Grand Lake Day Trip
On the road after a good breakfast of granola and orange juice, today’s drive won’t be too difficult. Our trek to Grand Lake will take about 2 1/5 hrs following the Blue and Colorado Rivers until we reach Granby. Along the way we’ll go through Byers Canyon, home of the Hot Sulfur Hot Springs. Gonna pass on the hot springs this time, not a big fan of sulfur!
A little about Grand Lake. Formed during the last ice age, the Pleistocene Epoch, which lasted until about 11,700 years ago, Grand Lake is the deepest and largest natural lake in Colorado. Sitting at 8,400’ elevation, this natural lake has a maximum depth of 390’! And although swimming is allowed in Grand Lake, it’s pretty cold, anytime of year, so bring a wet suit if you plan to be in the water any length of time. Or you can do what we did, get a coffee and a pastry from the local bakery and sit and enjoy the tourists.
One of the few lakes in Colorado where you can own a home right on the lake!
We visited Grand Lake many years ago with our kids and did the camping thing. We stayed for about 4 days and enjoyed walking around the streets, a little window shopping, fishing, and my favorite, miniature golf! We found this mini-golf place that had a two-story course that was, shall we say, a bit rustic. No worries, that just made the course more challenging. Good news, bad news. We found the very mini-golf course we played many years ago still there. The bad news, looks like it hasn’t seen a putter in quite some time. If I remember correctly, the second floor was a little “soft” in places when we played so maybe they’re closed for repairs, maybe not. Anyway, if mini-golf is your thing, there is a fancy new course just as you enter town built on a hillside with three or four levels. Looked a little daunting to me so we passed.
Good ole mini-golf!
Strolling around the village is interesting. There are numerous souvenir shops, restaurants, coffee shops, ice cream shops and oh yeah, pubs and bars! We were there around 11am or so and several of the pubs sounded like they had a good crowd already participating. We had to drive home so had to show a little restraint and stick to coffee and tea.
Downtown Grand Lake Village
Main Street
Ice cream!!!!!
A neat artifact of the town is their sidewalks, all wood just like back in the 1880’s. If you close your eyes and listen to people walking, it almost feels like you’re back in the days of cowboys when they used to hold rodeos on Main street. That’s right! When Grand Lake Village was formed, back in 1881, it had a 100’ wide Main street where the locals held rodeos, horse races, bar-b-cues of bear and wild game, and where the annual Buffalo Bar-b-cue was started.
Wooden boardwalk
Today Main street is a little narrower but the friendly atmosphere is still here.
Town Square
Friendly local.
Even though this trip was about Grand Lake, there are actually two other lakes right next to Grand Lake, Shadow Mountain lake and Lake Granby, both of which are man-made lakes. Lake Granby and Shadow Mountain lake were built as part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project which diverts water from the western slope to the eastern slope of Colorado through a 13-mile pipeline. Water is collected in Lake Granby, then pumped into Shadow Mountain lake and then drains into Grand Lake which feeds the pipeline. The water in the pipeline is used to create hydroelectric power then diverted to rivers for agricultural and other uses.
Shadow Mountain Lake
Lake Granby
Time to get back on the road and cruise through the small towns of Tabernash, Winter Park and Empire on our way back to Fairplay. A quick 3 hours and we’ll be home in time for cocktail hour. Fun road trip.
Thinking ahead, our next trip will be to Crested Butte for a little pizza and some great mountain views.