Land hunt #10 – long post with photos

The hunt for our “Dream Land” continued with trip number 10. Here’s how it went.

Pam and I headed east on Thursday night after work. Both of us had taken Friday off as vacation days. The plan was to stay at a B&B (the Hand Hotel) Thursday night, have most of Friday to check out properties, then return home Friday night or Saturday morning. Chores and shopping would be done on the other holiday weekend days. This arrangement worked out well, as it gave us more time in our target area. We did arrive home late Friday night.

Our Thursday night stay was at the Hand Hotel in Fairplay. Listed as a B&B, the Hand Hotel is an old hotel, but is now serving a continental breakfast. I guess that qualifies it as a B&B.

Hand Hotel B&B entrance

We found the Hand very pleasant, but quite warm during the night. Breakfast was somewhat more expansive than average for a B&B, including breakfast burritos, hard-boiled eggs, and a large variety of teas in addition to cold cereal, juice, pastries, coffee, fruit, and other breakfast goodies. After walking the dogs and eating breakfast we headed out on our property search.

Pam had organized the property listings in a 3-ring binder, making it easier to group them and use the maps we have acquired. The first stop for the day was a house on several acres of land near Florissant.

First stop of the day

The stop was disappointing, as the house had been trashed by its previous occupants. One window was gone, leaving the house open to the elements. Several inside walls had wall board missing, and others were covered with graffiti. As we have found with other listings (houses on land) in our price range, the house invariably would take a lot of work to bring up to living standards. While that would have been an option in our younger days, it is not attractive now. On to the next place.

4+ acre lot in Indian Creek

“4 acres with driveway in place.” We came, we saw, we left. While pleasant, the lot has a lot of unusable space, as it is split by a pretty deep ravine. Many of the lots we have seen contain such elements, and we are not keen on buying land, and paying taxes on it, if the entire parcel isn’t useable. Still, we felt we were on the right track. At least this lot could be walked on, had a driveway, trees, and was not that far from a paved road. The dogs enjoyed getting out and examining elk and deer droppings.

We stopped and looked at a series of  properties – we would cover no fewer than 11 this day  – and did not take photos of all of them. Some were too steep, some had no trees. However, we did come on 3 that we really liked and plan to further research, plus one that is very interesting but quite isolated.

The first of our “Top 3” is a lot along Hwy 61, AKA 4-mile road. (This road is near Cripple Creek.) Located on the west side of the road, and backing up to some large hills, the lot is heavily treed with a mix of aspen and pine. While walking the lot we found it to be very moist, with moss growing in some places, and containing a seasonal stream. Obviously used in the past, we located an old outhouse and a fair number of old automotive oil cans in a pile. There are some views to the north. One drawback: wash-off from the road is extensive, and it would require some work (culverts) to fix this.

Lot along Hwy 61, 4-mile Road

Strangely enough, we did not have a listing for this parcel. We came across it when driving down the road looking for another parcel that we did have a listing for, so we will have to contact the realtor for more information.

The parcel we were looking for was on Craig’s List. Pam had found it while researching land for sale in this area. 10 acres with a small shed and a meadow area surrounded by mature trees. For once the billing was accurate,  probably because it wasn’t written by a realtor.

Jerry with shed, 10 acre property

This property may no longer be for sale. There was no realtor sign or no “For Sale By Owner” sign to be found. Again, it will take some more research. Some of the largest aspen trees either of us have ever seen, some of them huge, are located here. We were impressed with the quiet. If tall trees and open meadows float your boat, this is the lot to have. No well or septic, and the driveway needs work, but we liked this spot a great deal. No views from the shed, but nice views from the road on the way in. If still for sale, this would be the second lot we could consider purchasing.

The 3rd lot, and Jerry’s favorite, borders Hwy 61. We did not have a listing for it, but saw the sign and had to stop and walk the property. Biggest draw is the view of Pike’s Peak western side. This photo is a view from the lot looking NE.

Pike's Peak view lot

The front of the lot is meadow, but further back there is a mix of pine and aspen. The further back you go the larger the trees get. Land has a large flat area, borders a county road, and is about 1/2 mile from pavement. It is within a few miles of Cripple Creek, which offers a grocery store and an urgent care center. Other than the lack of large trees to nestle a house into, this lot offers most of what we are looking for. Jerry is excited about  this one.

A “special mention” lot is this 20 acre parcel with gorgeous views, but is all downhill. (Pam named it Hawk Heights.)

20 acre view lot

This photo does not do the views justice. Unfortunately, there is just no place to put a house. The lot has one flat spot, large enough to pitch a fair-sized tent, but that is about it for level ground!  Jerry walked over the edge to find that flat spot, about giving Pam a heart attack when he disappeared from view.

The last place we looked at is a 10 acre  parcel with a cabin on it. We had been watching the price drop over the last couple months, and decided to see if we could find it. That may sound odd, but some of these places cannot be found on Map Quest, Google Earth, or other mapping software. That was also the case with the 10 acres with the mature trees and shed; some of these properties are off-the-side-of-a-side road and require some guesswork to locate.

So we came to the end of a cul-de-sac and could not find the address. Jerry did point out, though, a trail that took off and led up a small valley. “That must be it” said he. Good thing we drive a vehicle with full-time AWD that has some clearance. Off we went.

This is what we found.

Cabin on 10 acres

Nestled in the trees, the cabin has no electric, no running water, few neighbors. It is remote and isolated. Pam found cactus, which she does not care for, but the meadow area is full of grasses and flowers. Could it be a place to camp until a house could be built, then double as a guest cabin for visitors? The interior is rough, with some insulation in but no wall boards of any type, but with a functioning fireplace.

Pam and the dogs check out the cabin nestled in the trees

Plusses are a large lot, trees, and seclusion. Minuses are a dead ground squirrel in the living room, no views from the house, and a long, undeveloped driveway. Still, the place intrigues us. While not in our top 3 picks, we can’t seem to get it out of our minds, so it remains a ‘place of interest’ even though  it meets few of our criteria. Again, if we were in our 20’s or 30’s it would be more of an option, but not now.

We consider this trip to be the most successful to date. We found no fewer than 3 lots that would be acceptable if they are still for sale and if we find they are in our price range. After  previous trips we returned home disappointed, but this time our return trip was filled with comments, discussion, “what if” scenarios, and a positive attitude that we were making progress. That’s a nice change!

Now we have something to follow up with our realtor. In my next post I hope to have more information about these lots, and where we might go from here.

Here is a slide show with more photos of this trip. The show contains more photos of the Hand Hotel and the lots we walked and visited. Click on any photo to bring up a slightly larger view that includes captions and a description.

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Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!