Entry No. 2 — the Fort Collins file — filed under: working-ranch
Carpenter Ranch (The Nature Conservancy)
The Nature Conservancy bought this 906-acre spread in 1996 and kept the cattle — hay crews still cut the fields where western Colorado’s densest Bobolink colony nests. The house belonged to Ferry Carpenter: Princeton, Harvard Law, Hayden’s first lawyer, and the New Deal maverick who ran 258 million acres of public rangeland with under thirty employees until Interior Secretary Ickes fired him. He took the place over in 1926 from J.B. Dawson, an ex-Texas Ranger. Summer mornings, you just walk in.
The move: Drop in on a summer morning, poke through Ferry’s ranch house exhibits, then carry binoculars down the Yampa River trail and listen for Bobolinks in the hayfields.
📍 Before you go Drop-in visiting runs on a summer-season, mornings-only pattern (roughly mid-May through Labor Day, Thursday–Saturday); outside that window you must arrange a visit in advance — it’s a working cattle ranch first and tours yield to ranch operations. The entrance is off US 40 about five miles east of Hayden, with a gravel lot by the visitor center and restrooms on site. Trails are flat gravel through riparian forest along the Yampa — easy footing, but bring binoculars and bug spray. Steamboat Springs is 20 miles east for the rest of the day.
- 📍 Hayden
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 13250 US Highway 40, Hayden, CO 81639
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11