Grand Lake CO: The other side of Rocky Mountain National Park
By Eileen Ogintz
Tribune Content Agency
Taking the Kids
Have you followed the rule of thumb when viewing wildlife? In Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park (and other national parks) that means extending your arm and making a thumbs up. Close one eye. If you can hide the animal – maybe a moose, elk or Bighorn sheep – with your thumb, then you are at a safe distance. If you can still see the animal, back away until it is completely hidden.
Got it? Remember, you are a visitor to their home. And you don’t want to get hurt by getting too close.
Fall is a great time to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. The foliage. The wildlife. The dark sky. If you are lucky, the park, one of the most visited, may not be as crowded, though until early October you still need a timed-entry permit between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Rocky Mountain National Park is big – 415 square miles with elevation up to 14,259 feet at the summit of Longs Peak. There are some 350 miles of hiking paths and four different ecosystems, including the Alpine Tundra. Stop at the Alpine Visitor Center, the highest of its kind in the National Park Service. Did you know the famous 50-mile Trail Ridge Road from Estes Park to Grand Lake crosses the Continental Divide and is the highest paved highway in North America? Stop and take a steep walk up to the Alpine Ridge. The views are amazing.
If you’ve got kids with you, be sure to stop at a visitor center and pick up Junior Ranger activity booklets. They are designed for different ages (under five, 6 to 8, and nine and up) and are packed with challenges and activities guaranteed to keep kids engaged. Check off the number of birds you’ve seen – perhaps a red-tailed hawk, a hummingbird? What animal tracks have you seen?) Stop at the Moraine Park Discovery Center with interactive exhibits and a nature trail.
If you are traveling with pets, be forewarned they are only allowed in picnic areas, parking lots, campgrounds and along roadsides. You can’t hike with them inside the park.
Estes Park is the eastern gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, especially famous for its Elk bugling in the fall – the loud noises made by male elk during the mating season known as The Rut. (Estes Park hosts a popular Elk Fest weekend this year Oct. 3 to 4 with wildlife exhibits, Native American storytelling, music and even a bugling contest.)
We opted to stay in the smaller, less crowded Grand Lake at the Western edge of the park at the historic Grand Lake Lodge which opened in 1920 and is a national historic landmark. We stayed in one of the 75 cabins that originally were purchased as kit homes from Sears Roebuck & Company, shipped here by train. Henry Ford had stayed in the one next door, in fact. Grand Lake is surrounded on three sides by Rocky Mountain National Park.
Though historically preserved, the cabins (some have multiple bedrooms) have all the modern amenities – from mini fridges and microwaves, comfy beds, and modern bathrooms. The spacious lodge has a pool, hot tub; the main lodge boasts a huge front porch offering spectacular views of the lake and Huntington House Tavern with good eats, including burgers and apple pie baked in a cast iron pan for dessert. (The Lodge closes for the season Oct. 4; starting rates for September are just under $300.)
What’s with the made-from- a-kit cabins? Roe Emery opened the single building lodge to encourage tourism in the West. When the destination and his Western tours proved very popular, more accommodations were needed – thus the kit cabins.
What sets Grand Lake apart, beyond its quaint downtown with boardwalks and umpteen hiking trails, is, of course, the lake, Colorado’s largest and deepest (389 feet). Visit in summer and early fall to paddleboard, fish, kayak, canoe, and tool around on motorboats as we did, dog aboard, trepidatiously. In summer, you might see moose swimming.
In winter, the lake freezes over and is popular for ice fishing, snowmobiling, ice skating, and hockey. “It’s so frozen you can walk or ski or snowshoe on the lake,” said Katie Hearsum, the market communications manager for this tiny town (just 420 permanent residents).
This year, there will be events all through December to commemorate the holiday season. The famous Continental Divide Trail that runs 3, 000 miles from the Mexican border to the Canadian border comes right through Grand Lake. Hearsum noted that while Trail Ridge Road that goes through Rocky Mountain National Park is closed in the winter, you can still enter from Grand Lake and go 10 miles into the park.
Don’t forget the spectacular night sky. Hopefully, there will be dark sky programs by next spring.
There are plenty of restaurants (Sagebrush BBQ is popular for big breakfasts, as well as dinners) and shops. Blue Water Bakery has scrumptious morning muffins and pastries. Miyauchi Snack Bar, just across the road from the Lake, serves delicious homemade ice cream.
Incidentally, this area around Grand Lake and the western portal to the park was scorched by the East Troublesome Fire in the fall of 2020, one of the most devastating wildfires in Colorado hi story. The entire town of Grand Lake had to be evacuated with barely any notice. The town and the Grand Lake Lodge barely escaped total devastation.
Six years later, the remains of burned lodge-pole pines and Aspen trees can be seen, a long with promising new growth.
We didn’t mind a bit when a thunderstorm kept us from an afternoon hike. The rain is desperately needed. And there will always be another day to hike.
(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The fourth edition of The Kid’s Guide to New York City and the third edition of The Kid’s Guide to Washington D.C. are the latest in a series of 14 books for kid travelers published by Eileen.)
©2026 Eileen Ogintz. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.