Haunted Travels | The Stanley Hotel

There's a good chance you've visited, possibly even unknowingly, a haunted location at some time in your life. Maybe it was a castle, cemetery, house, restaurant, or even a historical location with a past. You might be surprised by the number of places that have their very own stories of hauntings.

My husband and I had our own haunted experience while visiting The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. It's the very hotel that inspired author Stephen King to write his famous novel The Shining, and it's said to be frequented by plenty of paranormal activity. We took part in a ghost and history tour of the hotel that made our necks tingle and hair stand on end.

Construction of the hotel wrapped up in 1909. Owner Freelan Oscar (F.O.) Stanley and his wife enjoyed entertaining friends at their fancy new hotel in Estes Park. It was often an escape for the rich and famous of their time. The hotel holds plenty of history that keeps your mind reeling and guessing which spirits might still be haunting the historic hotel.

Read some of the stories for yourself on The Stanley hotel's haunted hotel and history page.

Plan far ahead if you want to stay in the more haunted rooms in the hotel, because they book out months in advance. Stay in room 217, and you might even get extra special care from the hotel's chief housekeeper from the early 1900s. If the rumors are true, she might even unpack for you! Room 217 is also the room where Stephen King stayed and found inspiration for his novel.

* A little trivia: absolutely 0% of The Shining movie was filmed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, but ABC had a Shining mini-series that was filmed at the hotel *

"Heeere's Johnny!!"

We were able to see room 217 during the ghost tour, since no guests had rented it for the night. I'll admit it felt a little creepy in that room, like something (or maybe someone) was watching us. We weren't lucky enough to have experienced room 401 on the tour. Apparently that room is one of the other more haunted rooms in the hotel. An old wealthy European man, Lord Dunraven, is said to frequent room 401 during his haunts. He was said to have been an immoral, creepy old man. I can only imagine he's not one of the friendlier ghosts of the hotel. Or is he?

these people are not ghosts, I did blur these strangers' faces though

climbing stairs during the ghost tour

The Ghost Hunters have even investigated the Stanley Hotel. They concluded that the hotel is most likely haunted. Their investigation showed evidence of noises and paranormal activity. The basement tunnels have shown high amounts of activity too....

See for yourself....

What do you think about ghost stories?

Have you visited any haunted locations?

Happy Halloween!

website: Stanley Hotel

Stanley Hotel Twitter page

visit Estes Park, Colorado

On a lighter note, scenes from Dumb and Dumber were filmed at the hotel. You may recognize the front of the hotel from when they pull up in a Lamborghini, and they also shot Jim Carey's character waiting to meet a woman in the hotel bar.