Estes Park

Every time I go to Estes Park it reminds me of why I moved to Colorado. Even though I don't really ski, the mountains have always been a very special place to me. I grew up going to the mountains in upstate New York and my love for those long summer trips is what ultimately inspired me to apply to the University of Colorado.  When I'm in places like Estes, Vail, Aspen, Nederland I feel so calm and at peace that i literally have to talk myself out of quitting my job and just packing up all my belongings and moving into a cabin and buying a horse. I try my best to do one Estes Park trip every year which usually involves horseback riding but this trip was extra special because we were able to stay the night at the Stanley Hotel.
"The Shining" has been my favorite book and one of my favorite movies since I was 12 so staying at the hotel which was used in the movie (and the hotel where Steven King stayed to write a great part of the book) was a truly amazing experience for me. The hotel itself is wonderful. Old and charming but still bursting activity and extremely well preserved. Originally we were going to be staying in a room in the main hotel but we wound up getting upgraded to an amazing two bedroom townhouse with a private deck and hot tub that was located in the back part of the property. Initially we were a little annoyed that we wouldn't be staying in the main part of the hotel, but it wound up being much better to have a whole house to ourselves and a hot tub to relax it. Luckily, we still got the full reign of the hotel so after we had dinner and drinks at the Cascade, the hotels restaurant (where we drank red rum punch and heres johnny whiskey sours), we set out exploring. I have to say, the hotel is much creepier than I thought it would be. This thrilled me but I'm pretty sure the other girls I were with were really glad we wouldn't be staying in the main building. Walking down the halls and up the stairs I actually felt like I was in "The Shining".  While the downstairs part of the hotel had certain touristy elements about it the guest quarters were eerily absent of any luxuries. While the hotel does not have a room 237 like in the movie version of "The Shining" it does have a room 217 like in the book version as well as a room 417 where Steven King stayed when he was writing the novel. Naturally, we went and looked at each as well as room 428 which is allegedly haunted by cowboy ghosts of the old west. Before departing Belen and I had to recreate the famous "Come play with us" scene from the movie on the second floor, which you can see pictured above. Other highlights of our trip included an awesome horseback riding session with a crazy (and hot) wrangler named JT who had he cracking up laughing the whole time we were riding, an awesome breakfast at a local cafe where I ate latkes with homemade applesauce, and an early morning power walk along the lake on the outskirts of town. It was such a perfect weekend in such an amazing place with some of my favorite people in the world. I'm a very lucky girl!