Estes Park

We were up and at 'em pretty early the next day.  Our plan was to hit up Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park, which are about 45 miles from where we were staying.  Estes Park is sort of like the Gatlinburg of RMNP, its the touristy part you go through to get to the National Park.  But my research had showed me there were a few cool things to see in Estes Park.

It took about 1.5 hours to drive the 45 miles to Estes park. Most of the drive was narrow, curvy mountain roads.

Everyone was a little hangry after the drive, so we had an early lunch at Subway.

After lunch (and a quick trip to the grocery store for more sinus medication because I'm allergic to Colorado), we visited the Stanley Hotel.  I was so excited to see this place.  The hotel was built by Freelan Stanley, who invented the steam-powered car.  He came to Colorado in 1903 to take the "Rocky Mountain Cure" for tuberculosis.  After his recovery, Stanley built a grand hotel, which opened in 1909 and boasted such cutting edge features as dual electricity (both gas and electric), running water, and a telephone in every room.  The hotel operated only in the summer months, and was never profitable.  Until...

In 1974 a young writer and his wife were living in Boulder.  They stayed too late one night in Estes Park and happened upon the Stanley Hotel as a place to stay.  It was towards the end of the season, and the writer and his wife were the only guests at the hotel.  They enjoyed a (very) quiet meal alone in the dining room.  They walked the long, empty corridors.  That night the writer, while sleeping in room 217, says he dreamed of his 3 year old son running up and down the empty hallways of the hotel being chased by a firehose.  Three years later, in 1977, The Shining became Stephen Kings' third novel to reach the top of the bestseller's list. 

While the movie adaptation of the novel was not filmed here, the success of the story has rubbed off on the hotel, and it is now a tourist destination as famous as the national park to which it is adjacent.

A view from the hedge maze. Can't you just hear the music??

Ok, so the hedge maze was only added in 2015. Its all about perspective!

The beard is looking good.

If I only shared good pictures, you guys wouldn't see anything!

The bar in the hotel looks a lot like the one from the movie. Except it was full of people. I definitely want to come back and stay at the hotel without the kids, so we can take the tour and eat here and all that.

If you aren't staying at the hotel, you have to pay $10 to look around, but that includes a souvenir coin. Totally worth it in my book.

I was trying to get them to stand like the twins in the movie. Didn't work.

One thing that surprised me about The Stanley Hotel was it's location.  It isn't in a remote corner of the world with nothing around it.  It is about a block away from the main thoroughfare and you can literally see town from the hotel porch.  If you were stuck here nowadays you could easily walk to get rescued.  No need for Scatman Crothers to come save you on a snowmobile.  

Next we were off to Rocky Mountain National Park.  To be honest, we just did a drive through and stopped at the Welcome Center to buy a pin for our board.  Originally I wanted to do a hike, but the kids were not having it.  

Teepee campground just outside RMNP. We would love to camp up here, but I'm not sure about driving the Four Winds up that curvy mountain road.

After the beautiful drive through RMNP, we stopped in Estes Park and took the Aerial Tramway to the top of a mountain.  This is a great alternative to hiking up a mountain, but I'm really afraid of these cable cars of death.  They try to comfort you by saying the tramway has been in operation since 1955, but that doesn't make me feel any better!  It's old, has this thing been inspected??

Cool old poster. I bought a t-shirt with this design.

The loading zone.

Local wildlife.

No words.

Towards the middle/top right of this picture you see some white buildings with red roofs. That's the Stanley Hotel. See? Not so lonely anymore.

The gift shop at the top of the tramway sells peanuts for you to feed the chipmunks. So, of course, the place is lousy with them.

After the tramway, we drove back to the Mol's house.  Well, I drove.  Rob and the kids slept.  John and Deb had a meeting to attend, so we took their suggestion and had Laporte Pizza for dinner.  It was a nice little local establishment.  After dinner we visited with John and Deb some more, and then turned in.  It was another busy day on our grand adventure!

Lots of beer on this trip.