Overnighter: In Colorado, Switchbacks and ‘The Shining’

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 21 Oktober 2012 | 17.35

Patrick Andrade for The New York Times

Scary Mary gives a tour at the Stanley Hotel, the inspiration for Stephen King's "The Shining."

"LUCY is active 24-7," Keith, our slim, slick-haired tour guide, explained to 10 of us wide-eyed guests sitting before him on folding chairs like ardent disciples at a Sunday service. Gathered as we were, a mere six miles east of Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colo., you'd think he meant "active" as in horseback riding, mountain biking, white-water rafting, alpine climbing or any of the other endorphin-inducing attractions that make this region a magnet for over 3.3 million tourists a year.

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Patrick Andrade for The New York Times

The Stanley Hotel, built in 1909, in Estes Park, Colo., 70 miles from Denver.

But instead of the great outdoors, we were sitting in a small fluorescent-lighted room in the basement of the Stanley Hotel. Yes, that Stanley Hotel: the one etched in every horror movie buff's mind, thanks to Stephen King's terrifying novel "The Shining," and Stanley Kubrick's equally terrifying 1980 movie of the same name.

The Lucy that Keith was speaking about was a ghost. Her activities were of the paranormal variety. And, as I learned over the course of my 48-hour visit, which was split between the hotel and the park, the peculiar and the sublime, there seem to be nearly as many sightseers drawn to ghost hunting as there are rock climbers.

When my boyfriend first sent me the link to the Stanley, the location of the wedding of a friend of his and where we'd be staying for two nights, I was wary. I may believe in ghosts but I don't relish the idea of "experiencing" them. But the more I read about the hotel's haunted history, the more fascinated — and giddy — I became. We were in for a whole different kind of Wild West adventure.

The Stanley Hotel is a gleaming white Georgian-style building that looms over Route 34 on the way into downtown Estes Park, a small town about 70 miles northwest of Denver. F. O. Stanley, who with his brother F. E. Stanley invented the Stanley Steamer automobile, built the 24,000-square-foot structure so his wife, Flora, could host her steady stream of visiting socialite friends. It proved so popular, and the area was so pretty, the couple opened it as a hotel on July 4, 1909.

For decades, the Stanley stood as an elegant hostelry, welcoming everyone from politicians like Theodore Roosevelt to musicians like John Philip Sousa. But at some point, things got weird.

Inexplicable events started happening. Lights turned on and off. Suitcases mysteriously unpacked themselves. Children, when none were present, could be heard playing in the hallways. The most celebrated event occurred in 1974 when the now best-selling, then tender-footed, novelist Stephen King spent a night.

As the story goes, Mr. King was the hotel's only guest (there was no heat at the Stanley until 1982, making it a seasonal — and unprofitable — business for its first seven decades), booked in Room 217. He had a nightmare in which his 3-year-old son was being chased through the hotel's corridors, and woke up with a jerk.

Within the time it took him to smoke a cigarette and calm his nerves, while staring at the outline of the Rockies in the middle of the night, he had found his inspiration for "The Shining," which would be published in 1977.

In the years since, Room 217 has become legendary. It's the most requested room in the hotel, and celebrities from Johnny Depp to the Emperor of Japan have stayed there, according to the hotel.

Other rooms have gained notoriety as well. In one, guests have awakened to find themselves mysteriously swaddled in their bedsheets. In another, they feel someone tickling their feet in the dead of night.

Every area of the hotel allegedly experiences paranormal activity. When we discovered an empty water bottle on our floor after returning from a walk, we immediately blamed it on the ghosts — until conceding it was more likely a breeze from the open window that had knocked it from the table.

Despite the frights — or, more likely as I would see by weekend's end, because of them — the Stanley is booming. The Lodge, a 40-room annex that offers a quieter, quainter option to the main hotel's constant hum and bustle, was recently remodeled in a contemporary Western style. The hotel's restaurant, Cascades, is one of Estes Park's few fine-dining options, offering locally sourced lamb and rib-eye. And several grand banquet rooms in the original building attract a brisk wedding business — of which we were evidence.


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