Snow Mountain Ranch, A Home Base for Exploring Dining in Grand County

There’s a lot to love about Grand County, especially Snow Mountain Ranch. We’ve become well-acquainted with this YMCA property over the years. We’ve stayed in nearly every accommodation, including the lodge.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (14)

On our June trip, we stayed in a cabin named Wildrose that overlooked a green meadow. Several times a day, a line of horses from the Snow Mountain Ranch Stables would plod by, happy visitors on their backs.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (10)

Our cabin had a full kitchen which made dining-in a breeze. It also meant we could periodically leave Fritzi in her crate while we made a quick trip for food. 

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (13)
This is Jackpot. Even though we didn’t go on a trail ride this time, we did go to see this colt and his mother, Junebug. I had the share the photo!

Her crate fit perfectly in the hallway outside our bedroom. She is a one-year-old and we still crate her at night and when we leave home. She has two crates at our house and thankfully, she loves them. We often find her curled up in one. 

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (3)

On this June trip, we ate lunch at Buckboard Grill, Snow Mountain Ranch’s eatery located in the main building. There is a patio where we settled down with our lunch. We’d previously eaten here and knew that the hamburgers are memorably good. 

Big, juicy, and served with a ton of fries, a hamburger at Buckboard is always on the menu when we stay at Snow Mountain Ranch. They serve other things like pizza which I assume is delicious but we always go with hamburgers. This time we added a salad and it was a splendid idea.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (1)

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (2)

In addition to making killer burgers, Buckboard is affordable, making it a must-stop when we visit Snow Mountain Ranch. 

On the first night, we brought dinner home to the cabin from Winter Park—a pizza from Hernando’s Pizza Pub, circa 1967. It’s a lifelong tradition for my husband to eat this pizza because he grew up skiing at Winter Park Resort.

We ate several meals in nearby Granby. It’s about five minutes from the ranch, and one of our favorite breakfast places in Grand Lake, recently moved to Granby.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (7)
Granby, Colorado

Fat Cat Cafe serves up breakfast and lunch that is home-cooked and delicious. A few items you may remember from the former location are not on the current menu, but that doesn’t mean you can’t order them. In fact, we ordered a scotch-egg, not on the menu, alongside my breakfast burrito and Ryan’s French Toast. 

The Fat Cat. HeidiTown.com

We ate it the next morning with bagels for breakfast at the cabin. These scotch eggs are unbelievably good with Branston, a sort of English chutney jam, and that’s how Fat Cat Cafe serves them. Who doesn’t like a hard-boiled egg wrapped in sausage and deep-fried?

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (17)

Fat Cat Cafe’s new space is as inviting as the first and Sally, the proprietor is as happy as ever to cook for and serve you. She is the main reason we come. We love an English accent in the mountains, plus, this English gal can cook.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (9)

On our way out of town that morning, we noticed Showboat Drive-by Pie in the alley. If the word pie is associated with a business in any way, Ryan must check it out. It turns out that Showboat, a true drive-through, serves more than pie and we drove away with freshly-made basil bread, raisin cinnamon bread, hamburger buns, and a free plastic pie knife.

RELATED: Day Trip from Snow Mountain Ranch

For lunch, we made a picnic and ate it on our cabin’s large patio. It consisted of basil bread, Rocking W Farmer Cheese (made in Olathe, CO), and grapes and olives from the grocery store in Granby. 

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (12)

After lunch, I spent some time in my travel hammock that Ryan set up for me on the patio. A hammock works perfectly on the deck of a Snow Mountain cabin so don’t forget yours.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (11)

Lastly, we got take-out from Azteca Mexican Restaurant in Granby. It was Father’s Day and along with the restrictions related to COVID-19, most things restaurants were closed (at least this is my guess as to why most things were closed).

Azteca looks cute and we would have eaten inside but the fact that they were one of the only places open and social distancing measures were in place in the dining room, there was a wait. We ate a carne asada quesadilla and rellenos back at our cabin. It was nice because we had real plates and silverware and a dining room table. 

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (15)

Snow Mountain Ranch has a cafeteria that’s affordable, especially for families, but we’ve been there several times. We wanted to explore new options close to the ranch and as you know, I love to explore when it comes to food.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (4)

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (6)

Lodging options at Snow Mountain Ranch including campsites, yurts, a lodge and cabins. There are a variety of activities to do including hiking, fishing and even archery.

YMCA of the Rockies Snow Mountain Ranch: What to Know
a comprehensive post from Insider Families

 

Lodging here makes exploring Grand County easy. It’s only minutes to Granby, 10 minutes to Fraser and Winter Park is just 20 minutes southeast.

Snow Mountain Ranch, A Homebase for Exploring Dining in Grand County. HeidiTown (16)

We enjoyed making Snow Mountain Ranch our home base for this trip. We got to wake up to scenes like this every day.

Thank you to Snow Mountain Ranch for hosting our stay.

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