LoneStarRiders Colorado June 2013: Day 12

Today we stayed in Estes Park, Colorado as we wanted to walk the town ...

and also see the Stanley Hotel.

The neoclassical hotel was the inspiration for the fictional Overlook Hotel in Stephen King's novel The Shining. While he and his wife were staying at the Stanley, King conceived the basic idea for the novel. The 1997 television miniseries version of The Shining was filmed at the Stanley, and it has been used as a location site for other films as well, most notably as the "Hotel Danbury" in Dumb and Dumber.

Many believe the Stanley Hotel is haunted, having reported a number of cases of ghostly activity, primarily in the ballroom. Kitchen staff have reported to have heard a party going on in the ballroom, only to find it empty. People in the lobby have allegedly heard someone playing the ballroom's piano; employees investigating the music purportedly found nobody sitting at the piano. Employees believe that particular ghost is of Freelan O. Stanley's wife, Flora, who used to be a piano player. In one guest room, people claim to have seen a man standing over the bed before running into the closet. This same apparition is allegedly responsible for stealing guests' jewelry, watches, and luggage. Others reported to have seen ghosts in their rooms in the middle of the night, simply standing in their room before disappearing.

There are a number of tours you can do of the hotel.

We prefered to do our own tour as we are not into paranormal phenomenon.

After the tour as we had walked for about 45 minutes from our hotel, we decided to have lunch at the Stanley hotel. We sat at the patio of the Cascades restaurant, listening to the waterfall. The temperature was perfect and the wind was blowing in such a way that it made this one of the most pleasant lunches we have had. Paula had a very tasty fish dish whereas I had a great hamburger.

After lunch we walked the grounds and took some more pics of this beautiful hotel and its gardens.

We then walked back to the hotel and did some shopping. The most relevant being a very tasty Taffy candy.

Taffy is made by stretching or pulling a sticky mass of boiled sugar, butter or vegetable oil, flavorings, and coloring until fluffy. When this process is complete, the taffy is rolled, cut into small pastel-coloured pieces and wrapped in wax paper to keep it soft. It usually has a fruity flavor, but other flavors are common as well, including molasses. We chose orange, lemon, chocolate, vanilla, molasses and Texas pecan. They were very delicious.

We also visited a very nice shop where the bear was the principal actor. Ver fitting as later in the day we would visit Bear Lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park.

We then came back to hotel and sat outside our room enjoying the stream and reading making time for the sun to go down bit more and for temperature to cool down.

At 5:30pm we left the hotel and made our way back to the Rocky Mountain National Park to visit Bear Lake.

But first we rode on the 34 to a special place where there are usual sightings of Big Horn Sheep. As we were getting near we saw quite a lot of activity in the parking lot and we knew we were in luck. Rode bike into the parking lot, switched it off and jumped off the bike with binoculars and cameras in hand. It turned out that there were 3 sheep going up the mountain. I was very excited as we have visited this location at least 3 tiems in the past years and never been lucky.

We continued to see a lot of game as we rode in the park towards Bear Lake.

The road to Bear Lake is actually closed for private vehicles between 9am and 4pm because it is in construction. As road surface is gravel for about 3 miles we were the only bike on the road. The mountains around are very beautiful and because this is off the beaten path there is a lot more game.

Bear Lake is very beautiful and at an altitude of 9,450 feet it is well worth the visit. There are a number of trails starting from the trailhead. We decided to walk around the lake and encountered many breath taking views. If you like mirrored photography you will enjoy the photographs we took at Bear Lake.

We wanted to stay much longer but the sun was setting fast and we still had to ride the gravel road back so we bade farewell to this beautiful location and started back to Estes Park.

On the way we met more friends of the four legged variety which seemed to be perfectly at ease next to humans and their machines.

We closed another beautiful day with dinner at Mama Rose's Restaurant. The combination of Italian food and sitting on the porch just next to the river did it for us. The meal was good and the highlight was the Spumoni. Spumone (from spuma or "foam"), plural spumoni, is a molded Italian ice cream made with layers of different colors and flavors, containing candied fruits and nuts. The three flavors were cherry, pistachio and chocolate in tradional red/pink, green, and brown color combination.

Mamma Mia, che giornata fantastica de recordare !