AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Reservable, day-use site for group picnics and other gatherings next to the Colorado River, Rocky Mountain National Park, and a historic barn that is available for indoor activities. Site not shaded. Motorized access to site and use of barn facilities are by reservation only. Visitors may access on foot the river, Forest Service trails, and Rocky Mountain National Park trails located adjacent to the AA Barn Site. Dogs must be kept on a leash at all times at the AA Barn Site and adjacent Forest Service area, but dogs are prohibited in the Rocky Mountain National Park. Maximum number of people is 100 per day. The suggested vehicle limit is 20. Vehicles cannot be driven off the gravel areas. Do Not alter any features of the site, leave it as you find it. And, please pick up all trash and take it with you! Enjoy Your Stay. Keep reading
Recreation
This barn is adjacent to a hiking entry point to Rocky Mountain National Park and has great fishing opportunities.
Facilities
The AA Barn is an enclosed space and has two floors. The upper floor is not available for use. The lower floor has electricity. The barn can be very cold late into the summer season due to the lack of sunlight and lack of heater. The barn can also get very hot during warm summer afternoons. The outside corrals are not suitable for livestock but do make beautiful photography backgrounds. Outside of the barn, there are handicap accessible vault toilets. The barn is at the end of a gated, drivable road. The public has access to walk on the road but does not have access to drive down the driveway. Some tables and chairs are provided. This includes approximately 5 banquet style tables and 80 folding chairs, and 13 picnic tables. Please note; you cannot operate any device that produces amplified sound at the barn site. Watch a video tour of the barn: https://vimeo.com/816328996 Natural Features The mountains in this area of Colorado are beautiful but the lodgepole pine beetle killed trees can be a challenge when it comes to photographs. The AA Barn used to be a working ranch and old corrals can be found on site. The Colorado River headwaters are adjacent to this barn and it is just below the Shadow Mountain Reservoir dam. Contact Info This location has limited staffing. Please call (970) 295-6600 for general information.
Nearby Attractions
Green Ridge Campground Arapaho National Recreation Area Rocky Mountain National Park Grand Lake, Colorado Shadow Mountain Reservoir Lake Granby
What the agency tells you
No amplified music.
Pets must be on hand-held leash at all times.
Pack it in, pack it out. Remove all items brought to the site, including trash. Trash can be thrown in dumpsters provided at nearby day use sites (Shadow Mountain Dam Trailhead, Green Ridge Boat Launch, or Shadow Mountain Picnic Area).
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Food Storage: This site is subject to a food storage order to protect wildlife. Do not leave food, beverages, refuse, or items with food-like smells unattended unless stored in an approved bear-resistant container, a closed and locked hard-sided vehicle or building, or properly suspended from the ground.
Please do not damage or remove any of the property at this site. Examples include placing and leaving nails in the barn to hang decorations, breaking or removing tables and chairs.
Day Use Only: Site hours are from 6am to 10pm. No camping or overnight use is allowed.
Smoking is not allowed inside the barn. Campfires, fireworks, and other pyrotechnics are prohibited at this site. The use of self-contained gas grills is permitted.
Noncompliance is subject to fines per the Code of Federal Regulations.
After completely reading all the information available about the AA Barn, you can call the Forest Service at 970-295-6600 during normal business hours if you have any questions.
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…the barn, there are handicap accessible vault toilets. The barn is at the end of a gated, drivable road.…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Reservoir, Lake, River
- Fall color · reported 12 days ago, 21 km away
- Peak color
Nothing here to sleep in
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 12
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records · the site map
All 1 records
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
| 1 | AA Barn | day use | 134 ft | 1,852 ft | $100 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Green RidgeArapaho National Recreation Area · 0.4 mi
Cutthroat Bay GroupArapaho National Recreation Area · 2.0 mi
Stillwater (Colorado)Arapaho National Recreation Area · 3.1 miSunset Point CampgroundArapaho National Recreation Area · 4.4 mi
Arapaho BayArapaho National Recreation Area · 7.2 mi
Willow Creek GroupArapaho National Recreation Area · 7.3 miFrom the intersection of U.S. Highways 40 and 34 in Granby, travel north for 12 miles on Highway 34 to County Road 66 and go east one mile. Look for the Green Ridge Complex sign (County Road 66, Forest Road 274). Turn right on CR 66 and drive to end. Access through gate is issued with reservation upon calling the office during normal business hours.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Grand Lake, CO
Typical weather
Typical October night 27°F, day 55°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 3°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site is in Colorado’s 2nd congressional district. Its representative, Joe Neguse (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. See every public-lands vote →
Who can change it · 3
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- The member who votes the moneyJoe NeguseU.S. Representative · Colorado’s 2nd district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationJohn W. HickenlooperU.S. Senator · Colorado
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMichael F. BennetU.S. Senator · Colorado
Read the draft, or change the wording
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Joe Neguse, I’m a constituent in Colorado’s 2nd district. AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site, Arapaho National Recreation Area, Colorado carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site (Arapaho National Recreation Area, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear John W. Hickenlooper, I’m a constituent in Colorado. AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site, Arapaho National Recreation Area, Colorado carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site (Arapaho National Recreation Area, Colorado) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Michael F. Bennet, I’m a constituent in Colorado. AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site, Arapaho National Recreation Area, Colorado carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about AA Bar Ranch (AA Barn) Group Picnic Site (Arapaho National Recreation Area, Colorado) via campanac.com