Scotty's Stanley Hotel Ghostly Adventure

A year has gone by and it was time for another vacation and what better place to take one than at the Stanley Hotel.  After my last trip, I was overly excited to arrive at the hotel once again and have my entire stay be in the main building this time.  This trip I was on the first floor of the hotel and that might have some people shaking their heads as it is not one of the most haunted areas in the hotel, but it does house a couple of ghostly accounts here and there.

Now staying on the first floor and being so close to the patio, I did not expect to hear any voices I could not explain.  But one thing that I could not explain was my window flying open unexpectedly.  What caused this?  I do not know, it was locked when I got to the room and has the old 1920’s latching system that has worked fine for several years and playing with the latch, there is no way that it could have moved by itself.  The interesting thing about this is I was booking my ghost tour for the next night and right as I hit ‘book’ on the website, the window flew open.  It was strange and it might have been a coincidence, but the timing makes it seem kind of eerie, and it opened one more time during the night as well.

The second strange thing that happened in my room was that the main light turned on in the dark hours of the morning, then gave a little flicker, and burned out.  I did not have any of the lights on, or any of my electronics so this seemed a little bit strange as well.  With it being before 3am, I decided to wait to call the front desk and see if it was my mind playing tricks on me, but when I tried to turn the lights on the closer to dawn, it was apparent that they were burnt out, along with the two lamps in the room as well.  Talking to the maintenance man who brought the new stock of lights, he said that he had never heard of it happening in this room before.  Now, it could have been a power surge and admittedly, I did not check to see if the lamps were working in the room when I arrived so I do not know if it was all connected or not, but my window was open again, so it just felt kind of strange.  Just two more room accounts that will go into my personal log of Stanley stays. 

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Now, onto the ghost tour.  I love taking the ghost tours whenever going up to the hotel for one reason, you get to see which guides believe in ghosts and which ones don’t.  This tour, I had a guide that did not believe, not a full blown skeptic as he has heard things that he could not explain, but would not guarantee that we would be blown away on the tour as well.  First stop, we hit up the Concert Hall where it is believed that there a couple of spirits lurking around.  After a beautiful rendition of Halo 3’s score being played on the piano, it was decided that the main hall was quiet for the night and we headed down stairs. 

We did take the creepy way down to the basement and had no light to speak of so cell phones were pulled out to give us a little bit of light.  Snapping shots in all of the open doors along the way, I was in the back of the group and right after the guide started to speak, we heard a large crash from behind us.  It could not be explained and even the guide was a little freaked out as he turned on the lights to take a look for anything that fell.  We did continue the tour and stepped into Lucy’s room and turned off the lights.  It is said that Lucy would grab people’s hands when they are in her space, but nothing happened to our group as the lights were out and we could not see a thing. 

Moving out of the Concert House and starting our way back to the main building, we stopped and talked about The Lodge, but did not go inside.  The Lodge is a mini copy of The Stanley that was built for the bachelor visitors to the resort, as it was not viewed well to have single men staying in the hotel.  It is said that there are animal hauntings in this building, mainly a cat that will rub the bottom of your leg, or hide under things while your pet tries to catch it.  I am allergic to cats, so I did not want to get involved in this one, ghost dander might be worse than regular, but I hope to never find that out.

Moving back to the main building, we took a seat in the billiard room and talked about F.O. Stanley and where he had been seen.  Not as a normal ghost in this room, but a regular older bearded man that helps his guests out with their problems.  Since we had someone showing us around, it was apparent he was not going to show up tonight.  It is also said that there is a mustached man in a bowler hat and stripped shirt that will show up in pictures that you take in the mirrors in this room.  Tried it, but I was the only person with facial hair that showed up in the pics. 

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The tour ended in the tunnels under the hotel that had everyone in the group worried.  They were lit very well, so there was no fear of running into anything.  It was nice to see the walkways that the staff have to take under the hotel to not intrude on their guest’s enjoyment.  There was also an open vent that went up into the MacGregor room right above it and you could hear everything that was going on right above you. 

The tour was great and I invited the members from my group to try to come open my window that I complained about to start the tour.  Nobody could find a reason for it opening, so that will just have to go down as a big question mark about the visit.

My final night of the stay was probably my favorite by far. There was a massive thunderstorm that moved through the area, stranding several people out in the open for longer than they would have liked.  Talking to the staff while this was going on, they mentioned that when there is lightning around the area, Flora Stanley likes to play her piano.  This night I was awakened at 2am by a dog that was losing his mind, so I went and sat in the billiard room for a couple of minutes and just tried to un-rattle my nerves.  I think I heard a key or two get hit on the piano, but not being able to see who was in the next room, I am not sure if it was Flora, or just someone else that got woken up as well.

My trips to The Stanley Hotel are the best.  Even if there is not a haunting to report, I would still be up there to listen to the stories of its history and guests and yes, even the staff is very entertaining.  The drives up to the formally remote spot are epic and you can come to understand why this hotel would be closed down in the winter in the past.  Now it is open year around and it would take an act of god to keep people away from this location.  If you have not been to the hotel, I would have to ask why not.  There are several people that live in this state that don’t even know it exists and that makes me sad.

This might have to turn into a bi-yearly occasion as I love the place so much, but will have to wait and see what the schedule will allow.  Believe what you want, I am still not sold that a ghost was in my room messing with my window or lights, but you never know.  Hope you all enjoyed the write up, I enjoyed giving it to you.  There is people that will doubt every account of what I have brought to you and that is just fine, I would just tell them to go up and see what happens for themselves. 

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