Caribou Ranch
Note: Caribou Ranch is closed annually from April 1
through June 30 to protect spring migratory birds and elk calving and
rearing. The park re-opens on July 1.
Caribou
Ranch, our western most park is located between Nederland and the Indian
Peaks Wilderness Area. A true mountain park, it as everything: wetlands,
meadows, streams, forests, and woodlands which provide excellent habitat
diversity. It also has a rich cultural history. The Switzerland Trail,
the former route of the Denver, Boulder & and Western Railroad, Blue
Bird Mine, the Batesville and North Boulder Mill, the DeLonde Homestead
and the Silver Lake Pipeline are all located on Caribou Ranch.
Caribou Ranch has hiking and equestrian trails
available for visitors and is
located
northwest of the town of Nederland.
History
The richness of plants and wildlife and the diversity of habitats
suggests that Caribou Ranch has been used by Native Americans for
thousands of years. The presence of water, grasslands, and forests
provided a diversity of resources, which were ideal for their nomadic
lifestyle.
More recent sites of historical significance abound. The Switzerland
Trail, former route of the Denver, Boulder & Western Railroad runs from
north to south through the property. The line ran from 1904 to 1919. It
is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Historic
District and served the Blue Bird Mine on the property and associated
mills and towns along the route.
 Blue
azurite, often found in silver ore, gave the Blue Bird Mine its name. In
the 1870s, miners flocked to work at this and other mines in the area.
The North Boulder mill was built down the road in the town of Batesville
on the bank of North Boulder Creek to process the silver ore. In 1905,
Blue Bird became a tourist attraction on the newly completed Eldora Line
of the Switzerland Trail of America. In desperation to keep the railroad
going, the Denver, Boulder and Western Railroad Company constructed a
branch that ran between Sunset and Eldora to transport ore from Eldora
to the Wall Street Mill. In addition to hauling ore, popular excursion
trains ran from Boulder during the summer months. Today, the site
includes a bunkhouse, remains of a log building, mining company house,
chicken coops, a smoke house, the foundation of a mill, mine shafts, and
tracks for ore carts.
William Martin, a prospector, who had been mining in the Cariboo
Range in British Columbia, named the mine he discovered Caribou Mine.
His ranch was known as Tucker' Ranch.
In 1936, Lynn W. Van Vleet purchased the Tucker Ranch and established
the first Arabian horse breeding operation in Colorado. The Van Vleet
Arabian was one of the oldest pure breed horses in the world. He chose
the Arabian because the 8,600 foot high mountains demanded a horse of
'great courage, intelligence, resourcefulness and endurance.' The Van
Vleet Ranch hosted two movies: Arabians of the Rockies and Sons of
Courage.
In 1971, music producer, James Guercio, purchased the ranch and
renamed it Caribou Ranch. He converted a barn into a recording studio,
attracting Chicago, Elton John, Rod Stewart and others. The recording
studio closed after a fire in 1985. The ranch was cooperatively
purchased by Boulder County and the City of Boulder from Mr. Guercio
beginning in December 1996.
Caribou Ranch consists of 2,180 acres of backcountry. An additional
1,489 acres are protected through an adjacent county conservation
easement. Because of its
importance as a wildlife habitat, we strive to balance the protection of
wildlife and recreation. Therefore, dogs are not allowed on this
open space property. Mountain bikes will also not be permitted due
to restrictions specified in the purchase agreement. At this time,
visitors are not permitted to explore the Blue Bird Mine complex beyond
the fence because of unsafe conditions..
 The
current trail system is 4.5 miles round trip from the main parking lot.
It consists of the DeLonde and Blue Birds Loop trails. Visitors must
stay on-trail and are invited to hike, snowshoe, cross-country ski and
ride horses. The
main parking lot accommodates 25 cars and one school bus. Additional
parking for horse trailers is available at the Mud Lake parking lot, 3/4
mile east of the main parking lot. There is a connecting trail to
Caribou Ranch.
Caribou
Ranch can be accessed
north of Nederland or south of Ward on County Road 126 off of the Peak
to Peak Scenic Byway.
Caribou Ranch Map: Because all of our open space properties are environmentally sensitive,
it is important for users to know the rules
and regulations pertaining to
our open space.
Once
the map is displayed, you can use the adobe toolbar to fit the map to your
window, pan, zoom in or out, search or print the map on your own printer.
The size of the original map and screen reduction are shown on the lower
left hand status bar.
The Caribou Ranch map is a 850 KB file and will
require Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free from Adobe. Map may
not appear properly in your web browser, for best results, save map file to a
directory on your computer (right click and choose "Save Target
as" in Internet explorer or "Save Link as" in Netscape) and
open using Adobe Reader.
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