Voyage to the Stanley Hotel - Shae's Recap

This past weekend we went to the Stanley Hotel up in Estes Park. It just so happens that this was all Scotty’s idea, and that’s why I blame him most of all about the happenings of this weekend. Rule #1, don’t ever let the people you’re traveling with know that you’re really, secretly, terrified of ghost stuff. Maybe you didn’t know you were at first, but suddenly you got there and were totally not on board with this plan. Okay, that’s all a lie. It was a pretty amazing weekend.

Actually, I was really excited. The weekend was a great get away, and I’ve never been to the Stanley before. We all met up there and each got our rooms. Scotty was staying in room 401, haunted by Lord Dunraven. While one friend got to stay in room 407, I,  shared room 428. A room haunted by a cowboy with an affinity for kissing people on the forehead in the middle of the night. That alone was exciting…until we got there. Then it wasn’t so fun. Well, it was still fun, just a bit scary.

The first night there, Scotty went and did some ghost hunting. I might have gone to bed early with a little regret. It seems I missed a pretty interesting EVP session in Scotty’s room. But, we got to have our own fun the next night. While Friday was all about relaxing, we got a chance to see some of the hotels amenities. Like their bar/lounge area, which is always busy with people. It’s got a fun laid-back atmosphere that is just…nice! The food, oh wow, the food is utterly amazing.

The hotel itself offers several haunted ghost tours that take you around the entire hotel. They share each story about each room and the legends. While we didn’t take the tour, we saw many of them. Even opened our hotel room room and offered for them to come in and get a closer look at the haunted room. It was doing that we learned that our mysterious Cowboy has a name, Alan. With every room there is a tragic, sad, story to go along. Alan lost his home in a fire and was staying in that very room when he died of kidney failure. He watches over the room and its occupants. Reading on later that evening, I learned our room was also haunted by a child; one that likes to set the alarm to have it go off at 12:01pm.  Sadly, we weren’t in the room around that time to see if that was true or not.

Don’t worry, the fun didn’t stop, and the evening proved more ghostly. While Scotty had had some experiences the night before, things were about to get spooky as we hosted a podcast. Now, one of the tour guides mentioned an app, Ghost Radar that would allow us to speak with ghosts. Well, that’s up for debate. Three of us fired up our apps, and the night went on. The podcast proved inconclusive, but there may have been something there. It’s a fun listen. Granted, the boys took pleasure in scaring me as best as they could…

In the end, I didn’t get any huge ghost experiences, but that wont stop me from going back. In fact, I’d love to go again and soon! It’s a gorgeous hotel. Whether you believe in the haunting of the Stanley, or not, it’s a gorgeous historical building with a lot to learn. And really good food. Never got to try their desserts…guess I absolutely HAVE to go back.

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