Day 68: Earth Day Recycling at The Baldpate Inn

Unless you have been in this situation, it is sort of hard to imagine how much trash, cardboard and leftovers a business can generate.

We have striven to be earth friendly as best we can with the added challenges of being a bit remote in a mountain community.  We’ve tried some novel things, had some successes and some failures.

Even back in the 1990s we earned an EPA award for our efforts in recycling. Still now, even though the staff would say it is not their most favorite task, but we do make at least weekly trips to the Estes Park recycle center to donate our cardboard and tin cans. 

With so much ‘good’ produce scrap, (think lettuce leaves and carrot peelings)  for a couple of years, we worked with a local family contributing to their compost, but eventually it became too much for them to continue.

Our local bear family would of course be delighted to help whenever they can. However, knowing the pitfalls of feeding wildlife, we have diligently taken their best interest to heart and spent lots of time discouraging them from investigating our bins.  At first, just having motion lighting worked. But we have really smart bears, so additional deterrents were needed. Grandpa Sam came up with the electric fence solution around our dumpsters, which is still effectively in place today. 


This “shocking” system works great if you remember to turn it on and off, a fact that could be confirmed by more than one staff member. (Honestly, we do try to remember to warn new staff members to turn it off before they touch the dumpsters.)

Since we are so insistent about the hot, out-of-the-oven freshness of our baked goods, we needed some solutions here as well. Leftover pies and cinnamon rolls do not seem to be a problem, as the staff would happily concur. But try as we may, baking just the correct amount of muffins can be a daunting challenge. At the end of the day, our local foodbank, Crossroads Ministry, has been our saving grace for this surplus. We are happy to share and pleased to know that our lovingly-made food is going to an excellent cause. 

Written by Lois Smith

Day 56: What it Means to Experience The Baldpate Inn (National Encourage a Young Writer Day)

Being a 100-year old inn, The Baldpate has many unique qualities! It may be unlike anything you’ve experienced before. While there are many modern conveniences at the Inn (such as wi-fi and cell phone service), a visit is reminiscent of a charming step back in time. 

There is simply too much to fit into one blog, and since it’s National Encourage a Young Writer Day, I challenge you youngsters and young-at-heart to write your own experiences of The Baldpate Inn, with all its unique attributes (and I’m sure I’ve missed a few!) and share them with us. Here’s a few prompts. Haven’t had a chance to visit us yet? Check out our video tour. 

World famous Key Collection and curiosities

Fresh and healthy Soup and Salad Buffet, enjoyed on beautiful handmade stoneware

Rustic lodging (My favorite description comes from an early brochure, “All rooms in the Inn are equipped with hot and cold water.  We believe in “roughing it” with a degree of comfort. The relative enjoyment of a bath is not necessarily a matter of geography.”)

Three-course breakfast! (Do the cinnamon rolls need their own composition? Probably!) And if you’re not a Bed & Breakfast guest, don’t despair! Just make reservations for a special celebration of Breakfast at Baldpate!

Evening snacks and Peachy-Keen (Are you noticing a food theme? It is a Love Language, right?)

Views from the front deck and the porch swing

Library and movie time

Sun deck parties

Aspen autumn glory

KeyThedral Theater Productions

Photo and art collections (Stay tuned for more on our photo collection!)

Gift shop

Hand hewn log furniture

Fireplaces: the warmth, sight, smell, and sounds of wood crackling ablaze

Hummingbirds, wildlife and bears

Your own memories! 

While The Baldpate Inn means something different to each guest who visits, at the heart of it all is a desire to serve all with excellent hospitality. Your experience is certain to be a memory you will cherish especially if you write it down.

Written by Liz Rodgers

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 14: Bears at Baldpate (International Polar Bear Day)

Baldpate is famous for many things, our wildlife one of them (and I’m not talking about our staff here)!  :)  Besides our hummingbirds, the thing that gets our guests excited every time is an on-site visit from our neighborhood bears.  

You may have seen one of our most recent adventures, the last Friday night of our 2016 season, when Mama Bear & her 3 cubs visited the Key Room. Our B&B guests were enjoying conversation and cookies in front of the fire, and when Heather our front desk gal, decided to throw another log on the fire, she startled the bear family who turned heel and thankfully scampered for the Library door. Our security cameras caught it on tape, so you can enjoy the adventure on YouTube, Baldpate Bears.

Clearly this was not a first and probably not the last visit of black bears to Baldpate Inn. This 1932 news story tells of Baldpate bear cubs entertaining the guests throughout our history.

Over the years, we've had cars broken into, food stolen from our refrigerators (they seem to favor the green grapes—must be Chardonnay fans), and we even a guest that thought the bear strolling by her was our extra-large friendly pet (her husband ran in to tell us about it while she calmly finished her cigarette in the driveway). 

We do always try to remind our guests that for their own safety and the preservation of these wild animals, please always "bear" in mind safety guidelines. This link to bear safety by the National Park Service has tips and information for next time you are visiting our neighborhood.

Another favorite bear moment was when at her daughter’s wedding, the mother of the bride was giving her emotional & heartfelt toast and the bears upstaged her walking by the Dining Room window at her back. Likely no one remembered that toast!  This "Blondie" was no doubt remembered!

Perhaps my favorite Bear moment was during one of our Key-thedral Theater Events, the driveway and parking lot was crowded with guests and cars coming and going, when a bear walked through.  Of course, then it was total gridlock for some time. When things finally calmed down, an irritated driver chewed me out for not planning the bear visit at a more convenient, less congested time.  As if I’d scheduled the whole thing as part of the evening’s activity!

Written by Lois Smith

Baldpate Bear video at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=731Xz5df73M