The Bureau of Land Management has acquired a trophy inholding inside canyon country of the Uncompahgre Plateau along Escalante Creek and the Gunnison River south of Grand Junction.
The 4,000-acre Escalante Ranch — which was acquired in 2024 by The Conservation Fund with a plan to transfer the property to the BLM — expands the 210,172-acre Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area, which includes the 66,280-acre Dominguez Canyon Wilderness.
The ranch is among the largest ever acquisitions by the BLM in Colorado, using a $6.9 million allocation from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
“It really is a monumental acquisition that checks all three boxes around conservation, recreation and agriculture,” Colorado BLM Director Doug Vilsack said.
Christine Quinlan, the Colorado associate state director of The Conservation Fund, called the deal “a biggie. Such an incredible win for public lands for Colorado.”
The Conservation Fund moved quickly when the Escalante Ranch was listed for sale in 2023 and waited two years for the BLM to secure funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
“Nature takes the long view and we think it’s important to take the long view here. This is such an incredible place,” Quinlan said. “The canyon and river are not visible from Highway 50 south of Grand Junction, so you just don’t know there’s a hidden treasure that is down in there.”
Escalante Ranch is a century-old cattle operation on 4,012 acres in separate parcels stitched together from old homestead tracts dating back to Colorado statehood. It includes about 900 acres of irrigated hay fields that support about 1,400 cows and stretches from the Gunnison River to the top of the Uncompahgre Plateau, with 2,129 acres in Delta County and 1,884 acres in Mesa County.
The property spans nearly 30 miles, including 7 miles of the Gunnison River and 8 miles of Escalante Creek. The riparian habitat supports golden eagles, wild turkeys, chukar and grouse. The ranch is home to large herds of desert bighorn sheep, mule deer and elk, as well as mountain lions and black bears.
The BLM’s environmental assessment of the acquisition of the ranch and rights to about 70 cubic-feet-per-second of water between Escalante Creek and the Gunnison River was published in February 2024. The agency’s environmental review supported the acquisition and promised “robust community engagement” in developing long-term management plans for the ranch, including plans for continued livestock grazing, agricultural use, wildlife and habitat restoration and recreational access.
Many of the comments the BLM responded to during its review of the acquisition concerned protections for the ranch’s historic cultural values as well as wildlife and habitat, with residents and wildlife advocates urging increased protections for the ranch’s wildlife.
“CPW staff see the tremendous value these parcels have for wildlife and acknowledge the role that these parcels have played for wildlife in the past and potentially into the future. CPW staff advocates for careful consideration of the recreation and wildlife values of this area and for thoughtful planning to allow for recreation and conservation to occur here in the future,” a comment from CPW wildlife manager Rachel Sralla reads. “These values should be recognized, protected, and enhanced. The immediate and longer-term management of these parcels under the general (Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area) management would fall short of the stewardship which makes these parcels so valuable to Colorado’s wildlife.”
The property includes several archeological sites — including a settler’s cabin and petroglyphs — that will be protected under the BLM management plan. The ranch includes land along the Lower Gunnison River, a popular stretch for overnight rafting in Dominguez Canyon. There are popular climbing routes in Escalante Canyon as well. The Cabin Wall in the ranch’s stretch of Escalante Canyon has been closed to climbing for several years and will reopen with this transfer to public management.
A few years ago, the BLM installed a campsite reservation system along the lower Gunnison River through Dominguez Canyon. Revenue from that system will support the development of additional river campsites on what has been private property.
“It’s really going to open up that stretch of river to consistent management,” Vilsack said, recalling a float on that stretch of the Gunnison River that passes through private property that prohibited access.
Vilsack has worked closely with folks in Delta and Mesa counties to make sure their concerns have been heard. With large swaths of those counties managed by the federal government, there is concern on the ground about adding to those acres that do not pay property taxes. There’s also concern that a management plan could exclude livestock grazing. The existing cattle rancher on the ranch will continue to lease about 1,000 acres for grazing.
“Agriculture is a big part of the fabric of this NCA,” Vilsack said.
The BLM’s assessment noted that Escalante Ranch’s cattle operation makes up about 3% of Delta County’s cattle population. The agency said Delta and Mesa counties would lose about $10,000 in property tax revenue if the property moved to federal management but federal payments in lieu of taxes — which are payments the federal government makes to local governments to offset lost property taxes on federal land — would slightly increase. Those counties collect more than $5 million a year in federal payments in lieu of taxes.
The grazing lease will be closed to public access but the remaining 3,000 acres will be open, which will provide access to tens of thousands of acres that were previously inaccessible. The ranch is now part of the national conservation area and a management plan that was developed over the course of more than 40 public meetings more than 15 years ago. That public input shaped policies that balance agricultural history, wildlife management and recreational access, Vilsack said.
Federal management is a win for access, ranchers and the landscape, Vilsack said.
“The alternative is that the property could have been sold. The water could have been sold. There could have been houses down there,” Vilsack said. “We have a long way to go to sit down and talk about the future management and make sure we have a good partnership between the federal government and local communities, but we were the best option to make sure the values around conservation, recreational access and agriculture are protected.”