The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, is no stranger to ghosts. Long before it was made famous by horror novelist Stephen King, the hotel had a reputation for being haunted. F.O. Stanley, the man who built the hotel, is said to still appear at the front desk, long after his death in 1940, to check in arriving guests. Another famous ghost is that of Mr. Stanley’s wife, Flora Stanley, who was an accomplished pianist. Staff have reported hearing her playing the grand piano in the music room, only to find the room empty upon arrival.
Along with the many spookier tales of spirits, we also see a fair number of alleged ghosts caught on camera. In 2016, a tourist named Henry Yau took a panoramic photograph of the first-floor interior of the hotel and captured the image of two apparitions on the main staircase. These apparitions turned out to be an artifact of his camera’s rolling shutter, and Yau simply did not notice a woman turning the corner as she came down the stairs.
Another image, taken the following year by John Mausling, reportedly captured two ghosts while they stood on a landing overlooking the main staircase. Both “ghosts” are blurry figures that appear to be in motion. This image was the result of a long exposure, where the camera takes a relatively long time to record the scene. Any objects in motion—including people (in this case)—will become blurry and often transparent, appearing as ghostly figures.
In May 2021, yet another ghostly image captured media attention. Taken by Kim Kimberly of Texas, the image allegedly shows what she claims is “a woman or a girl” looking out a third-floor window. Normally, this would not be a newsworthy story, but Kimberly (echoing many other “ghost photographers”) claims “there was no one in the windows when I took those photos.” For the record, Kimberly is not quoted saying she necessarily photographed a ghost; rather, she refers to the photo as “unexplained.” Because the photo was taken during a ghost tour, the local media jumped on the coincidence and ran with it. So, let’s take a closer look and see if we can find an explanation.
Kimberly supplies two photographs, taken about a minute apart from one another. The first image was taken at 9:03 p.m. and provides a view of the left front of the hotel, from a spot near the front steps. Two people, who are underexposed, can be seen walking toward the steps. Overall, the image is dark and shows no indication a flash was used. The image itself is slightly blurred due to camera shake, which is when a camera is handheld (unsteady) during a long exposure image. The scene is focused on the left wing of the hotel, and we can see three American flags mounted above the front porch pillars as well as two short trees with lights. Several windows are visible, but nothing special stands out.
The second photo, taken at 9:04, is where the mysterious female figure appears. The scene is similar but taken from a position several feet to the right of where the first photo was taken, a few steps closer to the left wing. We can see the viewing angle has changed significantly. We now see five of the mounted flags rather than the three in the previous image, as well as an additional tree (without lights) on the front steps.
If you look just under one of the flags—the third from the left—you will notice a rather strange image. At first glance, it could appear to be a young lady standing at the window, wearing a white dress with long, dark hair on either side of her face. The window and figure are still a good distance from the camera, and, combined with the low lighting, the details and colors are somewhat distorted. This makes it difficult to tell what we are seeing.
As with similar photographs taken at a famously haunted location, strange and odd shapes are often quickly attributed to the supernatural. Fuzzy and/or distorted shapes and contrasting colors can create optical illusions that look like people, faces, and animals. Pareidolia, the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern, is a common cause of many ghost photographs. And I think this “woman in the window” is no exception.
If we take an even closer look at this mysterious figure, we can see (in the close-up image) that the alleged hair and face are severely distorted, unnaturally stretching the forehead up and to the left. In addition, this distorted section of its head is blocking a portion of the window frame. That would mean the figure would have to be hanging outside the window. However, this is not possible, because the window is closed (we can see reflections on the glass). This is a clue that whatever is creating the illusion of the head is coming from outside the window.
The flag that is partially blocking our view of the entire window (Flag #3) brings up two more issues. The first problem concerns the two rope lines (used to raise and lower the flag) running along the flagpole. The left-side line simply disappears at the figure’s head. The line is cut off at what appears to be the outside edge of the figure’s hair. Even when the image is brightened, there is no hint of a line. Between the window frame and the rope being blocked, I began to suspect the “head” of the figure was part of the flag. That’s when I noticed the second issue.
The second issue is that Flag #3 is wrapped around its flagpole. It reminded me of when my own flag does the same thing, and the odd ways it gets tangled up. As I enhanced the image in different ways, trying to figure out what the head is, I noticed a hard, dark (almost black) line along the right side of the figure’s head. This dark outline matches a similar outline along the edges of the other flags, including my own, which is the bottom seam.
I took another look at the first photo (with no figure) for comparison, and I noticed the same flag (#3) had an extra part peeking out behind the flagpole, which was white and in the shape of a triangle. This extra section is missing from the second photo, which instead has the “head” part that is missing from the first photo. In addition, we can see another small section of flag peeking out of another flag, which is also wrapped around its flagpole (see image).
All this leads me to think that the flag has either folded up within itself in some way or it possibly has a torn portion that was caught hanging down below the flag’s lower seam. I don’t think we’re seeing the head (face and hair) of “a woman or a girl,” as Kimberly claims. I think we’re looking at part of the flag itself. Several factors came into play, creating an optical illusion at a location already known for being haunted.
This conclusion would fit with Kimberly’s statement that “no one was in the windows” when she took the photos, because there would not have been anyone looking out the window. The small section on flag would have likely gone unnoticed, especially to someone taking pictures on their phone, where the window would take up only a small area. In many cases, tourists are so focused on the subject of their photographs that they often don’t notice the background. In Kimberly’s photos, the focus seems to be more on the two windows to the left, which are centered in one of the images. As mentioned earlier, the photo with the alleged figure is partially obscured by the flag, which one would try to avoid if that was the subject you were focused on.
When approached for comment by CBS4 Denver, the marketing manager for the Stanley Hotel, Kristina Rusch, stated, “We respectfully decline to comment on the photos.” This is not surprising; ghosts are good for business at locations such as the Stanley Hotel. There are hundreds of groups that will book multiple rooms just for the chance to see one of these ghosts … or produce the next photo or video that goes viral.
Although this image was interesting, the little details discovered during this investigation point to a simple misinterpretation caused by an optical illusion. It’s easy to see a ghost when you’re looking for one, but the illusion quickly dissolves once you take a closer look.