Is there a museum in Estes Park? That is a question I get alot actually because when you think of Estes Park you usually just think of hiking or maybe eating taffy on Elkhorn Avenue but you don’t always think about history. But the short answer is yes. Actually the answer is yes there are a few of them and they are mostly really cool and some of them are even free which is nice because everything else in town can get kinda expensive especially during the busy season.

It’s funny because me and my friends were talking about this the other day. We were sitting downtown watching all the tourists walk by and wondering how many of them actually know why this town is even here. Like do they know about the pioneers or the floods or the cattle ranchers? Probably not. They just see the mountains and the elk and that’s it. But if you actully take the time to go to these museums you get a totally different vibe from the town. It stops being just a tourist trap and starts feeling like a real place with deep roots.

So if you are looking for something to do inside maybe because it’s raining or snowing or you just need a break from walking up steep trails here is the rundown on the museums in Estes Park and what you can expect at each one.

The Estes Park Museum

This is the main one. If you only go to one place to learn about the area this should probably be it. It is located down on 4th Street which is a little bit off the main drag so you kinda have to know where your going but it’s not hard to find.

The best thing about the Estes Park Museum is that admission is free. Yeah you heard me right it is free. They take donations obviously and you should probably throw a few bucks in the jar if you can but you don’t have to buy a ticket. I love that because sometimes you just want to pop in for like thirty minutes and you dont want to pay twenty dollars to do it.

The museum itself is actually bigger than it looks from the outside. They have a lot of exhibits that cover the whole timeline of the valley. They start with the Native American tribes who were here first obviously the Ute and the Arapaho and they explain how they used the valley for hunting in the summers. Then it goes into the homesteaders and the people who built the first cabins.

One of the things they have there that is super cool is the Coburn Cabin. It’s this old cabin that they actually moved to the museum property so you can walk inside it and see how small people used to live. I’m barely six feet tall and I feel like a giant in there so I dont know how people did it back then especially with big families.

The 1982 Flood Exhibit

You have to see this part. If you talk to any local who has been here a long time they will eventually talk about the Lawn Lake Flood of 1982. It was a huge deal. Basically a dam broke way up in the mountains and sent a massive wall of water crashing down into town. It destroyed a ton of businesses and unfortunately people died. It reshaped the whole downtown area.

The museum has a really good exhibit on this with photos and stories from survivors. It’s kinda heavy but it’s important to understand because it explains why the river walks look the way they do now and why the town is laid out that way. It wasn’t just a little bit of water it was like a tsunami in the mountains. Seeing the pictures of the water rushing down Elkhorn Avenue is just crazy.

The Stanley Steamer

Another thing they have is a Stanley Steamer car. You know F.O. Stanley the guy who built the Stanley Hotel? Well he made his money inventing a steam powered car. They have one there and it looks like a carriage without horses. It is super shiny and weirdly complicated looking. It’s crazy to think people drove those things up the rough dirt roads to get here back in the 1900s. I complain when there is a pothole on Highway 36 so I can’t imagine driving a steam engine up here.

The Historic Fall River Hydroplant

Okay so this place is techincally part of the Estes Park Museum but it is in a different location. It is located out on Fish Hatchery Road which is on the way to the Fall River entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park.

This place is honestly one of the coolest hidden gems in town. A lot of people drive right past it and don’t even notice it. It was built in 1909 by F.O. Stanley (that guy again) to create electricity for his hotel. The Stanley Hotel was one of the first hotels in the west to have full electricity which was a huge flex back then.

The hydroplant was actually damaged really bad in that 1982 flood I mentioned earlier. The water came roaring down the canyon and smashed into the building. But they restored it and turned it into an interpretive center.

If you like engineering or just old machinery or that steampunk asthetic you will love this. You can go inside and see the massive turbines and the control panels with all the old analog dials and switches. It smells like old oil and metal which I think is a great smell. It just feels real.

They usually have guides there who can explain how the water pressure turned the generators and created power. It’s pretty simple science but seeing the massive scale of it is impressive. Plus it’s usually quieter than the main museum so it’s a nice place to escape the crowds.

Quick Note: The Hydroplant isn’t open all year round like the main museum. It is usually just open in the summer and maybe early fall so you should definitly check the website before you drive out there just to be sure.

MacGregor Ranch Museum

So this is totally different than the town museum. MacGregor Ranch is a living history museum. It is located at the north end of town right under the Lumpy Ridge rock formations. The setting is honestly breathtaking. You look up and there are these massive granite cliffs right in your face.

The ranch was established in 1873 by Alexander and Clara MacGregor. They were some of the first homesteaders to really make a go of it here. The craziest part is that three generations of the same family lived there and they never threw anything away. Like literally nothing.

When the last MacGregor passed away the ranch was turned into a trust to be preserved as a working cattle ranch and museum. So when you go there you are seeing the actual house they lived in with their actual stuff in it. It’s not like some museums where they go buy antiques at a store to make it look old. This is the real deal.

You can tour the main ranch house which is fascinating. You see the kitchen with the old wood stove and the parlor with the old books and musical instruments. It feels like they just walked out of the room five minutes ago.

Then you can walk around the grounds. They have a milk house and a smokehouse and a blacksmith shop. There is usually a big garden growing too. And because it is a working ranch there are cows. Black Angus cattle everywhere. If you have kids they usually love seeing the cows and the horses.

