Estes Park
The Eastern Gateway Town To Rocky Mountain National Park, At 7,522 Feet. Home Of The Stanley Hotel, Where Stephen King Stayed In 1974 And Wrote The Shining, And Of An Elk Herd That Ruts On The Golf Course Every Autumn. · Estes Park, Colorado
Estes Park is what a national park gateway town looks like when it has had a century to settle into the job: a valley at 7,522 feet with the Front Range rising behind it, a main street of taffy shops and outfitters, and Trail Ridge Road climbing out of the far end into Rocky Mountain National Park. Above the town stands the Stanley Hotel, built in 1909 by F.O. Stanley, who made the Stanley Steamer motor car, came here dying of tuberculosis and recovered. In 1974 Stephen King and his wife checked in on the last night of the season, ate dinner in an empty dining room, stayed in room 217 and left with The Shining. The other thing everyone remembers is the elk, which walk down the middle of the town every autumn and bugle on the golf course while traffic waits. The one thing that catches visitors out is that the national park itself runs timed-entry reservations in peak season, and they are booked separately from anything in town and sell out.
Elkhorn Avenue, Estes Park, Colorado, 80517, United States
A year-round town, busiest from June to September and over the autumn elk rut. Trail Ridge Road into Rocky Mountain National Park is seasonal and typically open from late May to mid-October, closing with the first serious snow; the park itself is open all year and operates TIMED-ENTRY RESERVATIONS in peak season that are separate from anything in town. The Stanley Hotel runs tours daily. Most shops on Elkhorn Avenue keep daytime hours and some close midweek in the shoulder seasons.