Day 8

Day 8 had us saying goodbye to Wyoming and hello again to Colorado as we made our way back to Denver. On this day we'd visit the Rockies and Estes Park, which for movie nerds is a must-do location.

Estes Park looks like a ski resort with large buildings on the side of huge mountains overlooking a large lake. The scenery definitely made a change from the flat plains we'd see the day before. Estes Park is also home to the Stanley Hotel, which for Stephen King fans is of significant importance. It was at this hotel where the author found himself as the only guest at the end of the hotel's season and gave him the inspiration for The Shining. Kubrick's classic film wasn't filmed here and that upset Mr King enough for him to fall out with Kubrick and disassociate himself from the film. He did however use this as the location for the second Shining production, which I'll admit to having not seen as I'm such a big fan of Kubrick's. The hotel was also the location for the main resort in Dumb and Dumber which is also celebrated here. 

From Estes we then headed into the mountains and a couple of stops there, firstly at Sprague Lake, a small hiking trail around a lake. This was rather lovely and after a long time sitting on the coach it was nice to give the legs a proper stretch. 

In the original plan our final stop would have been at the Alpine Visitor Center atop the rockies however as we drove the route, and as the altitude got higher and the speed of the coach slower it became apparent we wouldn't be able to make the centre in good time so we got as far as we could ending up in the tundra high up in the mountain. This was incredible, like being on a different planet at times but the air was noticeably thinner so walking was slower and we were drinking lots of water. I recall seeing a young girl full of energy running ahead of her parents to the lookout and being asleep when they caught up with her such was the drain.

We said goodbye to our chain hotel in Wyoming and after a few hours we found ourselves at the grand looking Stanley Hotel. It's an impressive structure but isn't a hotel that we would be staying at unfortunately; we were just here to visit and fortunately there's a Shining Tour that we took part in to understand more about the history of the place and the guys who built it.

We got a quick welcome outside the main entrance before heading in for the tour proper.

They're very proud of both films associated with the hotel. I wonder how much these are worth.

I felt duty bound to ensure this would be returned to the UK haha!

The tour started with a little visit to the concert hall complete with Chihuly chandeliers, which I recognised before it was mentioned. I can't think why...

The original film featured a hedge maze which didn't exist at the hotel at the time of filming. They are growing one now and the statue is at the centre of it. I didn't get the face side because the hedges are relatively low and I just reached over one to photograph this. I wasn't interested in completing the maze to get to the other side :) However should you wish to it's easy to find the route if you do the research ;)

A glorious steam powered car in the lobby

Ooh, it's the spooky room 217 where Stephen King got spooked and where Jim Carrey got so scared having spent the night he'll apparently now walk out of any interview that brings it up ha! 

This was a great stop and as a film nerd it's a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. Whilst I know I'm not going to have kids, if I ever did and they happened to be twins I'd bring them here. I do follow a chap on twitter who's post suggesting the same thing went viral and when I asked the hotel staff if this was a good idea they actually said "yes". I guess all owners of girl twins have this on their bucket list.

Sprague Lake was beautiful and I had a good time, unlike this guy who was failing to catch any fish. His name may have been "Wade".

Whilst we drove up towards the centre we'd make a few stops at some of the more scenic spots along the road. The views were not surprisingly, completely stunning.

Chipmunks!

The terrain in the tundra is significantly different. At this altitude trees make way for more lichen-type plants. If it wasn't for the trees being visible in the background it could feel like being on another planet. I'm never going to get to Mars (would I get a name discount if I did?) so being up here was the next best thing.

Random wildlife shots. I'm no Dicky Attenborough admittedly.

This was a good day, I loved the significant change in terrain and the Stanley Hotel was great. In the evening we got to hit Estes Park where we all seemed to end up in different places for dinner. I ended up in a nice little bar with one of the women in our group where we were served by a chap from Serbia who told me off for not visiting the right bit of his country; apparently I should have gotten out of the capital. Something for next time perhaps.

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