Stanley Hotel Ghost Tour

A ghost hunt is a must do if you are staying at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. I was lucky enough to meet a rowdy group of people who came up in hopes of seeing some paranormal activity. I was in.

We started at the tunnels underneath the hotel. My first thought was ohhh noo! There must be some shady business that went down here…but really the tunnels were used so staff could get back and forth from the hotel and the manor house without freezing their toes and nose. The man who built and owned the hotel in 1909, F.O. Stanley, really seems like a great guy to work for.

After we were free to roam the hotel, more excited than kids ready to go trick-or-treating.

We had our eyes opened wide in the Manor house, explored the different floors but no luck on the paranormal side. Then we had our ears opened wide in the music room. The rumor is that if you shut the door, you can hear F.O.’s wife, Flora, playing the grand piano that still sits in the room today…and we thought we might hear it, sitting on the wooden floors in complete silence.

We waited patiently for F.O. Stanley in the billiards room, but he forgot to come! Some guests and visitors have said they have spotted F.O. here. A room that once only allowed men to play pool.

We strolled around the fourth floor. Numerous reports have come in that guests hear children playing , but see nothing. Our friendly guard told us that he was making his rounds on the floor one night when he saw a pack of smarties. He made a comment that he was going to take them and felt a shock in his wrist, while standing in the middle of the floor!

There is an attic on the fourth floor, my anxiousness kicked in and I crawled up the stairs. I saw a grape jolly rancher, but no ghosts! The next ghost hunter climbed up and said he saw something red…a red jolly rancher. I hollered back to look for the grape one, but he didn’t see it. As soon as he was on the ground I bolted back up, and would you look at that, a cherry jolly rancher! I will always wonder if someone was playing a trick on me.

And of course we stopped by room 217, where Stephen King wrote “The Shining.” Jim Carey stayed in this room during the filming of “Dumb and Dumber,” and left after three hours. No one knows what exactly happened behind the doors.

No ghost sightings that night…except maybe the swapped jolly rancher. Sitting in the McGregor Room of the haunted hotel, we laughed about our night, recounted how lucky we were to get a special tour and fortunate to have made some new friends. Ghost sightings or not…except maybe that swapped out jolly rancher. Adventure can be made at all hours of the night, and can be the best way to go.