Elizabeth Creek Ranch

We are pleased to present Elizabeth Creek Ranch, a 957± acre ranch located just south of the Town of Elizabeth in Elbert County, Colorado. Situated within the Southeast Denver Metro growth corridor, the property offers a unique combination of scale, riparian habitat, water rights, cattle operation potential, existing improvements, and long-term conservation opportunity. Today, it’s a working ranch — productive and full of recreational appeal — but given where it sits and how the area is growing, it’s also a strong land-banking play with real upside down the road. This is a rare chance to acquire a large-scale, water-backed property. Between the ag income, the recreation, and the development potential — all backed by a surrounding ownership pattern that keeps this corner of Elbert County private and stable — it’s a compelling long-term hold.

Location

The property is located 5 minutes south of Elizabeth and approximately 45–60 minutes from the Denver Tech Center, Denver International Airport, and Downtown Denver. The property sits in a private valley, with 2 miles of Cottonwood-treelined Running Creek bisecting the property and views of Pikes Peak on a clear day.

Locale

The Town of Elizabeth got its start in 1855 as a sawmill camp on Running Creek and was formally incorporated in 1890. It’s grown into a genuine bedroom community for Denver, but it hasn’t lost what makes it Elizabeth — people still know each other by name, and there’s real pride in the town’s history. Old Town Elizabeth is full of restored Victorian homes, antique shops, and Western apparel stores along Main Street, plus local favorites like Elizabeth Brewing Company for a cold one after a day on the ranch.

For being so close to Denver, Elizabeth still feels like small-town Colorado. Casey Jones Park and Evans Park anchor the community, there’s golf nearby at Spring Valley, Black Bear, and Colorado Golf Club, and kids are in the well-regarded Elizabeth School District. It’s also worth noting the town counts John C. Malone among its notable residents — fitting, given how much of the land bordering Elizabeth Creek Ranch ties back to his conservation efforts.

Improvements

Improvements include four residential dwellings, including a renovated late-1800s farmhouse; five poultry houses (approximately 180′ x 32′); a dairy barn, hay barn, and additional livestock facilities; shop buildings and support structures; a processing building with two walk-in coolers; and cross-fencing with 4-strand barbed wire.

The existing infrastructure supports ongoing agricultural operations and may offer flexibility for future adaptive use.

Recreation

This property is a candidate for hunting. It sits  in GMU 104, known for trophy mule deer, and the ranch also sees pronghorn, turkey, and elk. Plains elk tags are available over the counter.

Wildlife

The two miles of live water and riparian corridor along Running Creek do a lot of quiet work for this property’s conservation case. Great Blue Herons and Belted Kingfishers work the creek and stocked ponds, Western Kingbirds and Bullock’s Orioles nest in the cottonwoods, Red-winged Blackbirds and Canada Geese are regulars around the hay meadows and pond edges, and boreal chorus frogs, Woodhouse’s toads, leopard frogs, and tiger salamanders all depend on that same live water and irrigated meadow edge. That kind of bird and amphibian activity is a good sign of a healthy riparian system — exactly the resource base that easement programs and conservation buyers get excited about.

Ranch Operations

Today, the ranch runs as a cow-calf operation and hay farm. Over the years it’s also supported egg production, poultry, dairy, and hogs — this is a property that’s proven it can do a lot.

Hay production averages 1.0 to 1.5 tons per acre across sub-irrigated meadows planted to an established grass/alfalfa mix. Water gets where it needs to go via creek, ponds, and wells, and the natural topography gives good wind protection and solid wintering conditions for livestock.

Water Resources

Water is one of the biggest reasons this property stands out. That includes 1,495.8 acre-feet per year of court-decreed water rights, alluvial irrigation wells, about 2 miles of live water on Running Creek, and five stocked ponds.

Conservation Value

What really defines Elizabeth Creek Ranch is who owns the land around it. The ranch borders Harmony Land and Cattle LLC and land tied to John Malone’s conservation portfolio, which means large, contiguous ranch holdings, limited subdivision, preserved open space and natural corridors, and a track record of long-term stewardship all around it.

That’s a rare combination — a property in a growth corridor that still feels private, stable, and visually intact, which is getting harder to find anywhere along the Front Range.