Creepy Photo Snapped by Tourist at 'The Shining' Hotel

The Stanley hotel was the inspiration for the movie that scared a generation.

ByABC News
April 20, 2016, 5:01 PM

— -- As if a visit to a hotel that plays "The Shining" around the clock isn't creepy enough, now one visitor believes he inadvertently snapped a photo of a ghost.

Henry Yau told ABC News he was visiting Estes Park in Colorado for his birthday and made a stop at The Stanley, the hotel that inspired Stephen King's bestselling book, "The Shining."

Yau, who said he has always believed in ghosts and is "terrified" of them, said he didn't think much of his photo until the next morning.

"The night I snapped the photo, I became sick to my stomach. But I didn't make a connection until the next morning when I was looking through my photos," he said.

Yau said he believes the figure in the photo is a ghost. "I don't remember anyone being" on the staircase, he recalled.

PHOTO: Henry Yau captured this creepy photo on a visit to The Stanley Hotel, made famous by Steven King's The Shining.
Henry Yau captured this creepy photo on a visit to The Stanley Hotel, made famous by Steven King's The Shining.

The hotel is no stranger to paranormal activity. According to the hotel's website, "After a century of collecting spirits, the hotel has become renowned by specialists and experts in the field of paranormal investigation as one of the nation’s most active sites. Chief amongst the hotel’s eternal guests are F.O. and Flora Stanley [the hotel's original owners] who continue to go about the business of running their beloved establishment as though they were still alive; Flora’s antique Steinway can be heard playing in the dead of night and Mr. Stanley has been captured in photographs surveying the goings-on in the Billiards Room, once his favorite place."

A spokesperson for the hotel would not comment on the authenticity of Yau's photo.