarre.  I felt like I was the crazy person for not believing and clinging to every word that Scary Mary was saying.  

So, we went into this room and after talking to us for a minute, Scary Mary wanted us to shut off the light.  Mark and I were in the back corner - about as FAR away from the furnace door as we could possibly get.  There were occasional times when Lucy was out with us (yes, CREEPY) when Scary Mary said it was okay for people to take pictures or play recordings on their phones.  People kept saying they were seeing "orbs" and blue sparks.  It was a little too much for me.  I didn't see anything, and you know what, I am okay with that :)  This is all Mark and I got when he took a picture on his phone. 

I don't see any orbs or blue sparks...

Back to the right is where the furnace is, everyone else wanted front row seats for her appearance, we were fine with our back row

Towards the end, apparently Lucy was standing by us - goody - and Mary asked everyone to stretch out their arms and we could feel her come in between us.  This was the video Mark took on his phone.  Listening to the dialogue is fairly entertaining, just showing how much people were just soaking it all in...

 Mark was standing behind me and I pretty much made him have a death grip around me the whole time.  If you listen closely you can hear me say "I don't want to."  Mark was trying to get me to hold out my hands with the rest of the group - I don't think so!  Anyway, kind of funny what people were saying. 

We then ended the tour by going out into the main room in the basement where Scary Mary told us about her "spirit children" that follow her.  We got to play ring-a-round the rosy with them.  It was crazy and makes me laugh when I think back on it.  But anyway, I don't think I would ever promote going on that tour - but the first one was a lot of fun and the whole day was filled with things we will probably never do again (which I am okay with) but I guess it was interesting.  Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I can never stay in The Stanley Hotel now because of what I have heard, but oh well, hopefully it was worth it :)  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!