Granby & Aurora Colorado

We spent the first two weeks of autumn in Northern Colorado. Our first campsite was in a new RV park in Granby, CO, River Run RV Resort. We really enjoyed the amenities, especially the pool, hot tub and fitness center. We chose this location primarily due to its proximity to the west entrance of Rocky Mountain National Park, as we had not visited this section yet. It is a less popular area of the park and has a lot less traffic than the Estes Park entrance. The first day we hiked the Big Meadow trail and were lucky enough to see moose in the meadow. We visited the Holzwarth Historic Site and saw Elk when driving through the park in the evening. The Poudre River Trail took us through the valley between Specimen Mountain and Forest Canyon Pass, and was a very peaceful hike where we spotted several Canada Jays. The Fraser Granby Trail was close to our campsite, so we were able to get in some good mountain biking. We also did some birding and enjoyed the fall foliage at the Windy Gap Wildlife Viewing Area.

Our next campground was Cherry Creek State Park in Aurora, CO. It is a large state park with full-hookups, close to Denver with great biking/running trails. We were thrilled to have family stay with us and explore this beautiful area together. Of course we had to go to Rocky Mountain National Park again, this time to the east side for some spectacular views hiking on the Glacier Gorge and Bear Lake trails. We were thrilled to see more big horn sheep at Waterton Canyon, bison at Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge, and gorgeous red rock formations at Roxborough State Park.

Colorado is truly an amazing state and it is hard to leave. However, snow is already in the forecast, so it is time to start heading south!