Ranch near Kremmling with private ski hill sells for $30 million

Last year’s historic housing market ended with a bang, after a $30 million property sale on the last day of 2020.

The High Plains Ranch, owned by Colorado business magnate Charlie Gallagher since 1999, sits on 6,900 acres outside Kremmling in the Grand River Ranch neighborhood. It sold to Capstone Property Group for $30 million on Dec. 31 after being listed at $39.8 million.

A second listing for the property renamed it Elk Island Ranch to differentiate it from other High Plains Ranches around the country, according to broker Brian Smith of Hall and Hall.

The blockbuster deal marks the sale of one of the most expensive ranches in Colorado, and the price tag is almost five times as much as Grand County’s previous most expensive real estate sale in 2020.

According to a news release for the listing for High Plains Ranch, Gallagher’s family is grown and he was hoping to pass the property onto a new family for them to enjoy its many charms.

“This ranch is in a class of its own among trophy properties, and it must be seen to be fully appreciated,” Gallagher said in the release. “I purchased and developed the ranch as a place for my family — including 27 children and grandchildren — to enjoy, and they had incredible times here.”

The ranch features a 16,000 square foot main lodge, a 10,500 square foot party barn and a saloon. It also has a ski cabin for up to 10 people and a recreation headquarters filled with snowcats, off-highway vehicles, snowmobiles, a Zamboni and full sized snowplows.

The main lodge houses five bedrooms, five full bathrooms, six powder rooms, a large main kitchen with an attached caterer’s kitchen, an exercise room, a theater room, a poker room, elevators and gas and wood fireplaces.

Built in a traditional log cabin style, the home sourced wood from Missoula, Montana, for its walls. Throughout the house is hand scraped walnut flooring with an in-floor heating system.

Across the property, natural features include a private ski hill, pond, cross-country ski trails and hiking and biking trails, and wildlife for hunting or viewing. In addition, the ranch also has a paintball course, a tubing hill, a sports center for shooting clay pigeons and a ice skating rink.

As a part of Grand River Ranch, the property owners also get to enjoy the perks of the neighborhood, such as guided horseback rides and fly fishing excursions on the Colorado River.

The exclusive property is not publicly accessible, but has its own system of roads and trails to traverse the various acres.

Smith said he couldn’t add further information about the sale.

According to the Grand County Assessor’s Office, Gallagher bought the ranch for $24.3 million in 1999. It was valued at $8.7 million by the assessor’s office in 2020.

The sale of the High Plains Ranch reflects a bigger trend of increased luxury sales in Grand County. Last year through November, 93 properties sold for over $1 million, which almost doubled the amount of properties sold in that price range in 2019.

Last year’s largest sale was a $6.2 million home at C Lazy U Ranch outside Granby, which was called an anomaly in the market at the time.