Day 66: Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival Guest Invitation

One of the most popular attractions in the Estes Park area is the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival.  The festival is infused with colorful world class athletes, competing in jousting, caber-throwing, and more. It is quite a sensory experience with bagpipes and drumming, Highland and Irish dancing, as well as Folk music and Celtic rock. 

Photo credit www.scotfest.com

We have been honored over the years to have many Highland games families stay and dine with us. For some of our staff and guests it has been a unique new experience to actually witness men in kilts or the sound of bagpipes playing “Amazing Grace” before breakfast. 

Now, crazy as it seems, we don’t seem to have any sort of a key to bagpipes in our Key Collection. (Have one you’d like to donate? Please do!) 

We do have several keys with Scottish and Irish connections. Our collection includes the key to the Captain’s quarters of the four-masted “Star of Scotland” sailing ship built in 1887, which was operational until it was sunk by a German U-boat in 1942.  

As well, you can find the key to the Limerick Castle Stables in Ireland. And in 2013, we were most honored to receive the Adare Castle Key, from Adare Ireland, presented to us by the Countess of Dunraven after her visit to Estes Park.

The festival this year is September 7-10, 2017. The town packs out so make your Baldpate Inn B&B Lodging reservations now, and Dining Reservations after May 1^st. You’ll be able to enjoy the festivities in town and then retire to a mostly quiet retreat and excellent dining to refresh yourself.

The Baldpate Inn surrounded in fall splendor

Until then, Slàinte mhòr agus a h-uile beannachd duibh, which means, “Great health and every good blessing to you!” 

Written by Lois Smith and Liz Rodgers

Day 49: Hiking from The Baldpate Inn

Estes Park is a hiker’s haven, and The Baldpate Inn is a wonderful place to start many hikes! With a spectacular view of Longs Peak and Mount Meeker greeting you at the top of the driveway, it’s hard not to be inspired to head for the hills! 

Guests and staff alike have taken advantage of Baldpate’s proximity to Longs Peak, making that VERY early morning start much more bearable. The fact that the Baldpate staff will send you off with a bag of goodies makes the “alpine start” that much sweeter. The hike up 14,259 foot Longs Peak is indeed long, but absolutely worth it in the end.

Brad, Greg and Jim on Longs Peak summit

Happily, there are also many hikes that can begin right from The Baldpate Inn that do not require you to be an insanely-early-morning-person! 

If you want to head downhill first, you can consider the Homer Rouse Memorial Trail.

Lily Mountain, across from The Baldpate, stretches above Lily Lake, and offers the starting point several hikes with stunning views. Estes Cone is also nearby.

For those who don’t need to stand on the top of a mountain to feel like they’ve enjoyed their hike, Lily Lake’s wheelchair accessible loop trail is beautiful and often serene. (Well, serene until you startle a deer and it yells at you).

Lily Lake with Mount Meeker and Longs Peak above

Twin Sisters Mountain is right behind The Baldpate Inn. As reported to me by a tourist encountered on the trail, with a definitely-not-from-Colorado accent, “That there is some real live mountain climbing!”

And indeed, it is always advisable - for a hike of any length - to be prepared with the 10 essentials, and keep your eye on the weather. And even if you are just hiking from the Baldpate’s Key Room to the Dining Room, remember to stay hydrated due to the higher elevation.  Hydrating along with a piece of pie totally counts! After that hike, you’ve earned it.

Cheers and happy hiking!

Written by Liz Rodgers

A younger me perched on a rock outcropping of Lily Mountain

Day 48: Summer Enchanted Evenings

Our Summer Enchanted Evenings series was started as a collaborative effort with our local history researcher, John Meissner, of Estes Park Archives.  Our idea was to sort of follow the long past tradition of park rangers giving talks at various lodges around the area. 
 

We chose Wednesday nights at 7 PM for one hour because it seemed mostly available on town calendars, and began our free programs. We wanted to keep our options open, so went with the tag line, “Part history, part nature, part lecture, part show and tell.” We advertised in the area, even took our cinnamon rolls to the local radio station to bribe them for a mention. That worked so well, that to this day, we offer free snacks to our Summer Enchanted attendees.

John was our hero in providing imaginative talks, with topics as varied as kings who have visited Estes Park to quiz show games on local history. We began in our cozy Library, and attendance those first couple of years varied by topic and temperature, sometimes two and sometimes forty two!   We took the show outside for Hummingbirds and Visiting Yaks which proved to be crowd pleasers.

Over the years John recruited a fascinating variety of speakers, and spent hours helping them share their stories with wonderful presentations.  Within a few years it was necessary to move our Summer Enchanted Evenings events from the Library to the Key Room because of the size of the crowds.  Loyal guests returned each week from June to September to learn a vast spectrum of subjects and hear about places & adventures they themselves might never have known. Mountaineering, bears, book writers, postcards, and coins.

We even got in the act and our Key Museum curators now are included in the annual schedule, sharing stories about Baldpate and especially our Key & Photo Collections.

Which has been your favorite Summer Enchanted Evening program? We are in the process of setting our Summer Enchanted Evenings 2017 schedule  so let us know your ideas and stay tuned. 

Written by Lois Smith

Day 42: Baldpate Horses and Livery

Horses have always enthralled me! As a young girl, I spent hours dreaming of riding horses. Staring out the car widow, I’d imagine the scenery rushing by was flying under me and my trusty steed. 

Where I dreamed of being 24/7

I have always enjoyed visiting The Baldpate Inn, and I’m still invariably drawn to the old black and white photos of the Baldpate horses and livery.  Who were these lucky folks beaming from the saddles? What trails did they ride and what stories could they tell?

