36-foot digital LED tree to dazzle in Bond Park this holiday season

Santa’s sleigh, a giant ornament, a five-foot high dreidel, eight lampposts, candy canes – all will set the scene for a first of its kind seen anywhere nearby: a 36-foot-tall holiday tree lit with cascading LED lights towering over the sight below.

With just three weeks before its official lighting, it took Cindy Mackin, Visit Estes Park’s chief strategy officer, six months to see the first visible proof that this stage of bringing this phase of an enhanced holiday look to downtown Estes Park.

“The goal is to get people to think of Estes as more magical; that we’re living in a Hallmark village, because we are,” she said. “We want people to think about Estes Park as the place to spend their holiday season.”

The base for the centerpiece tree, a cement lined hole that is six feet deep that was dug last week, will stay in place year-round. The tree itself will be attached to the base with aircraft carrier strength cable. The entire structure for the tree meets building codes that call for it to withstand 175 miles per hour winds.

All plans for its installation, including engineering by Sky Pond Engineering, were vetted by town staff. Jon Smith, owner of High Plains Excavation and Aggregate, oversaw the excavation and concrete work in Bond Park.

“It took many meetings and emails to get everything ready,” Mackin said. The tree itself is comprised of a 4-foot base, a 28-foot tree and topped off by a 4-foot star. The location nearest to Estes Park that has this type of tree that Mackin knows of is in Branson, Mo. Another version of this type of tree can be seen at Disneyland and some other big theme parks, she said.

People might get lucky and see the tree lights being tested during the installation period between Nov. 11 and 13. That’s the time period when installation crews from Atlanta will be on site to line up all the branches to ensure the programming is correct. After that, the tree will be dark until the official tree lighting ceremony on Nov. 23. After that, the lights will be seen daily from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.