Grand Lake, CO

Grand Lake is a statutory town on the shore of Colorado’s largest natural lake, high in Grand County at the headwaters of the Colorado River. The town was laid out in 1879, and its first general store opened in 1881 to supply mining camps in what is now Rocky Mountain National Park. US 34 runs through town toward the park’s western entrance, so the lake, road, and park boundary organize the local map. Water from Grand Lake also enters the Colorado–Big Thompson system through the Adams Tunnel beneath the Continental Divide.

ATTRLightbulb Noob / CC0

Grand Lake’s current identity has a strong arts and recreation side. Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre returned to town in 1989 and opened its current theatre in 2011; the town’s Creative District includes the theatre, Juniper Library, historical society, and folk and wooden-boat schools. Snowmobile trails, the yacht club, and the lake itself extend activity into winter and beyond the summer stage. The local scoop is a high-altitude town where a mining supply point became a park gateway, part of a major water project, and a year-round cultural outpost.