They also do these youth programs where kids can learn to be ranchers for a day but I think you have to sign up for those way in advance. For regular visitors just walking around the site is worth the few bucks for admission. It usually costs a little bit to get in I think maybe around $5 or something but it goes to feeding the cows so its worth it.

The Seven Keys Lodge (The Key Museum)

Okay this one is wierder and I love it. It used to be called the Baldpate Inn but now it’s called the Seven Keys Lodge. It is located a bit south of town near Lily Lake.

The history here is super interesting. There was a mystery novel written in the early 1900s called “Seven Keys to Baldpate.” The original owners of the inn loved the book and named the inn after it. Because of the name people started bringing keys to the inn as a joke or a tradition.

Over the years they collected thousands and thousands of keys. They have the world’s largest key collection. It is hanging all over the walls and the ceiling in this one room called the key room. They have keys from everywhere. They have a key to the Pentagon, a key to Mozart’s wine cellar (supposedly), keys to Frankenstein’s castle, and just keys from people’s houses all over the world.

It is technically a hotel and a restaurant but you can go in and look at the keys. It’s essentially a museum of keys. It is so strange but so fun to look at. You can spend an hour just reading the little tags on the keys to see where they came from.

Also the porch at Seven Keys Lodge has one of the best views in the entire area. You can see all the way down into the valley. So go for the keys but stay for a drink on the porch.

The Stanley Home Museum

Don’t get this confused with the Stanley Hotel. The hotel offers history tours which are great and I will mention those in a second but the Stanley Home Museum is different.

This is the actual house where F.O. Stanley and his wife Flora lived. It is a private residence that has been turned into a museum recently. It is located up on the hill kind of near the hotel but separate.

They do guided tours where you can walk through the house and see how the Stanleys lived. It is much more intimate than the hotel tours. You learn about F.O. Stanley’s health because he basically came to Estes Park to die. He had tuberculosis and the doctors told him he had months to live. He came here for the dry air and ended up living for like 30 more years and building the whole town.

The house is beautiful. It has that colonial revival style that looks like it belongs in New England not Colorado. If you are really into architecture or the personal lives of the people who built this town this is a great tour. You usually have to book this one in advance though because the groups are smaller.

The “Living” Museums

So those are the traditional museums but I always tell people that Estes Park has some “living” museums too. Places that aren’t technically museums but serve the same purpose.

The Stanley Hotel Tours

The hotel itself is basically a museum you can sleep in. You can pay to go on a history tour of the hotel. They walk you around the grounds and tell you about the architecture and the ghosts and Stephen King staying there. Even if you dont believe in ghosts the history part is fascinating. You see the music room and the billiards room and get a feel for what luxury travel was like in 1910.

Rocky Mountain National Park Visitor Centers

The visitor centers inside the park are basically natural history museums. The Beaver Meadows Visitor Center is the big one near the entrance. The building itself is famous because it was designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright school of architecture. It has that mid-century modern look.

Inside they have big relief maps of the park and exhibits about the animals and the geology. They explain how the glaciers carved out the valleys. It’s really educational. If you are going into the park anyway you should definately stop and look at the exhibits. It helps you understand what you are looking at when you are out on the trail.

There is also the Alpine Visitor Center way up at the top of Trail Ridge Road. It is the highest visitor center in the national park system. They have exhibits on the alpine tundra and how harsh the conditions are up there. It’s crazy to read about how the wind speed can reach like 150 mph in the winter while you are standing there eating a snack.

Why Should You Go to a Museum Here?

I know what your thinking. You are thinking “I came to Colorado to hike not to look at old dusty stuff.” And I get that. The mountains are the main attraction. But honestly knowing the history makes the hiking better.

When you know that Enos Mills (the father of Rocky Mountain National Park) hiked these peaks in a suit with no gear it makes you appreciate the trails more. When you know that homesteaders survived -30 degree winters in tiny cabins with no insulation it makes you respect the land more.

Plus the weather in Estes Park changes fast. In the summer it rains almost every afternoon for like an hour. In the winter it can get super windy. Having a plan to go to the Estes Park Museum or MacGregor Ranch gives you something to do when the weather turns bad so you arent just sitting in your hotel room watching TV.

Is it good for kids?

Yeah mostly. The Estes Park Museum is pretty kid friendly. They have scavenger hunts sometimes and things they can touch. MacGregor Ranch is great for kids because of the animals. The Hydroplant might be a little boring for really young kids unless they like big machines. The key collection at Seven Keys Lodge is fun for everyone because its just so visually overwhelming.

Final Thoughts

So yeah there is a museum in Estes Park. There is actually a bunch of them. Whether you want to see a steam car, a room full of keys, a pioneer cabin, or a massive hydroelectric turbine you can find it here.

My advice? Don’t just drive through town and buy a t-shirt. Take an hour and learn a little bit about the place. It’s a weird quirky tough little mountain town and the history is actually pretty wild. Plus like I said the main museum is free so you really have no excuse not to go.

Just make sure you check the hours before you goes. Things in this town run on “mountain time” sometimes and hours can change especially in the off season or if there is a big snow storm. But usually if the sun is up and its summer you can find something open.

If you have to pick just one I would say do the MacGregor Ranch if the weather is nice because you get the history and the views all in one. If the weather is bad go to the Estes Park Museum and learn about the flood. You wont regret it. It gives you a good story to tell when you get home besides just showing people pictures of elk.

Hope that helps answer your question. Enjoy your trip to Estes and stay warm!

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