There never was an Overlook Hotel, but fans of ‘The Shining’ still flock here

ESTES PARK, Colo. (CN) — Spoiler alert: The Overlook Hotel is a fictional place from a book about ghosts. But that hasn’t stopped tourists from haunting the Stanley Hotel, the inn that inspired Stephen King to write “The Shining” more than 50 years ago.

“For me, it’s the intrigue,” said Allison Rain, who was visiting with friends from Utah on a sunny day this October. “Am I going to see something? Am I going to feel something when I go in there?"

A grand Georgian Revival estate with sweeping vistas and 140 guest rooms, the Stanley Hotel was built by steam automobile magnate F.O. Stanley and opened in 1909. It originally served as a summer retreat for his wealthy friends.

Despite being more than a century old, the Stanley has never been the site of any documented tragedy or unexpected deaths.

Nevertheless, the hotel has earned a spooky reputation.

Some say the ghost stories date back to Stanley’s wife Flora Jane, who reportedly held seances here and invited spirits in. Others claim something about its location 7,500 feet above sea level attracts the energy of the dead.

The simplest explanation involves legendary horror author Stephen King. As rumor has it, King and his wife Tabitha needed a place to stay after escaping a blizzard on Trail Ridge Road in nearby Rocky Mountain National Park.

It was Sept. 30, 1974, right when the Stanley Hotel was closing for the season. Most of the seasonal staff had already left, but King talked a concierge into giving him and Tabitha a key to Room 217.

While Tabitha King slept peacefully, the horror writer swapped stories and drinks with a bartender who hadn’t yet left for the off-season. After suffering a booze-fueled nightmare, King reportedly plotted out his bestseller “The Shining” over a shaky breakfast cigarette.

For those familiar with the story, the parallels might jump out. A historic hotel in the mountains, snowed in and mostly empty. A writer going a bit crazy, and a bartender with ghoulish stories to tell.

King published “The Shining” a couple years later, in 1977.

In 1980, film director Stanley Kubrick adapted it into what would become one of the most iconic horror movies of all time.

Kubrick’s choice for filming location would be among the first of many creative differences with the famed author. When Kubrick scouted the Stanley Hotel, he reportedly found it too pretty and instead chose to use the Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood in Oregon for exterior scenes.

The room number was also changed for the film. Fearing future guests would avoid Room 217, the Timberline Lodge made Kubrick invent a room that didn’t exist. That’s why in the movie, the Overlook Hotel’s evil emanates from Room 237.

Still, true King aficionados know it’s supposed to be Room 217. Today, ironically, that number is the most requested room at both the Timberline and the Stanley.

King was dissatisfied with the way Kubrick portrayed his characters. While the book revolves around supernatural forces of evil, Kubrick’s adaptation is more grounded in realistic themes like madness, claustrophobia and domestic violence.

“Kubrick just couldn’t grasp the sheer inhuman evil of the Overlook Hotel,” King said in an interview at the time, “so he looked instead for evil in the characters.” He returned to the Stanley Hotel in the 1990s to make his own TV miniseries.

In recent years, the owners of the Stanley Hotel have not only embraced their horror-loving visitors but even begun catering to them. They’ve remodeled the property to better meet people’s horrifying expectations, from installing stonework that mimics the film’s dizzying carpet patterns to actually building a hedge maze out front.

In 2022, management even redesigned the old caretaker’s lodge to replicate scenes from the movie. In the lodge is a swanky Room 237, as well as a curtained bathtub painted in an institutional shade of green.

Although Kubrick ultimately decided not to shoot at the Stanley Hotel, another famous flick was filmed here.

That movie hasn’t drawn pop-culture pilgrims in the same way. Many tourists ask about “The Shining”; few if any ask to see the ski lift where Jeff Daniels froze his tongue in the 1994 comedy “Dumb and Dumber.” And a framed autograph from Daniels is tucked away in a women’s bathroom in the basement.

In spite of Daniels’ antics, the Stanley Hotel today remains best known for its spooky season vibes.

It isn’t just Stephen King anymore. Production company Blumhouse and streaming service Peacock offer “Overnightmare” immersive experiences based on horror movies like “The Purge.” Macabre musicians like Murder by Death and DeVotchKa book annual concerts, and resident magician Aiden Sinclair hosts seance shows.

The hotel is now partially state-owned through the public-private partnership SPACE, short for the “Stanley Partnership for Art Culture and Education.” It is home to an archive of thousands of photos of purported ghosts, as well as the actual body of Bredo Morstøl, a cryogenically frozen dead man who’s something of a local icon.

Following a recent tour at the hotel, Courthouse News encountered not one but five ghosts in front of the hedge maze.

Rain, who works as a professional photographer in Ogden, Utah, had asked her friends to wear sheets for a photo. The Gen Xers were exploring the Centennial State, with a stop at a techno show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and now brunch at the Stanley Hotel.

In a way, Rain did get her wish for a ghost sighting.

“I caught someone who caught someone,” she explained. “It’s on my phone.”

Digging out her phone, Rain shared a picture she’d taken of a photo on another visitor’s phone. It depicted two elderly, curly-haired women smiling into a mirror at the hotel. A mysterious fifth hand held one of their shoulders like an old friend.

Whether it was truly a wayward spirit or just a trick of the light, the photo gave both groups a new story to tell.

Of course, not everyone who visits the Stanley Hotel experiences paranormal phenomena.

In fact, it’s safe to say most people don’t.

Bee, a Colorado Springs resident who asked to just use her first name, was visiting for the second time with her teenage nephew. As a believer in spirits, Bee explained how a place could become haunted. “People are in charge of their own energy,” she said. If a person with bad vibes committed bad deeds in a place, “bad and negative [energy] lingers.”

As for the Stanley Hotel, though, Bee wasn’t getting a bad feeling. Asked whether she sensed any spirits, she shook her head. “I don’t feel anything here.”

But Bee didn’t need ghosts to enjoy exploring this old hotel on the hill. She was content to just kick back with her nephew. After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Which fans of “The Shining” know can have disastrous consequences.

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