Colorado Fly Fishing Lodge and Big Game Hunting

Located in North Park’s southwestern border near the quaint town of Rand (population 14; counting cats and dogs), The Buffalo Creek Ranch is a rare diamond among jewels.  Whereas many ranches spread across open sage plains swept by wind-driven snow, The Buffalo Creek Ranch’s unique, natural landscape sets it apart.  Quietly nestled in its’ own private valley, its borders are created by pine, spruce, and aspen covered ridges shadowed by the snowcapped peaks of the Continental Divide.  With lush hay meadows starting at 8,500 feet, punctuated by wildflowers, the landscape gently ascends into aspen groves then rises into the dark timber of the wild Rockies topping out at over 11,000 feet.  This is where its creeks are born, eventually meandering their way within walking distance of our lodge, offering brook, rainbow, cutthroat, and brown trout to the angler, and feeding the heart of this ranch:  the magnificent 45 acre Buffalo Lake.

“North Park—a beautiful, circular valley of 30 miles in diameter, walled in all around with snowy mountains, rich with water and with grass, fringed with pine on the mountainside beneath the snow line, and a paradise to all grazing animals.” John C. Fremont, June 15, 1844

This habitat creates a flourishing and divers wildlife sanctuary.  Herds of elk call this their home and rarely leave the ranch’s solitude.  The mule deer, moose, and pronghorns are plentiful and, as the web of life would have it, so are their predators, the mountain lion which are rarely seen but for their large tacks and their prey’s carcasses left in the snow.  In this intact wildness one can easily imagine how this place looked when the early explorers discovered this area.  Sadly, the buffalo and the summering Ute and Arapaho Indians have vanished, but ghostly skeletons of that time can be found by the curious:  arrowheads lie scattered on ridges overlooking where the buffalo grazed; settler cabins sag into the soil; tenderly stacked grave markers withstand the ravages of time and beckon us to remember the young boy who drowned in Buffalo Creek and the cowboy who was thrown from his horse.  Due to divine luck, however, the animals:  the bears fishing in the lakes; the moose feeding in the willows; the elk grazing in the meadows; and the badgers hunting gophers, still grace this ageless landscape.

Today science intertwines with tradition to preserve this natural paradise.  Holistically managed with the latest biological and land management techniques, wildlife and fish co-exist with cattle and hay ranching, making the Buffalo Creek Ranch what it is today, preserving what was there yesterday.  So not only its borders but the people here also protect this quiet place—and that is why you will rarely share this ranch with more than seven other guests.  We invite you to visit our ranch and experience its uniqueness.

*We offer all-inclusive fly fishing ranch vacation packages from June into September

*During the months of September through mid-November we offer several big-game hunting packages for predominantly elk, but also mule deer, pronghorn, and moose.

*We offer six-night winter packages during: Thanksgiving week, Christmas week, and New Years week.