San Juan Mountains (Durango, Telluride, Mead: for sale, real estate, mobile home)

[Swede53]

I am interested in living somewhere around the San Juan Mountains. Has anyone heard of Brown Dog Ranch? There are 30 acres land tracks available and its about 30 minutes from Telluride. Thanks.

[jim9251]

I'm looking at the San Juans out of my living room window right now. Be sure to bring a couple of dump trucks full of money if you want to buy land near Telluride-Mountain Village. Might want to visit first.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by Swede53

I am interested in living somewhere around the San Juan Mountains. Has anyone heard of Brown Dog Ranch? There are 30 acres land tracks available and its about 30 minutes from Telluride. Thanks.

Is raw, uncleared, somewhat horizontally challenged land worth $15-20K an acre there? That would be a pretty steep (no pun intended) price for such property around the Blue Ridge Mountains here in VA.

[brightdoglover]

It's low, as far as I know. If it's "raw etc.", is it a mining claim? Are utilities/access even possible?
I haven't heard of Brown Dog Ranch. I thought land had to be divided into no less than 35 or 40-acre tracts. It does depend on the designation of the zone- higher up or valley land.
I don't live there, but spend a lot of time there, bought and sold property twice in Elk Meadows above Ridgway. Buildable lots went for $60K (half acre) then, but weren't so vertical as to present a challenge (and there were utilities to lot line, and a year-round road, so maybe it's not comparable).

[jim9251]

Seems it's being sold at 35 acre parcels. Brown Dog Ranch-McKeough Land Company - Retirement Communities & Homes - The Retirement Net

Closer to Durango than anything else off HWY 550. Yes "only" 30 minutes to Telluride, through Red Mountain Pass.

[bongo]

35 acre parcels @ $495,000:

Telluride, San Miguel County, Colorado land for sale - 35 acres at LandWatch.com

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

Buildable lots went for $60K (half acre) then, but weren't so vertical as to present a challenge (and there were utilities to lot line, and a year-round road, so maybe it's not comparable).

You can say that again. Big difference between buildable sub-acre lots with all the amenities and completely undeveloped land in 35 acre parcels, much of it vertical. You'll also likely be paying quite a pretty penny in taxes on it.

[Bob from down south]

How long d'ya suppose it takes to ride your snowmobile from there to City Market for a couple bags of groceries?

[brightdoglover]

Wow. Just looked at the web site and it sure is pricey. Sounds like it's above Telluride? Or someone said a half-hour through Red Mtn. Pass? (meaning not a half-hour hike or drive!)
The lot/house I had above Ridgway (a 45-minute drive to Telluride) was, I believe, the only subdivision into such small lots, half-acre and up, that occurred in the 1970s, and then the zoning was changed. People called it the slum of the area. It used to have mobile homes and so on, but now one cannot put a mobile there and there are various covenants. It's Elk Meadows, about 30" on county road above Ridgway. Nice smaller houses and an apparent community of families growing, as opposed to a lot of summer people and transients as before.
No comparison to the ads for the Dog lots, of course. You're right.

[ShellKing]

That is no way near Telluride. To say, as the website does, "Telluride is just 30 minutes away, ... easy access to shopping, fine dining, progressive cultural life ..." It's 110 miles up 550 to Ridgway (thru Silverton, Ouray) then over to Telluride from there. If you went thru Durango, thru Dolores and north thru Rico to Telluride it's 124 miles.

I wouldn't trust anything else they say based on this.

If you want something outside Telluride on land, check out properties on Hastings Mesa, Horsefly Mesa, or Wilson Mesa. Google them (and Telluride, and real estate to get some ideas)