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Updated - 10/13/18
Having loved the east side of the Rocky Mountain National Park, we thought we’d check out the west side and simultaneously position ourselves to head up into Wyoming for Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks. Dorian was game for driving the trailer along the park’s guard rail-less Trail Ridge Road, but I persuaded him to instead take a 3-hour trip south, west, and finally north to skirt the park. Route 40 took us on some serious switchbacks through the mountains….but we usually had guardrails!
We stayed in Grand County which confusingly contains both Grand Lake and Lake Granby, connected by yet another water body, Shadow Mountain Lake. Grand Lake has the distinction of being Colorado’s largest natural lake, and the surrounding town wins the tourist attraction title with t-shirt, taffy, and ice cream shops. The place reminded me a lot of Rehoboth Beach – sans the Atlantic and wide sandy beaches, of course. We took an easy hike to Adams Falls, so Dorian had to make it a bit more difficult (for me anyway) by crossing the inlet on a downed tree.
Lake Granby was man-made by damming over some supposedly abandoned town in the 1950s. It’s huge, with 40 miles of shoreline, and several campgrounds and oodles of fishing shacks dotting the banks. We arrived with just one night of camping secured at the Stillwater Campground, and spent that evening checking out other campgrounds in the area where we might stay a second night. The sunset picture was taken from the Arapaho Bay campground, where, in only a few miles, we felt like we were deep into the wilderness. It was beautiful, but seemed so isolated that at least one of started to feel a bit nervous (we're talking about Pippi, of course). Fortunately we scored a spot at Stillwater for the second night, and we spent the day kayaking on Lake Granby, hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park, and enjoying a martini in these cool steel glasses at Mustachios on the Lake restaurant.
We include no "Would we live here?" section, mostly because we wouldn't. We'd happily return to visit this lovely area near a great national park, but as a place to live, it's too far from any urban areas with their convenient amenities.
Stillwater Campground was a nice park where we'd definitely stay again. It was right on the lake with great views and good LTE signal. No wi-fi, but it was a national forest location, so that's pretty normal.
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