Elkhorn Lodge and Guest Ranch
The Elkhorn traces to an 1874 cabin that the James family built into a hunting-and-fishing lodge, making it one of the oldest continuously operating guest ranches in the Rocky Mountain region; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Generations of guests passed through its main lodge, cabins, schoolhouse, and 19th-century chapel, and for decades it has been called one of Estes Park's most haunted sites.
Guests and paranormal investigators report cold spots, phantom footsteps, and the apparition of a little girl who appears and then vanishes, much of it traced to the working-ranch era of the 1870s. A recurring spirit is named Eleanor, said to be the wife of one of the James sons.
Long stretches of vacancy and the aging buildings only deepened its eerie reputation.
📍 600 W Elkhorn Ave, Estes Park, CO 80517, Estes Park, CO · Get directions