Grand Lake, Colorado is the best kept secret in Colorado!

If you’ve been following my trip in Colorado, then you’ll remember my friend Gina and I narrowly escaped the flooding in Estes Park by driving over Trail Ridge Road in the Rocky Mountain National Park to Grand Lake, Colorado. Originally we had reservations through Airbnb at a home in Boulder following two nights in Estes Park. I contacted the owner and requested a refund. He wanted to wait and see if the weather improved before issuing the refund. Anyway, we stopped a few times to take photographs and arrived in Grand Lake a couple of hours later. We didn’t have a firm plan of where we would end up for the night, but fortunately the weather was much better at Grand Lake. I saw a sign that said Grand Lake Lodge, historic landmark, so we stopped to check it out. After some haggling with the General Manager over price, we rented a small cabin that was quite rustic. The view from our cabin was unbelievable!

Looking to the left…

And to the right…

It reminds me of a lovely European town. We saw a lot of chipmunks. They’re so darn cute!

Here’s the cabin we stayed in…

Yet another view from the porch of the Lodge…

They have a heated swimming pool and hot tub that we enjoyed later that evening…

We hiked down the mountain or hill (not sure what you call it) to the town of Grand Lake…but I’ll save that for next time!

Escape from Estes Park via Trail Ridge Road (travelspirit333.com)
Colorado Duck in Rocky Mountain National Park with Zeb in the summer snow (coloradotravelingducks.com)
Hikers Stranded in Colorado Rescue Themselves (webpronews.com)
People rescued by helicopters from Colo. flooding (cnsnews.com)
Finding Art in the Denver Airport and having fun in spite of being stranded due to flash flooding in the sunshine State of Colorado (travelspirit333.com)
Estes Park Devastated By Flooding (denver.cbslocal.com)
Colorado Flooding (tradeshowtom.wordpress.com)
2 hikers from Maine walk down Colorado peak (vindy.com)
Colo flooding prompts evacuation of thousands more (cnsnews.com)
Flooded Estes Park roads begin crumbling, forcing evacuations (denverpost.com)

13 thoughts on “Grand Lake, Colorado is the best kept secret in Colorado!”

I live in rural deep southeast Texas, just north of Beaumont. Ever since I was a child, my family would take the 2 day drive to Grand Lake every summer. The town is so quaint and lovely, with a little theatre that actors perform different shows. I remember playing bingo in anoutdoor ppavillionin front of town hall. There is a beautiful wooden walkway that connects all the little shops and diners that reminds me of an old western town in the heart of Grand Lake. Im glad you enjoyed it there. Too bad you missed the most amazing display of fireworks over the lake during July 4th. The lake reflects them so beautifully that its hard to distinguish sky from lake. You should go again sometime…you will not regret it!!!

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Travel Spirit

September 23, 2013 at 8:44 am

I used to live in Dallas for 10 years during the 80’s. It was a special time…during my 20’s and had a blast! You know Grand Lake well…those are very special memories. Thanks for taking time to comment!

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Hi- Glad you are safe! We are in Aspen right now and lucky to be on higher ground. Terrible what is happening.
Your images are beautiful and I’m glad you’re having a good trip!

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Travel Spirit

September 17, 2013 at 9:26 am

Hi Jane. I’ll bet Aspen is beautiful…it looked like the aspens were turning nicely. Thanks for checking in and hope you’re having or had fun! ~Sherry~

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I LOVE Grand Lake!!! One of my best friends has a family house there and I’ve always found it to be just the most charming town!
(Glad you are safe and sound — what a horrible scare; that photo of the swimming pool is AWFUL!)

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Travel Spirit

September 17, 2013 at 9:24 am

That’s great you’ve visited Betty! I know about the scare…to think that even the town that is on higher ground than where we were was eventually flooded.

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