Elegance in the Park

...again, in Estes Park, Colorado. Last time I showed you some exterior views of the super-elegant Stanley Hotel, where we stayed for a friend's wedding. Now I want to show you some of the wonderful interiors of this historic building.

Yes, it did serve as the inspiration for Stephen King's book The Shining (which is almost as scary as the movie) but we didn't find it spooky inside at all...just wonderfully elegant and maybe a few steps up from our usual cheap-motel lodgings. 

However, in the interests of full disclosure, we didn't have time to take their Ghost Tour, so perhaps we just weren't looking for supernatural phenomena in the right places  . And the resident psychic wasn't in to offer assistance.

They also offer history tours, which we were even sorrier to have missed.

It's obviously a place with lots of non-supernatural history. They do have displays and informational signs that let you in on some of this. For example, the Stanley Steamer (that's the Stanley the hotel is named for) in the lobby:

And there's this amusing, but also rather sad, note that's displayed outside the Music Room (where we had a delicious morning-after brunch with our friends—click on the image to enlarge if it's too small to read here):

But it was mostly just the sheer elegance of the place that charmed us the most. For instance, those fabulous staircases that are at the top of the post—the top one is the main stair, the second is one that just leads from the second to the fourth floor. Our room was on the third, so we took this one a lot.

Although, when we were lugging bags we were grateful for the old-timey (but fully functional) elevator. On the left is a picture of Henry inside its cozy confines. It didn't have an operator, but otherwise looked very much like the elevators I remember, mistily, from childhood—with double doors and lots of shiny brass.

The design highlight of the place, though, is the gorgeous bar...

I admit to being first drawn to it because of the incredibly creepy scenes in The Shining when Jack Nicholson visits with the hallucinated bartender. But upon entry we found it to be, more simply, just a fabulous space, with all kinds of interesting features...

gorgeous copper-topped tables

room divider with lovely liquor bottles diffusing the winter sunlight

All, in all, a great lodging experience that we wish could have been longer. But we were off to our place in Garfield the day after the wedding, where more adventures awaited us. I'll tell you about them next time.

the old room keys at the registration desk