In our next installment of The Back Forty, Haley is joined by Willy Strazza to discuss the beauty and history of Carbondale, Colorado. They explore the region’s rich agricultural roots, its evolving identity as an outdoor and creative hub, and why the community stands apart from its glitzier neighbors. From the Fryingpan to enviable land management opportunities, Carbondale has a little something for everyone.
Chapters
(0:00) Welcome Back! Carbondale with Willie Strazza
(1:16) Getting to Know Carbondale
(2:07) History of Carbondale
(5:48) What Makes Carbondale Unique?
(7:34) Living in Carbondale
(13:12) A Special Community
(14:46) Carbondale’s Hidden Gems
(16:13) Wrap Up: The Best of Carbondale
Haley (00:06):
Welcome back to the Land Bulletin podcast, where every other week we bring you experts in the field to impart their knowledge when it comes to the ranch and sporting property market, buying and selling advice, the latest, best stewardship practices, as well as topics that impact landowners every day. I’m your host, Haley Mer. Let’s jump in.
Welcome back to the Land Bulletin podcast, and we’re going back to our back 40 episodes where we look at different parts of the west and kind of what makes them unique, our own experiences with them, and maybe why you’d want to invest in a ranch in these different areas. Helping me out today looking at a part of Colorado that is special to him and his whole family is Wily Strazza, and we are looking at the area of Carbondale, Colorado. So welcome to the show, Willy, and I think you’re in Carbondale right now for listeners who are seeing you.
Willy (00:57):
I am. We’ve got a view of Sora behind us, but the camera’s not picking it up, but it’s a kind of drizzly day here, but as always, everywhere in Colorado. Grateful for the moisture when we can get it.
Haley (01:10):
Exactly. Well, we’ll pretend like we’re looking at sous as we chat today about Carbondale. For those who have never heard of Carbondale, where is it located and how would you describe it?
Willy (01:27):
It’s kind of at the halfway point between Glenwood Springs and Aspen. I’m based out of Denver. It’s about a three hour drive door to door for me to get to my parents’ place. There’s also three different regional airports, which is great from an access standpoint here. There’s the airport up in Aspen. You can fly out of Eagle Airport or you could go down the road to Glenwood and fly out of there. Glenwoods probably about an hour 30 away from Carbondale. Eagles probably about an hour. And then 45 minutes down the road is Aspen Airport.
Haley (02:11):
And can you share a little bit about the history on this region and how it’s been used over time? I know people are maybe familiar with Aspen as this kind of recreational haven, but what has Carbondale been used for over time and why have people started to kind of move there?
Willy (02:28):
Yeah, it’s really interesting and I started looking into the history a couple of winters ago. I was staying at my parents’ house and I saw some thermal, I thought it was initially smoke that was coming up from the hillside. They live up on Red Hill just outside of the town of Carbondale. And it turned out that it was a geothermal seep that was coming out and it was steam, it wasn’t actually smoke. And so I started researching the area uncovered that this was settled by the U people and they would oftentimes set up their wiki ups or their teepees around those thermals just as a natural heat source. So that was early on before there were any settlers. And then in the 18 hundreds, settlers started arriving and it became kind of a true agricultural hub. So first it was cattle, then there was sheep ranching, and then potato farming became very popular in the valley, and they actually still celebrate this potato day every year. They had the celebration last weekend and my family was up there and they see who grows the biggest potato and the whole community comes out. It’s a fun weekend for everyone. And then
Haley (03:47):
After, wait, I love that. That’s so fun.
Willy (03:49):
I know it’s great. And then later on, mining started getting more developed, the railroad system that kind of helped shape the economy and connected Carbondale to Aspen and to Glenwood Springs. And then after that, the resort community really started to take off. There’s a ski area that’s just outside of Glenwood Springs and then there’s obviously the Four Mountains up in Aspen. And so now you’ve got this really diverse and interesting blend of this working ranch town, but also kind of a creative outpost where you’ve got artists and craftspeople and makers and outdoor enthusiasts who all like to call this place home for all the great attributes it has.
Haley (04:39):
I was going to say to me, Carbondale feels like this awesome mix of outdoor enthusiasts. There’s a lot of businesses that have kind of started in Carbondale. There’s a lot of artisans. It’s this really neat hub and people can actually live there. I feel like a lot of these resort towns, secondary homes and things, but Carbondale feels like a real town.
Willy (04:59):
Yeah, it’s a great mix of people who want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. And obviously COD changed things from a working standpoint. A lot of people have the flexibility to work in remote areas, but Carbondale, just speaking from my brother’s experience with his two kids and my sister’s experience up here and my parents, there’s a great public school systems, there’s good hospital systems. There’s one state-of-the-art facility right down in Glenwood, and then you’ve got Aspen Valley, that’s another great medical center. You’ve got grocery stores and fresh produce, and it’s kind of got everything that you would want, but without the hustle and bustle of the resort community.
