Estes Park

About Estes Park

Estes Park is located in Larimer County, Colorado. The town sits at an elevation of 7,658 feet (2,334 meters) on the front range of the Rocky Mountains at the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park lies along the Big Thompson River and had a population of 5,904 at the 2020 census. Estes Park’s landmarks include The Stanley Hotel, built in 1909 and the building where writer Stephen King was a guest, and which inspired him to use the Stanley as the hotel for his novel The Shining , renaming it for his book, as “the Overlook Hotel”.

Other places around town include The Estes Park Aerial Tramway, that connects the town to the summit of Prospect Mountain for views over the valley, Open Air Adventure Park, an aerial adventure park, and the downtown has as Riverwalk to enjoy, among many other interesting things to check out.

The town has a total area of 4,414 acres (1,786 hectares) including 48 acres (0.194 km2) of water. Its north, south and east extremities border the Roosevelt National Forest. Lumpy Ridge lies immediately north of Estes Park. Estes Park has a semi-arid climate. Summers are typically warm, sometimes hot, with the highest temperature ever recorded here being 95°F (35°C), which occurred on July 27, 2006. Winters are usually cold, with lows dropping into the teens and sometimes the single digits, with the coldest temp ever recorded in Estes Park at -39°F (-39.4°C), in February of 1951. Average precip per year is 14 inches (36 centimeters) and the average snow in a season is 70 inches (187 centimeters).