Yampa Headwaters Ranch

Yampa Headwaters Ranch, Routt County, Colorado, consists of 610± acres with two live creeks and multiple stocked ponds. Very unique for the ranch marketplace, highlighted by an Army Corps of Engineers-permitted wetland mitigation bank with over 200 wetland credits available to serve wetland impacts and growth in Northwest Colorado.

Perfectly located between Steamboat Springs and the Vail Valley, this ranch’s diverse landscape includes a 100+ acre irrigated hay meadow, over 200 acres of wetland and riparian bordering Brinker and Chimney Creeks, and upland acreage of rolling sagebrush topography. A fly fisherman’s dream, Brinker and Chimney Creeks, headwaters of the Yampa River, meander through the ranch for over 2.5 miles and provide opportunities for rainbow and brown trout species. Two of the largest stocked ponds, Big Pond and Acord Pond, are fed by live water and stocked with rainbow, and the occasional brown trout has migrated in. Due to the live water and extensive riparian acreage, Yampa Headwaters Ranch is a year-round destination for waterfowl, including mallards, teal, wood duck, and geese, and in recent years, two pairs of sandhill cranes have nested and raised their young on the ranch. The ranch is home to mule deer, antelope, and the occasional elk herd migrating through.

Ranch headquarters with views of the Flattops Wilderness includes a custom barn with a two-bedroom, 1.5-bath apartment, 3’ x 14’ bay doors, and a walk-in cooler with a game-cleaning area ready for your big game pursuits. Multiple postcard locations exist for future building sites, including a secluded cabin at Look Pond.

Yampa Headwaters Ranch’s wetland mitigation bank was permitted in 2003 and has transferred wetland credits throughout Northwest Colorado for unavoidable wetland impacts from Vail and Beaver Creek to Steamboat Springs and west to Craig and Meeker. Yampa Headwaters Ranch benefits from the traditional ag economics of cattle grazing and hay production. However, the wetland mitigation bank future credit sales brands this ranch impossible to reproduce in today’s ranch market and worth your consideration.

In today’s ranch market, it would be a tall order to find comparable acreage with equivalent assets, recreational attributes, trout habitat, investment grade, waters rights portfolio, improvements, and proximity to world-class resort areas.

The listing broker is the owner of the selling entity.