Haley (05:52):
And now I’ll kind of look at the broader Colorado. What makes unique and why would someone want to maybe live here versus some other towns in Colorado?
Willy (06:05):
Yeah, for me, it’s kind of what I mentioned before. It’s got all of the benefits of living in a resort community, but without the busyness. I mean, even when we want to drive and ski one of the Aspen mountains on the weekend, and whether that’s Christmas or Thanksgiving, I’ve never had an issue with lift lines. And you’ve got great mountains for every level of skiers. So my brother’s kids who are five and three can go over to buttermilk for the day, and then we might go to Highlands and hike the bowl, and if the whole family wants to go out, we’ll go to Snowmass. I think from a recreational standpoint too, it’s hard to find an area that’s as great of a jumping off point as Carbondale is. I mean, you’ve got, from a fishing standpoint and boating standpoint, you’ve got the Roaring Fork River, you’ve got the lower Colorado River, you’ve got the Crystal River, you’ve got the frying pan, you’ve got Taylor Creek plus a bunch of cool high mountain lakes that are just chock full of fish. So the hiking, biking, skiing, whether that’s cross country or downhill, all these recreation opportunities are right out your back door here or within a 15 to 30 minute drive away from you.
Haley (07:27):
And we’ve talked about the avatar of the person who might want to live there. Now I kind of want to shift our focus to what we do. If you’re looking for land and wanting to invest in a ranch, what might draw you to Carbondale versus maybe some other ranching communities looking more so at the investment of land versus like a house?
Willy (07:54):
Yeah, absolutely. So from a practical standpoint, you’ve got reliable water here. With all the rivers that I’ve referenced, you’ve got great access, whether that’s drying or flying into one of the airports, one of the three that I mentioned, and you’ve got kind of a moderate climate here. What I think is really interesting about Carbondale, people think about moving to Aspen, but they say, oh, I don’t really want the cold. Cold winters aspen’s at about 8,000 feet. Carbondale is closer to 6,000 feet. So it’s almost in this little banana belt where it’s only at 800 feet higher in elevation than Denver. So those who are familiar with the climate in Denver, that’s something that you can kind of expect up here. It’ll be slightly cooler in the summer, but you’re not getting the tremendous amount of snow fall that you’ll get up in Aspen. And then from a land use perspective, you’ve got, it’s just a lush, fertile kind of valley that lends itself to a bunch of different uses.
(09:02):
There’s tree farms down in the valley, there’s potato farms, there’s a lot of great hay production that happens in the valley, all because of the benefits of being in this kind of perfectly situated climate and area. So all of that, and then combined with the recreation all out your back door, it lends itself. These areas are kind of few and far between. And so from an investment standpoint, if you can get in at a reasonable basis, you can rest assured that as more and more people discover these small mountain communities, they’re going to become more desirable, more attractive, and that’s what’s going to boost up those property values in years to come.
Haley (09:44):
And are you experiencing in Carbondale the same price tag as one might experience in Aspen, or are you still able to your point, get in at a nicer base where you can see kind of that investment growth?
Willy (09:57):
Yeah, it’s interesting. I think there’s really cool pockets that are just down the road from Carbondale, maybe a little bit closer to Glenwood, which still lend themselves to all of the great attributes that I referenced, but you can get in at a more reasonable price point. An example of that is that plus lazy K Ranch that we have listed up here where you’re seeing a lot of these smaller parcels with amazing million dollar views of sous that are, maybe it’s 35 acres, has a well, but no real water rights and just that bare land is going for over a million bucks, whereas plus lazy K, it is basically like a nature preserve out there. It’s 180 acres, it’s got more water than they know what to do with, which is a rarity for the area. So it’s got a number of ponds in the spring that flows year round through it.
(10:56):
That offering price is just under $5 million right now for 180 acres, which is, in my mind, an amazing opportunity when you see what other properties are trading for in the area. So it’s definitely a tier down in terms of pricing from what you’ll see in Pickin County and as you get past Basalt and closer to Aspen. But it is rapidly changing and gaining popularity. And a lot of folks who are recognizing they’ve had houses in Aspen for the last 40 years and it was passed on to them from their parents, and they get a big check offered to them, and they say, we don’t necessarily need the Aspen lifestyle. Carbondale is better suited for our family and we can still benefit from being 40 minutes down the road, but we can get a better bang for our buck down here. So all of that is increasing prices throughout the valley all the way down to Glenwood, but it is a much more approachable and reasonable price point than what you’ll find further up towards Aspen.
Haley (12:06):
It seems too that as you get closer to these resort towns, there’s a lot more segmentation of these ranches. So to your point, like 35 acre lots, 40 acre lots, but it seems like there’s still some kind of larger parcels and ranches available to those looking for that lifestyle closer to Carbondale.
