For my birthday in October I was given a ticket to attend a 5 hour ghost hunt at The Stanley Hotel! I was so excited and waited patiently for the night to come! When it was finally November 24th, my Mom and I packed our bags and drove up to Estes Park! We stayed in a lovely hotel called The Rocky Mountain Park Inn! The Stanley was too expensive, even for one night! But we loved our hotel! As soon as we checked in, we took a three hour nap, so that we could stay up for the entire ghost hunt, which ended at 1 am! After we rested, we went down to the Main Street and had some dinner at Tony's pizza, which has gluten free pizza crust! After we finished eating we made our way to the Stanley. We got lost at first...somehow, but finally found it! The lobby was all decorated with mini Christmas trees because of a fundraiser they were hosting. It looked so cute and festive! We went downstairs, got our tickets and waited for the tour to start! We were so excited and ready to go!
We started the tour in the concert hall, which is the most haunted of all places at the Stanley. Our guides were very cool! Our main guide was the winner of the first season of Ghost Hunters Academy! They had all the proper gadgets to conduct a good ghost hunt! We were all given K2 meters which measure electromagnetic fields. If you watch ghost hunters, you know what I'm talking about! We began as a full group up in the balcony of the concert hall where they explained some gadgets to us. We sat up there for about 15 minutes and heard a few interesting noises coming from below us! Then we came back downstairs and went into what they call "Lucy's Room" and then looked in "Paul's Room" which was just across the hall. We then split up into groups and our group stayed in the concert hall while the others went to the main part of the hotel. We then went into the girls bathroom, where they get the most activity. We had a couple experiences with the flashlight turning on and off, but that was about it. After that, we went back to Lucy's room and had another flashlight experience. This time it only flashed on once which is usually a sign that it is Mr or Mrs Stanley. After that, it was our turn to go to the main building of The Stanley Hotel!
Our group went up to the 4th floor in the main building, which is the most haunted floor of any hotel in America! Back in the early 1900's, guests who came to stay at the hotel would bring their children and hand them over to nannies. The children and the nannies would stay together on the 4th floor while the parents would sleep in rooms on the first few floors, which were larger. As we all sat down in room 407, which is one of the most haunted rooms in the hotel, my Mom and I claimed spots on the comfy bed. The guide told us all about the room and how they often hear children playing in the hallway and that the bathroom in the room was said to be a hot spot. He told us about a teenage boy who had gone into the bathroom on a previous tour, acting all macho and telling the ghosts to "bring it on." Well, the teen went into the bathroom of room 407 and as soon as he was in the door slammed shut on him. Needless to say, he wasn't so macho after that!
As we sat there in the room we all went around asking questions. Our guide turned on a recorder to hopefully catch some EVP's, which are basically recordings of a spirit's voice. After a few minutes of us asking the spirit's questions, I heard a banging noise, like something had hit the wall in the room. Well, a woman sitting on the floor had her K2 meter fly straight out of her hand and hit the wall with force! I didn't see it but I certainly heard it! Because I was sitting on the bed, I only saw the couple who were also sitting on the bed in front of me, and the people on my immediate left and right. Our guide saw what happened, as did about 5 other people in our group. The woman had just been sitting down with the meter laying in her hand that was resting on her knee, when it simultaneously lifted into midair, flew across the room, and hit the wall! She was creeped out and kept exclaiming, "I was just balancing it on my hand! I didn't drop it or anything! That wasn't me!" After we had calmed down a little, our guide played back the recording, which had caught everything that had just happened. After our guide said, "who threw that?" a high pitched voice clearly said "IT WAS ME!" Craziest thing about it? It sounded like a child's voice. Hence the 4th floor. And the kids. And the nannies! Pretty cool!
After we finished in room 407, we went back to the concert hall and had an hour to investigate by ourselves. My mom and I went into a few rooms and then just chatted with one of our guides. When it was 1 am and the hunt was over (sadly!) we headed back to our car. We couldn't stop chatting about how fun the hunt had been and that we wanted to come back another time!
Here's where it gets crazy...but it has nothing to do with ghosts. My mom and I were starving but NOTHING WAS OPEN. Not the Safeway, NOT EVEN THE MCDONALD'S. What kind of a Mickey D's isn't open at 1 am?! Seriously. Well, we drove around like mad women who had escaped from an asylum looking for a gas station! Every one was closed. Of course. By this time, being hungry and tired, we were psycho and shouting things like "I'm gonna be pissed!" and laughing hysterically. We finally just gave up and hoped to find a vending machine in our hotel. When we reach our hotel, we realize that the front door to the lobby was locked. "Seriously?!" We're thinking, and we start laughing the way people do when everything keeps going wrong! We get to our part of the hotel through a different door but see that the vending machines are by the main part of the hotel and try to find a way to maneuver through to get to the ATM in the lobby. Luckily, we were able to sneak through some doors and got to the ATM. Now we had to get to the vending machines. After a bit of weaving in and out of doors and around the pool, we found them! We decided that the safest snack for me was some trail mix (WAHOO, not) and pushed the button. "MAKE ANOTHER SELECTION" it beeped. We looked at each other in utter disbelief, "no way." We were able to only get donuts and chocolate from that vending machine. So we tried the other one....which was purely ice cream. "Ok, so were going to have ice cream, chocolate, donuts, and apple juice for a snack." We were cracking up and crazy! I believe it was about 4 am when we finally got to sleep! It was one crazy night.
The next morning (afternoon I should say) we packed up and went to Claire's Cafe to eat lunch. That place has the best food! They have gluten free bread there and make the greatest sandwiches! So if you're g-free and in Estes Park, go there! It's worth it!! After our yummy lunch, we stopped by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got some snacks for our drive home! When we reached Lyons we looked around a local antique store!
I had such a great time with my Mom! It was nice to get away for a night and have some fun! I love Ghost
Hunting!❤️
Here's some pics of our crazy, fun time in Estes!
