The Back Forty: Exploring Walden, Colorado

Ever wanted to explore some of the West’s lesser-known towns? You’re in luck. In our new mini-series, host Haley Mirr and our brokers shine a spotlight on small towns across the West that are rich in history, character, and outdoor recreation.

First up: Walden, Colorado—tucked into the high alpine basin of North Park, where wide-open ranchlands meet world-class fly fishing, abundant wildlife, and a tight-knit ranching community. Discover why Walden remains one of Colorado’s last true ag towns, what makes the landscape so unique, and why it might be the perfect place for your next ranch investment or summer escape.

Topics

[0:00] Intro – Welcome to Walden!

[1:10] What Is North Park?

[2:03] What Makes the Area Unique?

[3:26] Downtown Walden

[4:42] Recreation Around Walden

[6:21] Best Time of Year to Visit

[7:02] Why Ranch in North Park?

[8:21] Exploring Northern Colorado

[9:42] Mirr Properties in North Park

[11:57] See You in Walden!

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 Mirr. Let’s jump in. 

Welcome back to the Land Bulletin. I’m Haley Mirr, and today we’re going to be starting a new series. This year we’re going to be doing little highlights of smaller western towns with character history, natural beauty, because a lot of you guys are calling in and asking about different areas, but this is our chance to educate you on what makes the West the west. First up, we’re going to be looking in Walden, Colorado. This area of Colorado is in North Park. North Park is when we talk about parks. There’s a couple different parks in Colorado. North Park is in the northern part of the state, and it’s a high elevation, flat and wild valley surrounded by mountains. So that’s kind of what we’re looking at when we’re looking at the North Park area.

(01:12):

So Walden Colorado is one of the last remaining really ag ranchy towns, I would say in Colorado. North Park is this awesome area. It’s kind of on the northern part of Colorado, right at the Wyoming border, and it’s the headwaters, it’s the North Platte River, so it’s this Innermountain basin surrounded by mountains. The park range is to the west, the rabbit ears kind of mountain range is to the south, and then medicine bow is to the east. So it’s this very flat, kind of high alpine plain just surrounded by some of the best mountains in Colorado. There are all these streams that come from all those different mountains. They come together in North Park, the Illinois, the Michigan, the Roaring Fort Grizzly Creek to name a few. They really create this kind of water mecca of Colorado.

(02:07):

What makes Walden and the area of North Park unique I would say, is its location and these very important mountain ranges that connect kind of around it. And I would say the water is a really big kind of like I was saying, the water in other parts of Colorado has been sold off to municipalities. The population of Denver, Boulder, all these different areas is really growing. What’s very unique about North Park is the majority of the water stays in North Park, so you have these irrigated lands as far as the eye can see. It’s green in the summertime. It’s also very buggy because of the amount of irrigation and certain types of the year, so just watch out for those times of the year. But it really is this incredible area with just rivers and like I said, the headwaters of North Flat River. In addition to that, what makes it unique is it has the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge. It’s the highest refuge in the lower 48 states. It protects large mammals, but most importantly it protects a lot of migratory birds and waterfowl. So it’s this really amazing wildlife area, habitat River. I just think it’s a really beautiful place in Colorado.

(03:29):

So what I think makes the town of Walden so unique is it is a ranch in community still. It has the downtown Main Street kind of going through. It’s a smaller community, so everyone kind of knows each other. You have cattle brandings with neighbors and ranchers can come together. I have a couple friends with properties up there and they just have said the community itself is what I think makes it unique because people still really know each other. There are some bigger landowners up there, like John Malone owns a lot of land. There’s some big players with a lot of land, but the community, everyone kind of takes care of each other. I think one of the things that bring more tourists to the region and not just the people that live there is definitely the recreation. Like I was saying earlier, the rivers and the fly fishing in that part of the world is some of the best in the state. It’s one of the bigger economic boosts to the area, and I think if you are looking for maybe something off the beaten path with fun diners, a motel with really good fly fishing, Walden is definitely the place to visit.

(04:45):

So the top recreational activities in the area of North Park, I would say is fly fishing for sure. They have a lot of anglers in town, so if you’re just starting off and want to be guided by someone, they have a lot of opportunities there. With the fly fishing, the Delaney Butte Lakes have some really good still water fishing, whereas there’s the Michigan, the Canadian and the Illinois Rivers, which are all tributaries to the North Plat and they meander up throughout North Park. So there’s some really good fly fishing opportunities there too. Another great recreational piece of North Park is hunting. I’m not a big hunter, so I don’t have as much knowledge in that area, but because like I was saying, there’s the National Wildlife Refuge, there are all these different medicine Bo, all these national parks around this private land landscape of North Park.

