Welcome to the Chico Basin Ranch

Watch our new video: "Ranching the New West"

Chico Basin Ranch is an 87,000-acre working cattle ranch 35 minutes southeast of Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is owned by the Colorado State Land Board and managed under a one-of-a-kind lease by Duke and Janet Phillips and their family. The ranch offers education and recreation opportunities for adults and children.

About the Chico Basin Ranch...

The Chico Basin Ranch is a working cattle ranch that derives its income from grazing and running cattle.  It is dedicated to the enhancement and preservation of the natural world and our western heritage. Our mission is to create a working ranching model that views the ranch as an ecological resource base, using cattle as an important tool to manipulate the surface of the ground to achieve conservation goals. This base supports a complementary mix of enterprises that emphasize sustainability, innovative management, and diversification as the keys to economic and ecological viability.

We believe that ranchers provide an important role in the stewardship of our nation's native rangelands because ranchers already live on the land and because our families' futures depend on our success at building and maintaining the health of the ecosystem on our properties.

The Chico Basin Ranch operates on the high prairie and is owned by the State of Colorado. It is leased by Duke and Janet Phillips and their family for a 25-year term that began November 1, 1999.  Its sprawling ranges of shortgrass and sandsage prairie, spring-fed lakes, meandering creeks, and hidden pools are home to a diverse wildlife population of birds, pronghorn, deer, fish, prairie dogs, coyote, badgers, and more.

A rich tradition in ranching and an innovative business strategy form the backbone of the ranching operation. We have recreation, education, and outreach programs that are integral to building a stable business that is less vulnerable to market and climatic fluctuations.

Most important to our success as a modern ranching business are the relationships we are building with our neighbors, both locally and in nearby cities. We are forming partnerships with people who want to become more informed and involved with a ranching organization such as ours that produces products that are useful to them while enhancing the natural environment from which they are produced.

Downloads

Samples of Chico Basin Ranch publications are available as downloadable PDF files. These files require the free Adobe Acrobat Reader available from Adobe.com.

The Saddlehouse: (540k) our guest ranch newsletter.

Contact us:

Via email: info@chicobasinranch.com
Via snail mail: 22500 Peyton Highway South, Colorado Springs, CO 80928 USA
Via telephone or fax: 719-683-7960
Education Inquiries and Reservations: learning@chicobasinranch.com

Find us:

Chico Basin Ranch is located approximately 35 minutes from the Colorado Springs airport, 2.5 hours from Denver International Airport.

From Colorado Springs:

1. Take I-25 heading south (towards Pueblo)
2. Take exit 122 (Pikes Peak International Speedway)
3.  Take the east frontage road south, and follow it until it crosses the railroad tracks, and turns back north.   Follow this frontage road approximately 1 mile until you cross the Fountain Creek Bridge.
4.  Take a hard right (east) just past the Fountain Creek Bridge onto Hanover Road immediately after river (this is where most people get lost-they go straight).
5.  Follow the road (east) 13 miles to a stop sign-Hanover Community Church is on northwest corner.
6.  Turn right (south) at stop sign onto Peyton Highway-road turns to dirt, you will pass fire station on your right.
7.  Drive approximately 1 mile until you reach the Chico Basin Ranch gate - go under the gate onto the ranch
8.  Continue on the MAIN dirt road for 4 miles (do not turn off on any side roads)
9.  Turn right at the large set of buildings, corrals, and trees  into head quarters and the office is the first small building
10.  Welcome to Chico Basin Ranch!