Grand Lake

Grand Lake, Colorado: Beautiful town, beautiful lake

Grand Lake is a beautiful town situated on the banks of the eponymous lake. Grand Lake is large and lovely and surrounded by hills and mountains on which perch scores of log cabin-style houses. They almost invariably have huge balconies on two sides to make the most of the sun. Many of these houses are just hugely attractive.

Some parts of Colorado (which has a lot of winter skiing) has been called “Swiss America”. Well, not having been to Switzerland, I get the idea. Grand Lake has fir trees, alpine-style cabins, a beautiful lake and, in summer, fields of colourful wild flowers.

The thing with Grand Lake town is: it's small. Very small. Thinking of comparing with, say any of the Lake District towns in the UK they are much bigger. Ambleside, for example, is a proper town, with dozens of busy street in the town centre.

Grand Lake is in the same mould as other towns in Colorado in that it is a 'film-set' town – it's as if it has been built for a film. The central road through town really is, pretty much, the whole thing.

This is not to put down Grand Lake at all – I liked it a lot. Yes – it is a tourist town; but the array of goods on sale is only around 10-15% tacky and 85-90% nice stuff. The shops are colourful and interesting. We have a specialist beer shop, selling beers up to 9% - strong! (The strong ones are served in snifters as they 'have such a resemblance to brandy'.) I will try and grab one of those when I am not driving. The other beers are a very interesting range.

My partner found a fantastic quilting shop. Not so surprising in USA as quilting is big – compared to the UK. Anyway, she was very happy with this.

A lovely bakery had great bread (healthy too), plus lovely cakes, which were all half price from lunchtime. You could buy and sit looking over the lake.

The other shops – equally attractive and interesting - on the main street are situated on a covered boardwalk (wooden) to shade you completely from the sun – a lovely and welcome touch. I have not seen this arrangement – I am thinking of a covered sidewalk - elsewhere on this trip;and yet it's such a great idea.

What bought us to Grand Lake was a show at the Rocky Mountain Repertory Company. This is a local theatre company widely supported by the community.

The show they put on was a version of the Broadway hit “All Shook Up”. This is one of those shows like the “Jersey Boys” and “Mama Mia”, where popular songs from a pop group are used to link together a story.

It was a great show in an auditorium of only about 200 – so very intimate. The show was excellent and Grand Lake is a great place to spend a few days. I thorougly recommend it. If you are in Colorado and can include Grand Lake in your itinerary, you won't be disappointed.