Warm Days, Cool Nights, Hot Trails. Not so Wintery Winter Park.

Day 1 – Cross country bike trails of the Colorado town of Winter Park || Day – 3 Winter Park Resort and other XC trails near the town of Winter Park_____

__________________________________________________________________ Thirty minutes, or 20 miles north of Winter Park is Granby Ranch. Formerly known as Sol Vista, Granby is a privately run 5500 acre resort that partners with the Headwaters Trails Alliance to create community trail connections. Granby’s community participation also involves general social good as it also donates to the Grand Foundation to improve the quality of living in the Grand County area.

Granby Ranch came to be when private investors purchased five ranches with the intention of building a ski resort in the 1960’s. In 1995 the Ranch was purchased by a Brazilian family. Since then they have expanded their ski terrain, built a golf course, and developed a lift assisted mountain bike park with adjoining XC trails and some dedicated gravity trails.

Greg Mazu’s company has been involved with developing trails in the DH and XC network through his company Singletrack Trails. With 36 trails accessible by the lift, 14 of them are considered dh – oriented trails. Granby illustrates the diversity of Winter Park area riding all in a discrete geographical location.

The Lodge

One of the mountains

Excellent rental fleet selection! – Intense and Devinci’s

Pivot Mach6’s, 429Trails

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Granby is well mapped and signed. There is no charge to ride the trails and the public is welcome to use the area by bike, or on foot. The only charge is to use the chairlift which has reasonable prices – for example a one lift ride to access higher trails is $ 10. A whole day ticket to do laps is $ 26.

Trail access to many of the surrounding communities is also integrated – for example through publicly maintained trails to houses via Route 85/87 junction. We were told that biking visits spike mainly in the weekend but on the weekday when we rode we say very few people.

The biggest group using Granby appears to be wedding parties who enjoy the views from atop accessible via the chairlift. Base elevation of Granby is “only” 8202 ft. The chairlift takes you up 1,000 feet which doesn’t seem like a lot but it does put you above the surrounding flats and gives you amazing views to the surrounding continental divide and below to the Fraser drainage. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Trail map

Heading up the lift

Coloradooooo broooooo

Sidewinder Trail

Vista Ridge

Down the Fraser back to Granby

Fraser Canyon!

Had a snack on the Patio before checking out the more dh-oriented trails with Kevin, Greg, Sharon and Barb

Strawberry Jam is a nice flowy trail built by Singletrack Trails. Perfect for our trail-oriented Treks

Little Hip in Silky Johnson

Where to Stay

Accommodations – During our trip we stayed at the Timber Run condos in the Vista Building, booked through Stay Winter Park. Another restful night at Timber Run Condos

We had breakfast today at Rise and Shine Good servings, I would not recommend adding extra Avocado to your meal, they just spread a bit on the bread for $1.00. The servings are big enough!

We had Dinner at Deno’s. It’s a popular place on the highway strip and deservedly so. Really good value for money at happy hour. Happy hour was enough for dinner!

Apres Beer at Hideaway Brewery – This time we were able to drink our beer at Hideway Park where they had a band and many people enjoying the music and Open Carry. Kevin, Andrew Brumenschenkel – the BrewMaster, Greg and Sharon.

Maps

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