Sunday, November 23, 2008

Ghost Hunters Live...

So yesterday was our much anticipated day at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. If you've never been to Estes Park I suggest you go. It's about 45min west of my hometown, Loveland, CO. Not only do you get a beautiful drive up the canon. But you also get a cute little town, kind of like Manitou Springs. So anyways, we had made reservations to go on a ghost tour at the Stanley Hotel. Which is where Stephen King got the idea for his story "The Shining" all the events in the book and movie were inspired by Stephen's events at the hotel. So our tour starts out in the lobby where our tour guide talks about the owner F.O. Stanley who built the hotel in 1909. Hard to belive my house in Colorado Springs was only like 7 years old. So he explains some of the history and what we might expecet to see on our tour. He first takes us into the ballroom. Which is where F.O. Stanley's wife Flora is said to play the piano and some nights, like the night Stephen King spent the night, there is said to be a party going on with dancing etc. But in reality no one is there..I dont think I caught anything in my pictures of the ballroom. And We did not really have any weird feelings in this room either. From here we went to the most famous room at the hotel. Room 217. Which is said to be haunted by Ms Williams, which was a caretaker at the hotel back in the day. She died in that room from a brain anurism and is said to haunt the room. If she likes you she will help you out, by unpacking your luggage and putting in the dresser, or making you a hot bath. If she doesn't like you, she will do things to make you leave. Like if you set your alarm, she will unplug it and move it across the room, she will turn the TV on in your room to channel 42 which is a nonstop showing of the movie "The Shining" and she will shake the bed etc. But the maids have said if you dont make the bed just right, and go to clean the bathroom, you will come back and all the covers will be on the floor. They say Jim Carey stayed in that room while filming Dumb and Dumber. And checked in at 5pm and checked out at 11pm. And still to this day wont talk about what happened in that room. This is also the room Stephen King stayed in. This is the bathroom where he saw the young woman, and went to kiss her and she turned into an old nasty woman. That was Ms Williams. This was all in the movie "The Shining". I took several pictures in this room and did not catch anything. But I had a really faint feeling in this room. My legs were weak like I wanted to fall over. From here we went back down the hallway to the stairway. Which went to the 3rd and 4th floors. The tour guide said this stairway is said to be a vortex for the spirts. People will stand in this stairwell and will get nose bleeds, cry, faint, etc. I felt really sick when I stood here for too long. Here is a picture looking up the staircase. We didn't catch anything looking up. My brother did see shadows on the ceiling of the 3rd level and there was no one walking there. And Matt was video taping and his camera was going in and out of focus alot. When we got to the 4th level I felt a lot better. I looked over and took a picture looking down the stairway back to the 2nd level we were on and caught this orb. You may need to click on the picture to make it bigger. So now we were on the 4th floor which is said to be haunted by Lord Earl Dunraven. He is the man that orginally owned the land and sold it so F.O. Stanley. Lord Earl Dunraven liked the 4th floor because that is where all the young nannies would hang out. The odd number rooms on the 4th floor were nannies and even were the children. They say that Lord Earl Dunraven can be a little flirt. And likes to run his fingers through womans hair, or touch them. If you stay in an odd number room on the 4th floor. He will knock things off tables in the room, just so you can pick them up. Then he will pinch your butt. If you're a woman of course. There was an episode of Ghost Hunters, where the filmed at the Stanley Hotel live on Halloween night. The guys stayed in room 409 which is the nannies break room. Which they have now made into a hotel room. There is a closet in this room, and on the show the door would keep opening up. And then a glass shaddered in the room. They had it on film. So anyways. We were walking down the hall to go see this room. Matt and I were at the end of pack and he was holding his video camera and I was looking into room while the tour guide spoke. Just then I felt a finger run right under my right butt cheek. I turned around and there was no one there. My first thought was Matt...why are you doing that? So I said to Matt "Did you just touch my butt?" He looked at me, and turned white. He