Willy (12:24):
Absolutely. Yeah. It’s definitely got more of a agricultural community feel still down in Carbondale. And as you go up the valley up the Crystal River, if you head down towards Glenwood, and a lot of those larger pieces have been protected by groups, say the Aspen Valley Land Trust, they’ve been very involved in the community. So yeah, those larger holdings, people have wanted to preserve the character and the feel of this valley. And I think the fact that you’re not having as dramatic of temperature shifts and as dramatic of snowfall as you would in Aspen, in Carbondale, it led, it lends itself to more favorable agricultural benefits.
Haley (13:16):
And sometimes when we love an area, there’s an intangible. We talk about the investment potential, we talk about the amenity available, but what are some of the intangibles that your family has felt living there? What are some of the things that have made them fall in love with the place beyond just kind of what we’ve talked about?
Willy (13:40):
Yeah, I think the sense of community here, whether that’s through my Brother’s Kids’ school or the different programs that they’re involved in and soccer teams or I love walking around town with my dad and we go to the grocery store and everyone’s saying, oh, hey Craig, how you doing? And he knows everyone there. And then you go down to the hardware store and it’s the same story and it’s the owners at the coffee shop know everybody. So it’s just a really friendly small town vibe, but at the same time, you’ve got access to everything that you would need and that you would find in a larger, more established town, I would say.
Haley (14:27):
I love that. Well, if I knew Craig up there, I’d say hi to him no matter where I was. So he’s quite the presence
Willy (14:34):
Like, dad, we got to go. We’re in charge of dinner. We’ve been here for 45 minutes,
Haley (14:40):
No more. Craig, that’s awesome. And before we wrap up, we like, and this is for our producer and for me before we wrap up, local Hidden Gems, restaurants, cafes, kind of muy stops. I don’t want you to give away all your fishing kind of holes, but what are some of your favorite gems that people passing through or they have a free afternoon after looking at ranches with you? What are some of the places you recommend people stopping in Carbondale?
Willy (15:15):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, from a food standpoint, you’ve got a ton of awesome options. If you want a good family spot to go watch a football game, we love going to White House Pizza. We had Fatt last night, which is just an awesome Thai restaurant in town. You can head up, if you’re fishing the frying pan, I love to go to the Tipsy Trout down there afterwards and grab a margarita. Or if you’re looking for Mexican, you got El Rito and Elbel. Those are probably some of my favorite places. And then a go-to if I’m waking up early and heading up the hill to Aspen to do some skiing, do gringos right in town, they’ve got absolutely phenomenal breakfast burritos and bagels and sandwiches. So that’s usually our first stop on the way out.
Haley (16:09):
That’s awesome. Well, Caroline, make sure you have all those pinned on your Google map. And then I guess just from a personal standpoint, I know you even got married in Carbondale. What’s your favorite part about Carbondale?
Willy (16:28):
I selfishly love the fishing and the golf. My brother lives down in RVR and I love that golf course and it’s relatively easy to make a tee time, whereas if I’m trying to make a tee time in Denver, you got to be on it a couple of weeks in advance and then fishing. I had six years of guiding experience around Colorado and the Roaring Fork Watershed has always had a special place in my heart, very healthy fishery, and then have the added benefits of the frying pan right down the road. The Crystal River. It’s fun for kind of a fishing nerd like me who likes to track water flows, and I can have multiple options depending on if they got rain the day before. If they’ve released flows out of root eye, I can say, okay, this is a better day to get the boat out. Or maybe we go up a little further upstream before these different tributaries and we’ll do some wade fishing. So it just lends itself to a lot of different opportunities. Plus the Colorado River, as I mentioned, that’s 30 minutes down the road from us, and that section of the lower Colorado, depending on when you fish it, there’s some huge fish there, and it’s really fun.
Haley (17:51):
That’s awesome. Well, I don’t fish much, but I have reminder bird fishing with you and Ross on the frying pan and doing some of that, and I can attest. It’s really awesome, and it seems like you do very well on there. Based on the photos I’ve gotten from you,
Willy (18:05):
Just you find yourself, you have these moments where you’re standing in the middle of the river and you can’t hear the road and the trees are turning colors, and you look up and you see Mount Sous, and it just gives you an appreciation for where you are.
Haley (18:21):
Well, any place, the straws, the clan can call Hum because most of you guys are up there. Seems like a really special place with community things to do, and obviously from our perspective, really good investment for ranches. So thank you, Willie, for taking the time to teach us a little bit more about Carbondale. And for those listening there is, Willie kind of mentioned it, but plus Lazy K is up near there. We’ve sold a lot of things up there in the last couple of years. So if you have questions about ranches in Carbondale, please reach out to Willie whenever you can. Thanks again, Willie, for being on the show.
Willy (18:58):
Yeah, thanks Haley.
Haley (19:00):
Thanks for joining us today. To learn more about the ranch real estate market or our ranch marketing process, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter on our [email protected] or give us a call at (303) 623-4545. See you next time.
Need professional help finding, buying or selling a legacy ranch, contact us:
Mirr Ranch Group
901 Acoma Street
Denver, CO 80204
