The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park Colorado

This week I had to do some work in Boulder, Colorado. In my typical fashion I flew into Denver on Tuesday without having booked a hotel (I'm a crazy Pisces, we do things like this). That afternoon I'm on my laptop trying to figure out where to stay. I had tentatively set up appointments with a couple of local "aspiring models" but as they often do, both flaked.

So without any particular place that I had to be outside of Boulder, I started broadening my search. I had been to Estes Park before, a small town up in the mountains (7500' approx) and only a one hour drive from Boulder. I started fishing around hotels in Estes Park, and thought "what the heck, I'll see what rooms at the Stanley Hotel are going for". To my delight, just $89! Heck, the Holiday Inn Boulder wanted $125!

Without a seconds hesitation, I booked my room.

The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park was the inspiration behind Stephen King's book The Shining. Many think that the movie was filmed there - it was not. But it did give him the idea to start the book, and in 1996 there was a TV mini series made after the book and movie, and it was in fact filmed at The Stanley Hotel.

I spent a good deal of time shooting around the hotel, here are some of my favorite photos.

The Stanley Hotel as viewed from the front:








Side view of The Stanley Hotel:



Rear view of The Stanley Hotel:



Parts of the hotel are said to be haunted. Here is a "ghost" checking in at the front desk:



The beautiful lobby at The Stanley Hotel:







The Stanley Hotel opened in 1909 (yep, 100 years old this year). It was so popular that they immediately built The Manor House - a smaller scale version of the original, built right next to it. I stayed in room 1208 at The Manor House.









The Stanley Hotel Estes Park Photos Photography Photographer