(05:43):

You have these giant big game animals that come into North Park because maybe there’s some pressure from the public lands of those national parks and the BLM and things, and then they seek solace in these kind of private landscapes of north. So they call it, I think the moose capital of Colorado because there are so many large mammals that either kind of live up in those bigger ranges. They have to kind of cross through that area a lot of times too, to get to Wyoming. So if you’re a big hunter, this is a really good area for a big game as well.

(06:21):

Walden is higher in elevation. It definitely stays snowy for longer. It’s the northern part of the state, so it definitely stays colder longer. There’s a bug season that happens with irrigation season, so just avoid that time. But I would say right now is really beautiful. The snow is starting to melt off a little bit, I would say later in the summer. So August is really amazing. That’s kind of when irrigation has stopped and the landscape is still really green, the wildlife is still there. So I would say end of summer would be the best time to visit.

(07:03):

So if I were looking for a ranch and I was looking for a property where there were different types of income strategies on the ranch, so that would be cattle operation, hay, fly fishing, all these different avenues of generating income, I would definitely look in this region. What’s great about North Park is the ranches are still big. They haven’t been segmented off. There’s not a lot of 35 acre lots that you might see in some of the I 70 corridor counties and things like that. There are still big branches to be purchased in North Park, and with that, like I was saying earlier, there’s the water hasn’t been sold off from a lot of these ranches, so there’s still a big opportunity to grow a lot of hay because they’re bigger. You can have bigger cattle operations, so there’s an income generator there, and then because there’s so much water, there is an opportunity to not just fly fish yourself, but also potentially generate some income off of leases with local outfitters, things like that. So if you’re looking for a creative way to generate a lot of income in a lot of different ways, I think North Park and Walden are a really good place to look.

(08:24):

If you are looking in Walden and you’re looking to know, okay, beyond just North Park and the things that exist there, what are some of the other opportunities that I could look at if I were to buy a ranch there or live there? Steamboat is super close, so if you need a little bit of that recreation skiing, you want a bigger town, it’s about an hour away, so it’s really not that hard to get to. You just go over Rabbit ears pass. Rosalyn is a really cute little town. I wouldn’t say that’s a big draw, but then if you go past Rosalyn and then kind of continue, you will hit Granby. You can get to that area of Colorado, and then if you go north, you can easily access Saratoga. You get into Wyoming, you could check out the a bar, a ranch, which is a dude ranch up there. So you really are, even though you’re way north, you are centrally located to a lot of amazing areas of the west, including kind of that Wyoming area. And then in the summertime, you can actually go over the mountains from Fort Collins to the east. That pass just closed during the winter months, but you can access even Fort Collins from the North Park area.

(09:47):

So my ranch group has a history of selling some big ranches in North Park. Like I was saying earlier, it’s a really good opportunity to purchase some bigger landscapes that haven’t been segmented and very contiguous. There’s a long history of ranching in the area, so we’ve definitely sold and participated in a lot of sales in North Park. Currently we have two ranches listed in the Walden North Park area. We have Double R Ranch and we have the Roslyn Ranch, both of which are ranches that we actually help sell to the current owners. Roslyn is towards the southern part of the North Park area closer to Roslyn, like I was talking about earlier. That property is unbelievable, so much water. The hay operation in that specific ranch is slim to none. And one of the properties that we have currently listed with the most water, the other property that we have listed is the Double R Ranch.

(10:42):

Again, this is a historic ranch owned by Bob Toton at one point, and that property is kind of like I was saying earlier. It has the cattle piece, it has the water and the hay piece, and then it has the fly fishing piece because the Double R Ranch also has about four and a half miles of the North Platte River going through the property and adjoins gold medal waters on three separate lakes with the Delaney Butte Lakes and the state wildlife area I was mentioning. So double RI would say has all three of those things I was talking about the large cattle operation, the water as well as the fly fishing, and then I would say Rosalyn, the hay operation there is one of the best things that we have listed right now, both operation, but both of the current owners are actually, they’re absentee landowners, so they’re people that we’re looking for an income generator.

(11:34):

They’ve enjoyed seeing those properties grow into what they are now and have been able to improve a lot of the operational components. So again, those larger landscapes, you’re not just looking for the recreation, you’re looking for something that can kind of hit all those different points of an income generating property for people who are really looking for that ranching experience, it really is one of the last remaining ranch communities in Colorado that has access to all this amazing recreation, but still feels like a small close-knit community. There’s some really cool ranches in that part of the world, still contiguous, still have the water that flows through it green throughout the year. So it’s definitely a remarkable place if you’re looking to have all those different components of owning a ranch, and it’s one of my places favorite places to visit. Another thing I would mention that I think I kind of hit on earlier is the landowners that are up there are some of the preeminent landowners of Colorado, including John Malone. So you are going to be amongst a lot of incredible landowners. You are part of this very close knit community and definitely an opportunity to be a part of Colorado history up there.

(12:59):

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 and our [email protected] or give us a call at six two three four five four five. See you next time.