Elkhorn Lodge & Guest Ranch — Hotel in Estes Park

Ok, so if you are into haunted hotels, you probably will not be disappointed if you stay here. If you don't like haunted hotels, you probably don't want to stay here. The furniture is all historic and dated, so be ready for that. Fair warning, this is a LONG story…||||My friend and I stayed at the Elkhorn Lodge (in the main building, not a cabin) and we went on a horseback ride the next morning. My friend slept on the bed and I slept on the floor. I heard footsteps throughout the night in the hallway, but it's a hotel with wood floors, so I didn't think anything of it. At one point, a strong floral scent wafted through the room, but again, it's a hotel, so I didn't think anything of it.||||We woke up at around 6:30 am (I technically didn't sleep all night because I kept having nightmares, but whatever, I had also watched a scary movie trailer the day before). My friend wants coffee and our room has a 3-prong plug coffee pot, but the room only has 2-prong wall outlets. We decided to go downstairs to the front desk to see if we could borrow a 2-to-3 prong wall adapter, and we took the coffee pot with us just in case we could only plug it in downstairs.||||About 5 seconds after we closed our room door, an awful feeling came over me, like we had just been locked out or the room. I just "knew" that our door had locked and we had left the key inside. My friend said that it would be crazy for us to be locked-out of our room because the door is a deadbolt that can only be locked from the inside. Sure enough, our door that only has a deadbolt lock had locked itself. My friend kept asking me how I "knew" that our door had been locked, and I couldn't explain it and I told her that I didn't lock the door. I just "knew" that it had happened.||||My friend and I went downstairs to try to find the manager and no one was at the front desk. We found a cordless phone and a number to call for emergencies. We called the number and a random guy who lives in Ohio answered. He had no idea where the Elkhorn Lodge is and he couldn't help us, obviously. I double-checked the phone number, called again, and random guy answered again. My friend double-checked the phone number with me, we called again, and random dude (sounding annoyed) answered again. We started to panic. Our cell phones, along with everything that we own, were locked in our room.||||We went to the stables and the nicest lady was there! My friend is in tears -- she hadn't had her coffee yet, we were carrying around useless coffee pot with us, and we had a horseback riding excursion planned that morning that we didn’t want to miss. We explained what happened, and the lady said that the doors often lock themselves because the place is haunted. No lie, that's what she said. She gave us water and coffee and we returned to the main lodge area.||||We meet two construction men, who unsuccessfully tried to open our door. We tried wiggling the door and everything that would could think of and it was locked solid. They helped us contact the manager. The manager asked us why we didn't call the emergency number and we told him that we did, but that the call was answered by some guy in Ohio. Folks, I'm not kidding...the manager called the phone number, the exact same number, and it rang to the manager’s phone! WHAT?!?||||Anyway, the manager had a master key and let us back into our room. I later tested the door to figure out of it's possible to activate the deadbolt automatically after leaving. Well, I figured out a way to do it (it took me 5-10 minutes of fiddling with the door and lock). I discovered that the door will lock behind you if you use one hand to turn the knob halfway and then use the other hand to turn the deadbolt halfway to “cock” the deadbolt (it takes both hands to do this). It's complicated and can only be done once when you leave, and then the door's deadbolt lock completely resets itself after being unlocked. Obviously, this is not something that we had done before we left or ever (I was carrying a coffee pot and my friend left the room in front of me as I was leaving and she didn’t touch the lock), so the door had truly locked us out on its own.||||One other thing that I should mention. My friend and I were discussing the incident yesterday and she had never told me this part before. She told me that when we were looking for the manager in the lobby, she looked over at a chair and she thought that she saw a little girl sitting in the chair. She thought, “Gee, that’s strange. It’s really early for a random little girl to be sitting in a chair by herself.” My friend looked back in my direction and looked back at the chair and the girl was gone.||||I feel like this place is crazy haunted. The moral of the story is that if you stay in the Elkhorn Lodge, take your key with you every time you leave the room. I would absolutely stay in the lodge again, but probably...

This place was awesome! Our group of seven set out from Denver this 2015 4th of July weekend with sleeping bags and tents in hand, ready to take on the weekend with whatever came our way. We had no idea how it would all pan out with the Elkhorn Lodge.

Here we are, 4th of July, no reservations, a million people from all over the globe gathered in Estes Park, no chance of finding an open hotel, let alone a cabin. We asked the people working at the city Visitors' Center if they knew of any lodges or cabins and the literally laughed in our faces.

Fear not, for the path somehow always opens up before us...even in the midst of it being a crowded holiday weekend, we managed to have to turn around at The Elkhorn Lodge and decided to go in on a whim and see if they had any open rooms. Well, to everyone's surprise, they did indeed have rooms available, apparently due to a small error on behalf of the city of Estes Park and the permitting that the lodge required. So, take that, Visitors' Center guy who laughed at us.

Our original option was to get two rooms side-by-side, but the lady working here (I didn't catch her name) was absolutely AMAZING and ended up bringing a mattress into one of the upper deck rooms with a balcony so ALL SEVEN of us could stay in the same room! The customer service was absolutely awesome, the food was great at Cheesy Lee's downstairs, and the room was awesome. Being able to have the deck was incredible to watch the fireworks and take shelter from the rain.

I would book this place in advance next time (and there will definitely be a "next time" when we are in town. Overall, very satisfied with the service, the room, and how amazing the weekend was that...

As a follow up to Nora Bailey's parents, I am her husband and had the pleasure of talking to their front desk manager this morning. She explained to me that my inlaws were hostile, and she offered whatever she could do. She then told me that they slammed the door so loud they almost broke the glass, so she called a glass company to come and check it, but when I asked her what the company's name was, she stammered. Obviously she didn't anticipate anyone questioning her honesty. From the second I talked to Mickey this morning I realized that this hotel is struggling, and probably has lost sight of hospitality. I have worked in travel and now manage multi provider dental practice, and would never dream of putting people at management positions who are so hostile. I'm not even concerned about the wasted money on what was supposed to be a memorable trip for them. I'm concerned that a hotel which is supposed to make their "guests" feel like guests, instead treated them as prisoners, and when someone called on their behalf, instead of showing concern attempted to attack the guest. Avoid this place, and don't put any of your family members...