The Haunted Glen Isle Resort in Colorado - 3rd Palm Paranormal Places

Image captured during our investigation.

Colorado as a state has a very rich history involving Native American Tribes, early settlers, and unfortunate happenstances that have accumulated over the decades. These events and their people have manifested, from the mountains in the west, to the open plains in the east, and the deserts to the south, into paranormal occurrences that make the state one of the most haunted of all 50.

In fact, some of the most haunted locations in the world can be found in Colorado, including the infamous Stanley Hotel, Cheeseman Park, and the Molly Brown House just to name a select few. Every website that has recorded haunted locations across Colorado include these sites and others.

However, these places are far from the only haunted areas that Colorado has to offer. Although many of these (such as the Stanley Hotel) are the state's most notable and longstanding, there exist other strange locations where the paranormal history has always been but has not yet reached the mainstream.

One of these mostly undiscovered locations can be found in the small town of Bailey, just off of the 285 Interstate. I'm of course referring to the Glen Isle Resort.

Presently:

Image captured during our investigation.

With 14 historical cabins, 6 camp sites, and the main lodge, there's plenty of rooms to accommodate any number of folks either passing through town or vacationing. With nearby rivers and lakes to fish from, local trails winding through the Rocky Mountains, or some of the fantastic sites surrounding the area (Coney Island, the Sasquatch Museum, etc.) there's plenty to do.

The Glen Isle Resort also plays host to a number of events throughout the year, including celebrations, weddings, and the like. With most businesses closing down after a mere 3–5-year life span, it's wild to acknowledge that Glen Isle has existed for over a century. And business doesn't seem to be slowing down.

Image captured during our investigation.

In fact, business might be booming more than ever before at Glen Isle!

Having been constructed in 1901 as a touristic venture by wealthy businessmen of the era, the resort has seen various owners throughout the years. One owner in particular, Barbra Tripp, along with her husband Gordon Tripp, had received the resort in the 1940's by its previous investors. Until in 2012 when Barbra passed, the resort was put up for sale.

Glen Isle was on the market for nearly four years after Barbra's passing, when Mary and Glen Ruth (Mary who frequented the resort in the 70's) decided to purchase the estate.

Today the Ruth's take full ownership of the lodge, its cabins, its campsites, and much more. When interviewing Ruth, we had discovered truth behind online rumors that the Glen Isle Resort was in fact haunted. From a mischievous ghostly girl to sasquatch sitings around the area, Native American burials and blessings, and a mad professor who indulged heavily on phycobilin, there was a lot to unpack.

Though simply referring to the resort as "haunted" seems shallow in hindsight, because there's much more to this place than ghosts and ghouls.

The Strange History of Glen Isle:

Image captured during our investigation.

Decades prior to the resort becoming erected, its lands were home to the Ute's tribe of Native Americans. The history of the Utes within this location is somewhat hard to uncover, but from what we know they've buried their dead around this area, as well as bent trees to use as markers, and have blessed the land multiple times before the resort and thereafter.

But Glen Isle's tale truly begins in 1899, with ten men donating nearly $6,000 USD each towards the construction of the resort on its 160 acres of land (counting for inflation, that $6,000 USD equates to roughly $240,000 today). Throughout the 1880's and continuing forward, the railroad which passed along the South Platte River was a popular route for tourists and travelers alike. The idea was to build a resort that suited these individuals during their journey.

Image captured during our investigation.

This capital venture was all due to the state of Colorado calling for an increase in tourism due to a number of unprofitable years for the railroad at the start of 1895. And as construction was completed in 1901, the Glen Isle Resort stood as one of a few various resorts to have been opened around the South Platte route around this time.

The resort itself remained mostly profitable, until 1923 when it was purchased by the Baldwins and later in the 1940's was gifted to the Baldwin's granddaughter. After her passing in 2012, many assumed that, like the resorts that were built at the same time, Glen Isle would come under ruination. However, the resort was saved by its current owners, the Ruth's, and has been well-preserved ever since.

Although this brief history of the building may sound ordinary to most, there are many facts that we have left out due to their uncertainty. At one time in the 1900's a girl had fell into a fountain located on the premise and had drowned. Her spirit may very well be the same one captured on site throughout the years.

There is also the story of the "Mushroom Man House", a lodge that still exists at the top a cliff where a college professor spent many of his days locked up in the 1900's. This professor is said to have experimented with phycobilin and other hallucinogenic drugs, eventually coaxing his students into the same activities. However, he intentionally overdosed on amanita verna (the angel of death mushroom) and his cabin/lodge has been decaying ever since. Many can still find his Jeep rusting nearby his cabin.

A Comfy Sort of Haunted:

Image captured during our investigation.

Throughout the rooms located on the second floor of the main lodge exist numerous rooms with various hauntings. One haunting in particular is of a young girl dressed in white, who has been know to be maschievious.

We were told that during a wedding event held at Glen Isle that in one particular room where a groomsman had been staying, the man had left his sunglasses along a table within the room. When he returned later in the afternoon for his sunglasses, they had mysteriously disappeared. Nobody in the wedding party, nor the staff at Glen Isle could confirm their whereabouts.

That was until the following day when they appeared again, almost overnight, as if someone had snuck back into the room to return them. Then, as the groomsman and the wedding party was giving their farewells, the groomsman looked up to the window of his room and was suddenly in shock. Taking out his phone camera, he quickly captured what is believed to be the girl in white looking down at him from the window.

Other sightings involve the infamous Sasquatch who has been seen countless times throughout the region and specifically around Bailey, where the Sasquatch Museum still operates to this day. It's allegedly been seen wandering around the campgrounds and has even been said to of been caught hiding out in the main lodge, as well as the 14 other lodges scattered across the 160-acre area.

There's also no doubt that the Mushroom Man House has its share of hauntings. However, it's been mostly kept off-limits to the general public, and no official investigation has taken place there due to the structurally unsound nature of the cabin and its surroundings.

As for our own short investigation of Glen Isle, we noticed a lot of strange activity coming from the games room underneath the lobby. This room used to hold the base of a great tree in which the resort had been constructed around and given the Native American blessings and energy in the surrounding land, we thought it would be necessary to mention its paranormal readings. A very cold air can be felt in this room, even on a hot summer day, and when we performed a pendulum reading our results were off the charts. Needless to say, we'll be investigating that room further.

But even with its hauntings, history, and even certain mishaps, the energy of the spirits that are felt at Glen Isle aren't exactly malicious. In fact, the opposite claim can be made. A playful and mischievous ghost girl, a curious Sasquatch, Native American blessings and peaceful burials, and perhaps a very misunderstood professor driven mad by his own desire to explore the realm of psychedelic fungi.

Regardless, there's still a lot of unknowns to uncover here. Again, much of what is knowingly haunted in Colorado has been covered hundreds of times by hundreds of investigators. Yet, its these small, not-yet discovered paranormal places that really open a new chapter within the large book that contains the paranormal community at large. And until we can perform a full investigation of Glen Isle in the Autumn/Winter of 2026, these questions may remain...

The Haunted Glen Isle Resort in Colorado