ESTES PARK, Colo. (CN) — Spoiler alert: The Overlook Hotel is a fictional place from a book about ghosts. But that hasn’t stopped tourists from haunting the Stanley Hotel, the inn that inspired Stephen King to write “The Shining” more than 50 years ago.
“For me, it’s the intrigue,” said Allison Rain, who was visiting with friends from Utah on a sunny day this October. “Am I going to see something? Am I going to feel something when I go in there?”
A grand Georgian Revival estate with sweeping vistas and 140 guest rooms, the Stanley Hotel was built by steam automobile magnate F.O. Stanley and opened in 1909. It originally served as a summer retreat for his wealthy friends…