Back on the Ranch

Before our move to Bend Oregon in early 2014, our home base was a little slice of heaven in the middle of nowhere; a small section of what used to be a very large cattle operation in Jackson County, Colorado located in the lush high altitude valley of North Park, ringed by the Rawah, Never Summer and Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Areas.

It was a magical place, and here’s what I wrote about it:

We live on a ranch that produces 1000 tons of top quality hay that we bale each summer.  Over six miles of the gold medal waters of the Michigan River wends its way through dense willow carr and below sage brush bluffs, carrying brown trout, cutbows, and brookies.   Wildlife abounds.  Beaver, river otter, mallards, teals, geese, and sandhill cranes make their home near the river. Mule deer and an occasional white tail deer wander by. And a migrating herd of 200 elk has chosen the deep willow cover as their calving ground.

A beloved moose population lives there as well.  In the summer our neighbor’s 100 head of registered Angus mother cows nurse their calves and feed on the ranch’s mountain grasses.  In the fall, the river and fields are filled with migrating hawks and water fowl on their long journey south for the winter.  We are two of approximately 1,400 lucky residents proud to call the gorgeous 2400 square miles of Jackson County home.