June 18th 2020
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Monkey Island Fireworks July 3: Anticipated Crowds Mean New Parking Area
Anticipation of large crowds and reduced availability of parking at Shangri-La Resort due to construction of the resort's new $6 million Activity Park have resulted in new parking instructions for those planning to attend the July 3 Monkey Island Fireworks celebration by automobile. Auto parking will be across Highway 125 immediately north of Grand Lake Regional Airport on Monkey Island. Attendees will be taken to and from the Shangri-La Resort Hotel's Grand Lawn viewing area via shuttle buses.(more)

                                    
  

Mentor, Friend, Instructor, Guide And Coach.... All Rolled Into One

This Sunday, all across the country, families will celebrate Father's Day in various ways with many gathering right here on Grand Lake to pay homage to the man of the day. Some will look forward to it as a joyous family occasion, while others will approach it as a dreaded obligation. For me, since 1996, there have been no bear hugs or other expression of love to be shared with my Dad on this very special day....because he is gone. What I would give to be inconvenienced one more time.
There will be hugs for me, the reigning patriarch of our family from some pretty special people and I fully intend to enjoy the moment, but Father's Day celebrations with my Dad are gone forever.....at least until the hereafter. And that, in itself, generates some very scary thoughts as the eldest son will have a little explaining to do by Dad's standards. (more)



     Sumner Machine's Big Meat Run Take Two Has Arrived
The Covid-19 Virus has had an upside-down effect on many activities scheduled for Grand Lake during the 2020 season, but few impacted as many as the rescheduling of Sumner Machine's Big Meat Run. For 20 years, the Big Meat Run has attracted thousands of rock-crawlers and spectators to the event each March. It has grown into one of the earliest major events which the business community points to as a sure sign Old man Winter is clearly in the rear-view mirror.
There is no possible way the group building the Pensacola Dam in 1939 could have anticipated The Big Meat Run event coming to the tent-town of Disney some six decades later. They probably never thought about how the release of water through the turbines of the dam, over time, would wear down the land to the natural bedrock to form an unspeakably beautiful rock garden. John Sumner stumbled upon it over 20 years ago and it became a playground for him and his Jeep. Since then, thousands upon thousands of people bring their four wheelers, side by sides, Jeeps, trucks and other off road vehicles to explore the rocks down below the Pensacola Dam.  (MORE)