A hidden gem tucked between Steamboat and Rifle, Meeker, Colorado is a quiet town brimming with western history. From its deep ranching roots and untouched landscapes to world-class elk hunting and fly fishing in the White River, Meeker offers unmatched outdoor recreation and true wild West feel. Whether you’re seeking privacy, public land access, or a strong ranching community away from the resort-town sprawl, Meeker might just be your perfect escape.
Topics
[0:00] Welcome back to The Back Forty!
[0:58] Meeker, Colorado
[1:59] What Makes Meeker Unique?
[2:51] Amenities Around Meeker, CO
[3:25] Downton Meeker
[4:11] Recreation: What’s Around Meeker?
[5:23] Best Time of Year to Visit
[6:04] Exploring Meeker and Beyond
[6:46] Ranching: Why Meeker?
[8:58] Mirr Properties Around Meeker
[9:51] See You in Meeker!
Haley Mirr (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 Mirr. Let’s jump in. Welcome to the Land Bulletin.
Welcome back to our special series, the Back 40, where we explore some of Colorado, Wyoming, the rest of the west small towns so you guys can get a little more intimate with it and understand. Is this a place that I should be looking for a ranch today? We are looking at a town in Colorado called Meeker, Colorado. You’ll learn a lot about it, but today we’re going to have Harry Woodward on to teach us a little bit about the area. So thanks for being on the show, Harry.
Harry Woodward (00:56):
Yeah, I think a
Haley Mirr (00:58):
We will start on a broader scale. Describe Meeker to us. Where is it? What’s around it? Kind of location based.
Harry Woodward (01:04):
As someone who’s lived in Colorado for my entire life, Meeker was a place that I had never been until I started working in a ranch brokerage. It’s kind of a little pocket that you’re never really going to pass through on any of our major highways. It’s about halfway between Steamboat to the north and rifle to the south, so it’s a pretty private little region that doesn’t have any influence from a resort valley. You’re 90 minutes up to Steamboat about two and a half hours down to the east over to Aspen. So I think it’s preserved a really old west ranching feel throughout the years and it’s, to me, you want to Colorado’s strongest ranching communities with owners that have been there for three and four generations.
Haley Mirr (01:53):
Yeah, I didn’t really know about it either until we started working on Elk Creek up there. What makes Meeker a unique Colorado town? What sets it apart from maybe some other river frontage towns?
Harry Woodward (02:05):
Insulation from resort markets is what sets it apart. You really don’t have anyone buying in Meeker unless they’re entering into the ranch brokerage industry or wanting to buy a recreational fishing and hunting ranch. It has all the bones of a great ranchy town with the White River running right through the center of it, great ground for growing grass, and on top of that it’s almost surrounded by National forest. The Flattops wilderness kind of sits overlooking it. So as far as outdoor recreation goes on public land, it’s got a lot of great options, especially in the hunting world.
Haley Mirr (02:43):
What exists in Meeker so you don’t have to necessarily drive all the way to these resort areas to get what you’re looking for. What other amenities exist in Meeker?
Harry Woodward (02:52):
I get that question a lot from buyers when I’m describing Meeker to them as this wild kind of old west town, and while it has maintained that there are a lot of great amenities there. You have a FBO right in town that’s 15 minutes from any major ranch that we’ve sold in the past, so that’s great. They actually did just build a brand new hospital there in Meeker, which is super high end and nice, and then there are a bunch of great little restaurants there in town, a grocery store, so it really does have everything that you need right in town.
Haley Mirr (03:23):
From an amenity standpoint, what’s the downtown like? What would attract a tourist after a long day of fishing? What can you do? Downtown
Harry Woodward (03:31):
Meeker’s got some really cool history. It got its start in the late 18 hundreds, but the Meeker Hotel is actually very historic. It’s where Teddy Roosevelt used to hang out on his hunting trips. There’s one famous one where he shot a world record mountain lion right before his presidency in 1901. So you can go into that hotel. Everything’s still the same, the bar and all that and restaurant, it feels like you’re jumping into a time machine and some of the animals that Teddy Roosevelt kill it are still there in that hotel.
Haley Mirr (04:04):
That’s so cool. Well, I’ll have to check that out the next time I’m up there. I know we’ve talked about fishing and this is our chance to kind of dive more into it, but what are the top recreational activities in the area?
Harry Woodward (04:16):
Elk cunning is probably number one in the fall. That Unit 23 has been an over the counter unit, so it gets a lot of public pressure and there’s ample public land in the area. They have moved a little bit away from over the counter deal, but yeah, in the fall it’s just bustling with elk, Connors and has been a hotspot for public hunting for a long time. And then on top of that you have the Flattops wilderness area with a lot of great camping and hiking, backpacking, fishing type stuff, trappers lakes not very far. And with the white and the south fork of the white, there’s a lot of opportunity for some great fishing too.