Not much written history exists regarding the Baldpate Livery, especially during the earliest years, but we know it was an important part of life at the Inn. Horses were still a main method of transportation at the inception of the Inn, gradually replaced by automobiles. Although Baldpate no longer has stables, trail riding remains a popular attraction today with many stables in the area for our guests.

In the days of the Baldpate Livery, guests and tourists enjoyed trail rides into Rocky Mountain National Park, and up towards Longs Peak.

 

One of the most well-known characters associated with the stables was Chuck Malone. He ran the Baldpate Livery and guided tours for 20 years; our best estimate is that he started in the late 1920s. Chuck and his dog, Buster, kept things lively and entertaining, and often a bit on the wild side. Legends circulate of his fortune-telling penchant, and on occasion, riding horseback into the main Dining Room of the hotel! Chuck’s name and a Baldpate brand remain carved into the Wrangler cabin’s mantle. 

Care to have your fortune told?

This $1.00 lesson seems like the best buck you could spend for an adventure! 

Do you have a tale - tall or otherwise - of The Baldpate Livery or horses? Please tell us about it in the comments below! 

 Written by Liz Rodgers

Day 26: Theater at Baldpate: Part Four, Sundeck to Key-thedral Theater

Nearly ten years after the addition of the stage on the Sundeck, Encore!Encore!, an incredible theater production group from Fort Collins, contacted me regarding their upcoming performances of an adaptation of Seven Keys at Baldpate asking if I would like to help sponsor. Of course I said YES!   (Over the years, many community theaters from around the country had done the same, and we were always pleased to help however best we could.) 

It was such a delightful performance at the Fort Collins Lincoln Center, both companies thought Baldpate’s stage had to be next!   We agreed!

Encore!Encore! 2009 Cast

So with one final update on Sundeck, now dubbed The Key-thedral Theater, the summer of 2009 brought a new level of expertise to our stage.

For the next several years, we enjoyed many performances by the Encore!Encore! family including radio play variations of Seven Keys to Baldpate and in 2011 another fun story, Arsenic & Old Lace.

As you can imagine, the sheer work and logistics of bringing a theater company to the mountains was incredible to say the least. 

The show will go on!

In 2012, with Encore!Encore! on sabbatical for a year, our own Estes Park Fine Arts Guild of the Rockies stepped in to meet the demands of our theater lovers.  Over the next couple of years, they delighted our guests with Southern Comforts & Love Letters in 2012, Marriage can be Murder 2013 (along with Encore!Encore! return with the radio play version of 7 Keys), Vintage Hitchcock 2014, and Coming Apart 2015, and back by demand, Seven Keys, story theater version in 2016. B3Creative joined our venue producing Barbara Boyer Buck’s original plays, Impossible Paradise in 2014 & Paradise Protected in 2015.

Outdoor theater brings it special challenges, be it rain or bears or who knows what! You still gotta say it is always an adventure!  

We are planning big events of course for this year!   So make plans now to come for our Birthday Celebrations special productions of Seven Keys to Baldpate, live on stage at the one and only Baldpate Key-thedral Theater!

Written by Lois Smith

Day 25: Theater at Baldpate: Part Three, Dance Hall to Sundeck to Key-thedral Theater

As mentioned yesterday, the Sundeck really was an evolution over a number of years.

Because of the wonderful old native stone fireplace, we first started there with the intent of just providing our guests a place to sit in the sun and enjoy nature. 

Sundeck 1989

With the ever more popular theater crowd, we determined we needed more space, so phase two became not just a place in the sun, but an “event” option for weddings and our own little outdoor theater. MacKenzie and his dog worked hard to make it all come together!

MacKenzie's dog, Leika, working hard! 1999

The Sundeck turned out beautifully and remains a lovely spot for guests to enjoy the outdoors, but it wasn't finished yet! 

Sundeck before stage was added in 2009

Our final phase came with the creation of our covered shell stage, now christened the “Baldpate Key-thedral Theater” by MacKenzie.

2009 stage renovation

Interesting to note, building on the original footings, our current Key-thedral Theater is only about half the size of the 1921 original casino structure!

Written by Lois Smith

Day 24: Theater at Baldpate: Part Two, Dining Room to Sundeck

It seems only natural, having a mystery novel as part of our legacy, that revisiting the stage play would almost be mandatory. Interest in having a production of “Seven Keys to Baldpate” has been in demand over the years.

Seven Keys to Baldpate Radio Play Production

Since the Dance Hall was pretty much in ruins, having collapsed under the weight of snow when we purchased the property, we had to improvise the first years and thanks to the creativity of some very talented locals, in honor of Baldpate’s 75^th anniversary, we started in 1992 with our radio play, performed in the dining room. Dick Anderson, Kerry Aiken & David Czapp along with director Melody Paige created magic with their microphones and sound effects (think crunching potato chips for footsteps in frozen snow.)  Sam Sandoe had created our radio hour script in which each character came to life and delighted listeners.

At the end of a two-year run, the production became too popular to fit in the dining rooms, and we decided next time to take it up a notch.

By now we had done several stabilizations and started restoration for the beloved Dance Hall, reclaiming the original fireplace and about one fourth of the original floor space in what we dubbed the Sundeck, a place guests could sit and enjoy the sun.

Time for the next step, so in the spring of 1999, MacKenzie (with his dog, Leika) tackled the job of repairing the Sundeck once again, enabling us to produce a live staged version of the play. 

Melody Page stepped in to direct our enthusiastic 1999 Staff in creating our production.  Our staff worked incredibly hard to not only do their “day” jobs, but also to memorize scripts, practice and perform for our guests that summer. 

Baldpate staff of 1999 in The Seven Keys to Baldpate

Can’t say it wasn’t a challenge, but it was a smash success! 

1999 Baldpate Staff Cast with Director Melody Page

Written by Lois Smith