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The Night the Stanley Became the Overlook
Buck TimberA quiet 1974 stay at Estes Park’s Stanley Hotel helped inspire The Shining. Buck and Moe follow Stephen King’s account, with a scare of their own.
Read moreThe Man Behind Lawson Skatepark
Buck TimberMeet the name behind Lawson Skatepark, follow its community rebuilding story, and plan for Estes Park’s Fall Skate Fest on October 17, 2026.
Read moreBe Glad You’re Carving a Pumpkin
Buck TimberBefore Estes Park’s Pumpkins & Pilsners, Buck and Moe discover the spooky turnip lanterns that came before Halloween pumpkins.
Read moreEstes Park Elk Fest 2026: Bugling and the Fall Rut
Buck TimberElk Fest returns to Estes Park October 3 and 4. Buck and Moe consider the bugling contest, what bull elk are saying, and when people ought to keep quiet.
Read moreThe Town That Ran Out of Elk
Buck TimberMarket hunters killed off every elk in the Estes Valley by 1878. In 1913 the town sent to Yellowstone for more, and two federal reports disagree on how many.
Read moreA Chamber of Commerce Guy Started This With Four Families and a Picnic
Buck TimberThe Chamber of Commerce president who started the Longs Peak Scottish Irish Highland Festival in Estes Park in 1976, and its 50th anniversary weekend.
Read moreIt's Not the Fine Arts Guild's Fault
Buck TimberBuck Timber explains why the Estes Park Labor Day Arts & Crafts Show catches rain so often, corrects a decades-old mix-up with the Fine Arts Guild, and breaks down Colorado's monsoon pattern.
Read moreFred Payne Clatworthy: The Man Who Could Not Photograph What He Saw
Buck TimberIn 1898 he wrote that Colorado was the most brilliant colored carpet he had ever seen. He spent the next sixteen years figuring out how to photograph it.
Read moreThe Dome That Runs on Garage Door Openers
Buck TimberHow a quirky, low-tech fix keeps one iconic dome opening—and engineers amazed.
Read moreOne Man's Obsession: How He Nearly Bought Every Peak on the Horizon
Buck TimberOne visionary's relentless quest to claim nature's peaks — and why he fell just short.
Read moreThe Night Terry Belair-Hassig Didn't Stay in the Car
Buck TimberThe story of Terry Belair-Hassig, who survived a night on a canyon ledge during the 1976 Big Thompson flood, and what that night changed about how flash floods are warned for today.
Read moreLow Water, Long Memory | The Mountain Thread
Buck TimberA look at why the Big Thompson River is running low this summer, what happened on the night of the 1976 flood, and what the 50th anniversary means for Estes Park.
Read moreThe First Rodeo Really Was on the Fourth of July
Buck TimberHow a bronco busting contest in a baseball field in 1908 became the Rooftop Rodeo, why the sky goes dark this year, and what 118 years of the Fourth in Estes Park actually looks like
Read moreThe Annual Migration of Flip-Flops
Buck TimberHow a hundred and fifty years of people falling for this valley turned into a modern June morning of rental SUVs, upside-down maps, and one man in flip-flops who never should have made it past the parking lot
Read moreThe Thread That Runs Through Here
Buck TimberHow sheep, a century of loneliness, a meal millions of soldiers never forgave, and a subsidy for goat hair connect the Colorado high country to a building full of alpacas on Rooftop Way this weekend
Read moreThirty Years of Thursdays
Buck TimberFive thousand years of farmers, buyers, a pile of produce on a government lawn, and one parking lot in Estes Park that opens every Thursday at 8 a.m. This is the story of how the oldest form of commerce in human history nearly disappeared, how a pile of peaches on a government lawn brought it back, and why thirty years of Thursdays in the same parking lot is not a trend. It is a tradition.
Read moreThe Road Before the Road
Buck TimberHow convict labor, horses, and cars in reverse built the first road into the high country — and why everything that went wrong with it gave us Trail Ridge Road
Read moreSempre Avanti
Buck TimberHow the men who trained in the Colorado Rockies climbed an unclimbable cliff, won a war, and came home to build everything you see when you look at a Colorado mountain
Read moreThe Red Car Is Running Again
Buck TimberA WWII tramway engineer, a free‑span cable above town, and what to do in Estes Park this weekend
Read moreThe Women Who Built This Place | The Mountain Thread
Buck TimberA Mother's Day tribute to the remarkable women of Estes Park history: Isabella Bird, Alberta Sprague, the Burnell sisters, Flora Stanley, and the women who saved the MacGregor Ranch.
Read moreThe Snow That Saved the Summer | The Mountain Thread
Buck TimberWhat two feet of heavy May snow means for Estes Park water, wildflowers, fire season, Trail Ridge Road, and the elk in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Read moreThe River Runs Yellow | The Mountain Thread
Buck TimberHow four men having coffee in 1989 accidentally built one of the most beloved traditions in Estes Park history
Read moreThe Kid Who Saved the Park | The Mountain Thread
Buck TimberUpdated with better formatting
Read moreTwo Oxen, a Fraud, a Horror Novel, and a National Park
Buck TimberThe people who built Estes Park, the federal income tax, and the eleven-month window that changed everything
Read moreThe Valley Has Been Keeping a File
Buck TimberEight documented sightings. Fifty-four years. Zero official responses.
Read moreTrail Ridge Road - The Highway Above the Clouds
Buck TimberThe 73-year-old contractor, the half-ton blast, and the men who built a road where roads don't belong
Read moreGrandapa Bredo Is Not the Only One
Buck TimberA brief survey of the frozen dead, and why Estes Park is the most distinguished address in cryonics history
Read moreThe Names They Left on Everything
Buck TimberHow the Arapaho mapped a sacred valley, and what two old men remembered in the summer of 1914
Read more"The Dead Norwegian in the Stanley's Ice House"
Buck TimberGrandpa Bredo has been frozen since 1989. Now he lives in The Stanley Hotel's ice house in Estes Park. This is how he got there, and why Colorado throws him a party every March.
Read more"Squeaky Bob Wheeler: The Man Who Hosted a President and Never Changed His Sheets"
Buck TimberSqueaky Bob Wheeler built the Rockies' most famous guest ranch with four tents, sourdough biscuits, and sheets he never once changed. The full story inside.
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