Park
Arapaho National Recreation Area
35,000 Forest Service acres of reservoirs and shoreline beside Grand Lake: Lake Granby and Shadow Mountain for motorboats, Monarch Lake, Willow Creek and Meadow Creek for paddling, with campgrounds, picnic areas and day hikes. A day pass is $5.
Congress set aside the Arapaho National Recreation Area in 1978: 35,000 acres in the upper Colorado River valley holding Lake Granby, Shadow Mountain Reservoir, Monarch Lake, Willow Creek Reservoir and Meadow Creek Reservoir, with Grand Lake, the state’s largest natural lake, beside it. Lake Granby and Shadow Mountain are open to motorized and non-motorized boats; Willow Creek, Meadow Creek and Monarch Lake to non-motorized boats only. The Forest Service lists motorized and paddle boating, lake, river and ice fishing, wildlife watching, picnicking, day hiking, campgrounds and cabins, and dispersed camping on Lake Granby in marked sites only. Day use runs sun-up to sun-down. Boats are inspected for invasive species and ramps can close for it; fire, occupancy and vehicle rules are in the district’s restrictions order, and the Sulphur Ranger District page says the Stillwater area next to the town has miles of off-highway-vehicle trails.
Fees, ramp hours and rules from the Forest Service’s recreation area page and its Sulphur Ranger District page, read 10 October 2026.
At a glance boating · fishing · camping · forest service · fee area
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Checked October 10, 2026 against fs.usda.gov. Hours and phone numbers change fastest, so the business’s own page is the record. Report a correction · Know something opening or closing? Tell us
More in Grand Lake
Things to do
- Grand Lake Lodge Lodging
- Juniper Library at Grand Lake Venue
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