Stephen King's "The Shining" & "Dumb and Dumber" - this Stanley hotel tour is so cool!

If you are going to visit Colorado, you can't miss out on The Stanley hotel in Estes Park! Built by F.O. Stanley in 1909 as a guest house, these sweeping grounds have expanded over the years and become quite famous after Stephen King stayed here and got his inspiration for the book "The Shining". Filmed at the Stanley Hotel, the Shining and Dumb and Dumber, have made this hotel famous.

Our family's visit to Estate Park was a spontaneous moment to drive into the mountains and see its gorgeous rock mountains and scenes of beauty! We hadn't planned on touring the Stanley.

Once at the Stanley, though, we couldn't resist the opportunity to go on the hotel's 90 minute tour that had just enough spots and a short waiting time until the tour.

Our tour guide, Red Rob, who moonlights as a tour guide after his school teaching job, was fun and educational.

He definitely lived up to his name with a lively sense of humor which showed itself right away as our kids became what he called ghost bait! Gabi doesn't look too happy about being called bait :-)

This is the front of the main Stanley hotel lodge. It was modeled after Georgian architecture. Can you believe they built this as a guest house?

Wouldn't you like to have a view of the mountains like this if you were a guest of the Stanely's?

And the back of the hotel is just as amazing as the front!

Of course, what would be a guest home without its very own pet cemetery? Because guests would come 2-3 months at a time, they would often bring their animals with them. It's nice to see how they honored their pets.

At some point, we swung by the old ice house, which now houses a Steam Car. Red Rob said they purchased the car off eBay, which I thought was a joke at first. No one laughed, and then I realized that he was probably serious. As an eBay fan, I like to think it is a true story!

The building now called "The Lodge" does allow animals. This was built after the main house to accommodate men who started camping out in front of the guest house.

And to further accommodate the men, there was a huge billiards room, one of the places that guests could smoke and drink.

Of course, the ladies had their own entertainment. The music room served as their parlor, in addition to a music chamber in the afternoon. The piano is one of the last remaining pieces from the Stanley era.

In the MacGregor Room, we found the set-up for a private viewing of "The Shining". The hotel experience couldn't be complete without that show and tell.

And take a look at that lounging chair. They watch the movie in style. Say hi to Victoria!

As we did a drive-by of the reception desk, I couldn't help but snap a picture of those cool antique keys.

The trip at the Stanley hotel would not be complete without a look at the door to the room with the ghosts (there's actually several), but I thought a picture of one was enough.

They play up the ghost stories quite a bit. It adds to the element of fun within the house.

Next time we go, I will be sure to view more of their sculpture garden. We saw many sculptures as we walked the grounds, but we missed a few. This one is called "Gotcha."

All in all, I think this is a "not to miss" tour. We thoroughly enjoyed the variety and breadth of what we got to see.