Boondocking near Grand Lake, CO

Just outside the Rocky Mountain National Park’s west entrance is Grand Lake, Colorado’s largest natural body of water. Grand Lake is straddled by the National Park to it’s East, and National Forest to it’s West. It was this National Forest that had my attention these past few days.

Conor and I drove over the Rocky Mountain National Park’s Trail Ridge Road, which still had a fair amount of snow up top, although the roadway itself was cleared two weeks ago. It was only 80 miles of driving for us to gain 7,000 feet of elevation, cross the continental divide, drop 4,000 in elevation and arrive in the Grand Lake area. We searched for County Road 4, which turned out to be clearly marked, leading us down another 2 miles of asphalt road straight to the national forest and where we decided to setup camp for a few days.

We spent two nights here, exploring the other camp sites for a future camping trip of a longer length. Each site was separated by 1/4 mile or more of very dense forest of pine and some of the largest concentration of aspen I have ever seen. The large staging area is the center piece of the recreational activities within the forest which allows camping, hiking, biking, off road cycling, four wheeling, shooting, snowmobiling, and more. While we camped at the first available site, there were numerous other sites all with varying levels of seclusion for miles along well graded dirt roads. There was Verizon 3G signal at nearly all sights within 2 miles of the beginning of the forest.

Our final night at the camp site we took the time to build a large camp fire while snapping numerous photos of the distant scenery and clouds. We may have had a bit too much to drink that night, but it was a great way to cap off a small boondocking trip.