The room where Stephen King had his nightmare is available this October
It requires a phone call. The waiting list is already long.
Issue No. 1
The first time I understood what it meant to really be somewhere, I was standing in a place that should have been ordinary and felt anything but. That feeling, the one where a location reaches through you and changes something, is the reason EZTravelZ exists. And it is exactly the feeling waiting for you at 7,800 feet in the Colorado Rockies.
Welcome to The EZTravelZ Letter. This is where the journey starts.
This Issue: The Stanley Hotel, Estes Park, Colorado
In late September of 1974, Stephen King checked into an enormous, nearly empty mountain hotel on the last night of its season. The dining room chairs were already stacked upside down. Pre-recorded orchestra music played into a room with no one in it. He and his wife were the only guests. They went upstairs to the only room that still had sheets on the bed.
Room 217.
That night King dreamed of his three-year-old son being chased through the hotel corridors by a fire hose that had come alive. He woke in a panic, lit a cigarette, stared out at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette burned down he had the bones of The Shining in his head.
The Stanley Hotel did not become legendary because of that novel. It was already legendary. The hauntings here predate King’s visit by decades. The housekeeper who survived a gas explosion in Room 217 in 1911 and reportedly never quite left. F.O. Stanley himself, still spotted in the hotel bar late at night by staff who cannot account for him. Children’s laughter on the fourth floor where no children are staying. A locked closet door on the Ghost Hunters television crew that swung open by itself at three in the morning.
The full story, the history, the ghosts, the two film adaptations, and exactly how to plan your stay, is live now on EZTravelZ.
Read: The Stanley Hotel — Where the Nightmare Became the Novel
Three Quick Finds
A tip. Room 217, now called the Stephen King Suite, cannot be booked online. You have to call the hotel directly at (970) 577-4000. October dates fill months in advance. If that is your target, the time to call is now, not when the leaves start turning.
A place. The town of Estes Park sits at the gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park and earns a full weekend on its own. Elk wander the streets at dawn and dusk in autumn with complete indifference to traffic. Build at least two nights into any Stanley itinerary. One to explore. One to listen.
A hidden gem. The Stanley added a hedge maze to the front grounds in 2015 as a nod to Kubrick’s film adaptation. Here is the detail worth knowing: King’s original novel featured topiary animals, not a maze. The hedge maze is technically a tribute to the version Stephen King publicly criticized. The hotel is entirely aware of this irony and seems to enjoy it.
This is what The EZTravelZ Letter does every other week. One deep dive into a destination worth the journey. Three finds you can use immediately. Six categories of passion-driven travel, and wherever yours lives, we will find our way there together.
If this issue found you through a recommendation, welcome. You can read everything we have published so far at eztravelz.com.
See you on the road.
Blakeo EZTravelZ