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Grand Lake is a year round resort community at the western entrance
to Rocky Mountain National Park, only a two-hour drive from the Denver
metropolitan
area. Our area offers three huge mountain lakes plus thousands of acres
of National Forest land and National Park land. Close to 90% of our part
of the
county is publicly owned, for all of us to enjoy!
Our community sponsors special events on weekends year round, to
entertain families from out of the area. You will see me at almost all
of them! You can come
into town and get involved in the many fun activities if you feel like
it, or just stay at your cabin and enjoy the peace and quiet. In the
summer there are
parades, outdoor musical events, fishing and boating with only a handful
of other watercraft out on the lake, professional live theater, arts
and crafts festivals, the Buffalo Barbeque, golfing on several mountain
courses, hiking and mountain biking...and the 4th of July fireworks over
Grand Lake reflected on the surface of Colorado's largest natural lake!
Wakeboarding and jet skiing are permitted on our lakes, although not in
many other mountain locations.
Autumn brings gorgeous aspen viewing (as the leaves turn from bright
green to yellow, gold & red), elk bugling and an annual Fall
Festival with food, drink and music in the Town Square. You will see
wildlife year around in Grand Lake. Imagine seeing deer and elk, osprey
and eagles, marmots...even moose - right in town. During Old Fashioned
Christmas, the village is transformed into a winter wonderland, with a
White Christmas guaranteed. The celebration starts around Thanksgiving,
with a crafts
fair, where you can shop for some one-of-a- kind holiday gifts. The
month of December is full of fun, including special music performances, a
local
melodrama, and fire truck rides with Santa. On December 31, fireworks
over the frozen lake welcome the New Year. During the winter, you can
also
enjoy snowmobiling on 100 miles of groomed trails, sledding,
cross-country skiing, ice fishing, or simply sitting in front of a warm
fire while you gaze
at the snow-covered mountains and trees. Challenging downhill skiing is
just over a half hour away, with beginner and intermediate slopes about
22 minutes from here.
The best part to me about living in Grand Lake is the small town
atmosphere. If you count all of the area off Highway 34, from Rocky
Mountain National Park
down to the south end of Lake Granby (a nine mile radius of town), I
estimate that about 1700 people actually live here year round. Some
retired couples spend the winters in warmer climates and return here for
the summer season. People come to Grand Lake to escape big city
traffic, smog and overpopulation. Others come simply to enjoy the beauty
of the mountains and lakes. Most of the homes which
you see as you drive around are vacation homes, so although you may see
other homes from your property, you will have neighbors only on
occasional
weekends.
Being a small town, you will see the same person behind the counter each
time you go to the grocery store, and the people at the post office
will soon know
you by name. "Locals" wave as they drive by, and those who visit are all
on vacation, and so they are in a good mood! This is a very pleasant
atmosphere in
which to live and work. We do not have street delivery for mail, so you
will need to get a post office box in town. Or, if you live out of town
and don't wish
to come in to town every day, you can place a mailbox along the highway,
and your mail will be delivered.
Children thrive in this safe environment. As they get to be old
enough, kids
can meet friends in the park and spend time down by the beach and at the
snack bar. Since there is little news in our small weekly paper, they
occasionally get
their photos in the paper for sports, theater or school events. Our
schools (through 12th grade, all in Granby) have a four-day school week!
Everyone gets Friday off, and
it is a free ski day for Grand County students. They can go to Winter
Park or Granby Ranch for downhill skiing or out onto the Grand Lake Golf
Course, which is
groomed during the winter for cross-country skiing.
Shopping is often a surprise to families moving to Grand County. We have
no shopping malls in Grand Lake or Granby. Here, you certainly do not
waste time
driving miles to save a dollar by buying at a store across the
metropolitan area. Our prices may be a bit higher than in the city, but
you don't have the
temptation to buy unnecessary items. Wonderful items for decorating your
mountain home and great specialty gifts can be found here locally in
our many gift
shops. If you feel the need for a standard shopping spree, factory
outlet stores and fast food restaurants can be found in Silverthorne
(about an hour and a half
away), or take the gorgeous drive over Berthoud Pass into Denver!
Internet and catalog shopping are fun, with UPS bringing packages all
year round!
After living here for 30 years now, I have to say that my favorite parts
of life in Grand Lake are the friendly, small town atmosphere, and the
good feelings
that come from knowing that my children have received
the best start in life, living in this safe and beautiful community.
© By Donna Ready 2014 (original version was composed in 1995).
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