16 Shocking Ghost Encounters at Colorado’s Stanley Hotel

The Stanley Hotel is arguably the most haunted location in Colorado (although it's not the only one). But are the supernatural stories behind this historic landmark purely fiction?

According to the hotel's website, the location itself has a fairly peaceful past.

Inventor Freelan Oscar Stanley and his wife Flora traveled to Estes Park in the early 1900s, hoping that the town's mountain air would cure his tuberculosis — it did, and the couple opened the hotel in 1909. Aside from a 1911 gas explosion, nothing strange happened during their time at the Stanley Hotel. The pair enjoyed their mountain getaway and lived well into old age.

Get our free mobile app

Rumors of the paranormal didn't surround the hotel until the release of Stephen King's The Shining, which the author wrote after spending the night there in 1974.

Since then, the hotel has embraced its haunted status, hosting night-time spirit tours and theatrical seances (some of which focus on the Stanleys' spirits). Hundreds of visitors have recounted ghostly experiences during their stays there — including Kim Kimberly, whose "woman in the window" photo went viral earlier this year.

So is the Stanley Hotel actually haunted by spirits of the past, or are wishful thinkers simply seeing what they want to see?

I, personally, never experienced anything out of the ordinary during my visit to the hotel in 2019. However, I'm not very in tune with my "sixth sense," so I decided to ask you about your own stays at the Estes Park locale.

Read on...perhaps this will turn you from a skeptic into a believer. Without further adieu, here are your 16 creepiest experiences at the Stanley Hotel: