This week, we check into the famously haunted Stanley Hotel—where the views are stunning, the ghosts are active, and the walls have definitely heard things. Built by Freelan Stanley, inventor, entrepreneur, and overachiever with a mustache to match, the hotel was originally a luxurious mountain escape for the well-to-do (and unwell-to-do—Stanley himself came to Estes Park for tuberculosis recovery). Unfortunately, like most great American landmarks, the hotel sits on land forcibly taken from Native American tribes, because history is nothing if not deeply haunted. As we wander the echoing halls, we explore how an actual explosion in 1911 nearly took out a maid (who now reportedly haunts Room 217 while folding towels with passive-aggressive energy), how the hotel inspired Stephen King’s The Shining, a novel that proves isolation and 70s carpet pat ...