Granby, Colorado, United States

🇺🇸 Granby is a statutory town. It is the most populous municipality in Grand County, Colorado, United States. Granby is situated along U.S. Highway 40 in the Middle Park basin, and it is 14 miles (23 km) south-west of Rocky Mountain National Park.

History The town was founded in 1904 along the route of the Denver, Northwestern & Pacific Railway and was incorporated one year later. Many Granby and Grand County residents are descended from pioneer settlers who arrived before the country was fully surveyed. Early families established themselves under the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed easy access to land to those who would inhabit and improve upon the territory.

Since the turn of the century, families have contended for prime ranch land. The Hudlers and Cooks are descended from original homesteaders. Their waning ranch once covered approximately 20,000 acres (81 km²) and was rich in cattle and hay.

Geography Granby sits at 7,935 feet (2,419 m) above sea level in the valley of the Fraser River, 2 miles (3 km) east of its mouth at the Colorado River. It is located in eastern Grand County.

U.S. Route 40 passes through the centre of town as Agate Avenue, leading south and east over Berthoud Pass to the Denver area, west 10 miles (16 km) to Hot Sulphur Springs, the Grand County seat. Kremmling is 27 miles (43 km) to the west on US 40. U.S. Route 34 intersects US 40 on the west side of Granby and leads north-east into Rocky Mountain National Park, crossing the mountains as Trail Ridge Road and reaching Estes Park 60 miles (97 km) north-east of Granby.

At the 2020 United States Census, the town had a total area of 8,116 acres (32.845 km²), all of it land.

Transport Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service to Granby, operating its California Zephyr daily in both directions between Chicago and Emeryville, California, across the bay from San Francisco.

Granby-Grand County Airport (IATA: GNB, ICAO: KGNB, FAA LID: GNB), a small airport one mile east of town, serves as a stopover for transient general aviation flights, as well as hosts some local aviation activity. There are currently no scheduled passenger carrier flights into or out of the airport, which features a 5,000-foot-long (1,500 m) by 75-foot-wide (23 m) asphalt runway. Services at the airport are limited to aviation fuel for both piston and jet/turboprop aircraft. According to the Official Airline Guide (OAG), the airport was previously served by Rocky Mountain Airways which operated scheduled passenger flights to Denver during the mid 1970s with small de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprop aircraft.

National protected areas • Arapaho National Forest • Arapaho National Recreation Area • Byers Peak Wilderness • Continental Divide National Scenic Trail • Indian Peaks Wilderness • Never Summer Wilderness • Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness • Rocky Mountain National Park • Routt National Forest • Sarvis Creek Wilderness • Vasquez Peak Wilderness.

Bicycle routes • Great Parks Bicycle Route • TransAmerica Trail Bicycle Route.

Scenic byways • Colorado River Headwaters National Scenic Byway • Trail Ridge Road/Beaver Meadow National Scenic Byway.