Grand County is a county in Colorado, United States, on the west slope of the Continental Divide, its eastern rim inside Rocky Mountain National Park. It had a population of 15,717 at the 2020 census and covers 1,870 square miles (4,800 km2), of which 1,846 square miles (4,780 km2) are land, centred near 40°06′N 106°07′W.
Hot Sulphur Springs is the county seat, and its postal code is 80451. The county has six incorporated towns, two census-designated places, and a handful of unincorporated communities. It sits in the Mountain time zone (UTC−7, UTC−6 with daylight saving) and carries FIPS code 08049.
Towns & Villages in Grand County
All six of Grand County’s incorporated towns sit along the upper Colorado River and its tributaries, strung between two mountain passes. The two census-designated places (CDPs) are unincorporated but tracked separately by the Census Bureau; the remaining names are small unincorporated communities, some no more than a rail siding or a former mining camp.
| Place | Type | Pop. | ZIP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Sulphur Springs | Town · seat | 687 | 80451 |
| Granby | Town | 2,079 | 80446 |
| Winter Park | Town | 1,033 | 80482 |
| Fraser | Town | — | 80442 |
| Grand Lake | Town | — | 80447 |
| Kremmling | Town | 1,509 | 80459 |
| Tabernash | CDP | — | 80478 |
| Parshall | CDP | — | 80468 |
| Radium | Unincorp. | — | — |
| Troublesome | Unincorp. | — | — |
Two older lists for this county carried names such as Elkdale, Gaskil, Hideaway Park, Leal, and Maryvale. Hideaway Park was Winter Park’s name before the town incorporated under its ski-resort identity in 1978; the other four are historic post office or rail-siding names with no current population figures on record and are omitted here rather than published unverified.
ZIP Codes
- 80451 — Hot Sulphur Springs (county seat)
- 80446 — Granby
- 80482 — Winter Park
- 80442 — Fraser (also serves Tabernash and Winter Park’s ski-area side)
- 80447 — Grand Lake
- 80459 — Kremmling
- 80478 — Tabernash
- 80468 — Parshall
Radium and Troublesome are too small to carry their own ZIP and are served by the nearest post office town above.
Geography
Grand County occupies the headwaters basin of the Colorado River — called the Grand River until a 1921 renaming — on the west side of the Continental Divide. The Never Summer and Rabbit Ears ranges rim the county to the north and west, Rocky Mountain National Park and the Indian Peaks Wilderness rim it to the east, and the Arapaho National Forest covers much of its southern half. Grand Lake, Colorado’s largest natural lake, and the reservoirs of Lake Granby and Willow Creek feed the Colorado-Big Thompson diversion project, which sends West Slope water east under the Divide to Front Range cities.
Grand County borders Larimer County to the northeast, Gilpin County and Boulder County to the east, Clear Creek County to the southeast, Eagle County to the southwest, Routt County to the west, and Jackson County to the north. Summit County lies to the south. Grand County has never been merged into a shared municipality with any neighbor; each retains its own set of towns.
Demographics
The county’s 15,717 residents (2020 census) are concentrated in Granby, the largest town at 2,079 people, and Winter Park, the second largest at 1,033. Grand County’s median household income runs below the Colorado median of $92,911, reflecting a seasonal, tourism-dependent economy rather than year-round wage employment. Population density is about 8.5 people per square mile of land, among the lowest in the Front Range mountain counties, though winter weekend crowds at the ski areas multiply that figure many times over.
Economy & Local Life
Tourism drives Grand County’s economy, anchored by Winter Park Resort — one of Colorado’s oldest ski areas, opened in 1940 and owned by the City and County of Denver’s Winter Park Recreational Association until a 2002 land-lease restructuring — and by Rocky Mountain National Park’s western Kawuneeche Valley entrance near Grand Lake. Summer brings fly-fishing on the Colorado and Fraser rivers, boating on Lake Granby and Grand Lake, and mountain biking on the Fraser-to-Winter Park trail network. Ranching persists around Kremmling and the North Park-adjacent grasslands in the county’s northwest, and Kremmling hosts the annual Range Call rodeo, one of the longer-running rodeos on Colorado’s West Slope.
History
Grand County was organized on February 2, 1874, carved out of the original Summit County, and named for Grand Lake and the Grand River, the historic name for the upper Colorado River above its confluence with the Green River. The county’s original territory shrank on January 29, 1877, when Routt County was split off to its west, and an 1886 Colorado Supreme Court decision settled a long-running boundary dispute with Larimer County over North Park. In 2004, a Granby businessman modified a bulldozer with improvised armor plating and used it to destroy more than a dozen buildings in the town before the machine stalled and he took his own life — an incident that remains, decades on, one of the most-cited local news stories associated with the county.
Getting There
US Highway 40 crosses the county over Berthoud Pass and Rabbit Ears Pass, linking Winter Park and Fraser to the Front Range and Kremmling to Steamboat Springs; US 34 climbs Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park from Grand Lake (seasonal, closed in winter); Colorado routes 9, 125, and 134 connect the smaller towns.
- Denver — approximately 90 miles east via US 40 and I-70
- Steamboat Springs — approximately 55 miles northwest via US 40
- Vail — approximately 50 miles southwest via US 40 and I-70
- Estes Park — approximately 20 miles east via US 34, seasonal only
Denver International Airport is the nearest full-service commercial airport. A smaller general-aviation field, Granby-Grand County Airport, serves private and charter traffic within the county.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Grand County, Colorado?
It sits on the west side of the Continental Divide in north-central Colorado, its eastern edge inside Rocky Mountain National Park, about 90 miles northwest of Denver.
What is the population of Grand County?
15,717 at the 2020 census.
How big is Grand County?
1,870 square miles (4,800 km2), of which 1,846 square miles are land.
What is the county seat of Grand County?
Hot Sulphur Springs.
How many towns are in Grand County?
Six incorporated towns — Fraser, Granby, Grand Lake, Hot Sulphur Springs, Kremmling, and Winter Park — plus the census-designated places of Tabernash and Parshall.
What ZIP codes are in Grand County?
Eight, from 80442 (Fraser) to 80482 (Winter Park); Hot Sulphur Springs is 80451.
What is Grand County known for?
Winter Park Resort, one of Colorado’s oldest ski areas, and Grand Lake, the state’s largest natural lake and the western gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park.
More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Colorado.