said "NO!" I couldn't believe how real it felt. I could have sworn Matt did it. But his left hand was holding the video camera!! So my brother told the group "We just had an experiance!" and I told the group what had just happened. And the tour guide said "Great, you can be my volunteer!" So he put me in THAT CLOSET!! He said woman will go in there and have their belts undone or fingers in their hair or some kind of touch. First I get in there and it's pitch black, I opened the door right away. And the tour guide shut it again. I stood in complete darkness, knowing there was about 2-3ft of space behind me that could soon be occupied by Lord Earl Dunraven. I stood there and stood there, seemed like hours went by. I felt someone behind me, and what felt like very faint fingers on my hips. Could have been my imagination. But I had to get out of there. Then my mom went in there. She didn't feel anything. That was probably the most scared I have ever been in my life. This part of the hallway also had stairs which led to the bell tower. The kids would sneek up there while the nannies were on break and ring the bell. And sometimes the kids would fall off the roof. This is why so many spirits of children haunt the 4th floor. They say between 2-3am you can hear kids running up and down the hall playing. But on this part of the tour while Matt was video taping, you can hear the bell in the bell tower ringing. In real life we did not hear this bell. The tour guide didn't mention it, nothing. So we are still trying to get in touch with someone at the Stanley to find out if the bell in bell tower really rings. We then continued down the hall to where all the even numbered rooms were (the children). The tour guide sent the 4 kids in our group to sit on a couch down the hall. And told us to snap pictures like crazy. He said sometimes you can get more kids in the picture then there really are down there, creepy. So anyways, I started to take a few pics and my camera started flashing low battery. There is no way it could have been a low battery because I charged them that morning. And all the pics I took turned out really blurry and weird. You may need to click on it to see. One lady in the group got an orb in her picture while taking pics down the hall. But I didn't catch anything. After this part of the tour, we went back down to the lobby. My batteries were fine.. and then we went into the basement. Which has underground tunnels. He said a lady in a previous tour group took a pic down one of the tunnels and had a man with a chisel staring back at her. I caught this orb down the tunnel. The tour guide said many spirits are said to haunt the basement. Because the rock the hotel sits on. I can't remember all of it but something about limestone and granite. Something about the limestone absorbes emotion, and the granite absorbs feelings. The tour guide said alot of stuff happens in the basement. He has had his shoe laces tied together while giving the tour, and then he went to walk and tripped. So now he triple knots his shoes. We didn't really have any feelings or anything in the basement. But I probably wouldn't want to be down there alone. I also caught this orb on the other side that tunnel in the previous pic. So after this the tour sadly came to an end. Would I say the Stanley Hotel is haunted? Yes I would definantly say it was haunted. I am also wanting to go on that tour again and again now that I know what to look for. Matt also got the buisness card of the tour guide to set up a private tour. Yikes, I dont know. Matt now wants to stay at the Stanley Hotel for a night. I dont know I might end up staying the night in the car. But we will see what happens with that. All in all we ended the day with a stroll down the main drag in Estes Park and got cookies. What a fun day we had.


3 comments:

Becky Thompson said...

What an enchanting story! I'm so glad you took the tour-I was anxious to hear about it. Thank you for telling us about it. I really do think you two ought to go spend the night there so you can tell me about it and I won't have to stay there!

Ruthie said...

Hey cool!!! I wish I could've gone with you guys!! That sounds like alot of fun! Just reading the story gives me chills. Did matthew have a good time I bet he was in seventh heaven. Did he take all his ghost hunting tools? Well I glad you guys got to go. Come out here theres lots of really spooky stuff to tour out here. We have an old pirate's ship thats just sitting out there for people to tour and they say it's haunted. RRRRRRRrrrrrr oops I mean Boooooo.

Anonymous said...

Thats sounds like you had a very cool'encounter' Lisa. Gee...even as spirits, men can't seem to keep their hands to themselves! Wish I could have tagged along. Love your blog!