Haley Mirr (04:57):
Why would you say meager is one of AMeekerica’s most wild areas?
Harry Woodward (05:01):
It’s wild in that there’s so much public land there and the ranches that are there haven’t really been developed outside of a few. So people that buy and Meeker do so because it’s insulated from those resort markets and they can have some privacy from what you would see in a Steamboat or an Aspen.
Haley Mirr (05:23):
Is there a best time of year, I know we’ve talked about the fall with hunting, but in your perspective, what’s the best time of year to enjoy Meeker? Meeker
Harry Woodward (05:30):
Is kind of a sleeper as a banana belt region. I’ve been there in January and February when you have like 45 degree days. So when I really love getting up there is what I define in our ranch world as the shoulder seasons of early mid-March to middle of May, and then you can get some great weather in between middle of October and even November. It stays pretty warm on either side of winter.
Haley Mirr (06:01):
Are there other towns nearby that attract visitors beyond Meeker? I know you were saying it’s kind of like in its own little pocket up there. Are there any other towns nearby?
Harry Woodward (06:11):
Probably about an hour to the South is Rifle and that’s on the I 70 corridor. So that gets a lot of passers by, and there’s a reason that it stays so quiet in Meeker is because you got to drive 45 minutes north from rifle or 90 minutes down from Steamboat. So those are the two that are kind of the main centers that I think people would be in and they wouldn’t necessarily know that there’s just kind of this haven in Meeker that they can visit and get out of the hustle and bustle of the I 70 corridor.
Haley Mirr (06:45):
And if you had to pick one major reason someone might want to choose a ranch in this location, what would it be? And you don’t have to limit it maybe to one, you can have a couple.
Harry Woodward (06:56):
Yeah, I think you see some of the famous ranches in Meeker that are owned by families that are on the Forbes list. They’re there because it’s so private. I think that’s a big part of the appeal. And then the Elk Creek Ranch that I sell up there, people love it for the seclusion and the wild field that it has that is outside of a resort valley. They get sick of being in Vail, beaver Creek, and they want to come over and have a more wild, secluded, purely outdoor place.
Haley Mirr (07:27):
What would be the benefits of living or owning property in the Meeker area? The Just visiting,
Harry Woodward (07:34):
Being able to be a part of a real old West town I think is appealing for a lot of folks that are there. It’s such a strong ranching community that they all kind of benefit from each other in different ways and it’s a super tight knit community there, and I think it’s done a great job of maintaining that old west feel.
Haley Mirr (07:58):
Can you tell me a little bit more about the makeup of who owns Land up there and how the ranches are kind of situated? Because you look at certain areas of Colorado, like these resort areas and they’ve turned into like 35 acre plots and things like that. What’s kind of the makeup of ranches and land here? Me,
Harry Woodward (08:19):
The vast majority of the ranch land in Meeker are owners that own over 500 acres and you kind of get out town and heading east up towards the flat tops. And the names are the Walton family and Michael Bloomberg and Greg Norman used to be up there. So it’s a lot of really high end names and those folks have all shared the common thread that I was just mentioning and wanting to have a really wild insulated from resort influence and have some great, great fishing in hunting land.
Haley Mirr (08:58):
What properties does Mir Ranch Group currently have in the Meeker area? I know you’ve mentioned a few, but if you want to talk a little bit more about this.
Harry Woodward (09:06):
Yeah, so we’re currently representing Elk Creek Ranch, which is a shared ownership property about 65 lots, 65 owners over 15,000 acres, and it’s a purely recreational ranch. You have incredible fishing, great elk cunning, and it’s a place that people love because being in a shared community with a very professional staff and meticulous management, you don’t deal with the management burden that you have on a lot of our standalone ranches. You show up and you can fish and hunt and it’s ready to go for you. I think that coupled with the area being so wild is what makes Elk Creek appealing for a lot of our buyers.
Haley Mirr (09:50):
And then what type of person looking for a ranch would find what they’re looking for in the Meeker area? I
Harry Woodward (09:55):
Think it’s someone who’s very highly focused on outdoor recreation. It’s someone who is a diehard fisherman or a diehard elk hunter. Those are the people that we see gravitating towards an area like Meeker. It’s not someone that wants a ski house. It’s not someone that wants a gentleman’s ranch type property. It’s someone who is diehard in the fishing and hunting world.
Haley Mirr (10:19):
Awesome. Well, thank you Harry for being on the Land bulletin and teaching us a little bit more about Meeker. And if you’re listening and want to learn more about Meeker or any of the ranches we have available up there with Elk Creek Ranch, feel free to give us a call or Harry directly. And if there are other areas in the West that you guys want to learn more about, please give us a ring.
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.
