Granby, Colorado

Directly between Grand Lake and Winter Park, Granby is a great jumping off point for the best in Colorado Rocky Mountain adventures. Granby is in the heart of everything that you might ever expect from living or vacationing in the Colorado mountain country we've all dreamed of.

Grand County is a paradise for those folks who enjoy hiking, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, boating, trophy lake and stream fishing, big game hunting, horseback riding, snowmobiling, downhill and cross country skiing, dog sledding, ice fishing and snowshoeing, and Granby (2006 population: 1,674) is the "big" town in the very center of it all.

Founded in 1904 (incorporated in 1905), as a logging and railroad settlement along the Denver Northwestern & Pacific Railroad, Granby quickly evolved into a cattle ranching center and, over the years, into a year-round vacation destination just up the road from Winter Park. Granby was named for Granby Hillyer, a lawyer from Denver who was serving at the time of incorporation as the US Attorney for this area of Colorado.

Today, Granby has two golf courses around town and the SolVista Basin Ski Area just south of town. To the north is Granby Lake and the Willow Creek Reservoir, both part of the Arapaho National Recreation Area.

US Highway 40 meets US Highway 34 on the western edge of town. From there, Highway 40 goes west as part of the Colorado River Headwaters Scenic Byway to Kremmling. Highway 34 goes north through Grand Lake and becomes Trail Ridge Road as it passes across Rocky Mountain National Park and then down into Estes Park. Highway 40 goes south from Granby to Tabernash, Fraser, Winter Park, then past the Winter Park Ski Area before rising across Berthoud Pass and dropping to the I-70 between Georgetown and Idaho Springs.

Then there's Granby Lake just north of town