Freestone River Ranch

Details & Features

Located in Summit County, Utah, the Freestone River Ranch is a 122-acre sportsman’s paradise with tremendous mountain views of Deer Valley and Park City. The ranch is a 20-minute drive from the resort town of Park City and everything it has to offer. Properties on this coveted drainage rarely come to the market with over one mile of Upper Provo River frontage. Additionally, there is over one mile of fully enhanced private spring creek with 8 oxbow ponds. The ranch boasts over two miles of Gold Medal fishing where brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout regularly measure 18 inches or larger. The Freestone River Ranch is located 55 minutes from Salt Lake City International Airport, which seldom closes due to inclement weather. Park City offers incredible skiing, fine dining, entertainment, shopping and a calendar full of events such as the Sundance Film Festival. The ranch is 11 miles from Deer Valley Resort and its luxurious amenities. SKI Magazine has rated Deer Valley one of the top three ski resorts in North America in each of the last ten years.

Location
The Freestone River Ranch, located in both Summit and Wasatch Counties in Utah, boasts tremendous views of Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley. A short 20-minute drive to the resort town of Park City, the ranch enjoys tremendous privacy yet easy access to everything the year round resort town has to offer, such as world-class skiing, mountain biking and hiking, delicious restaurants, private golf courses, shopping, and a calendar full of entertainment and culturally diverse events, such as the world renowned Sundance Film Festival.

The Freestone River Ranch is 55 minutes from the well-served and reliable Salt lake City International Airport, which rarely closes due to inclement weather, giving one access to the ranch at any time of the year.

Park City is a vibrant resort town known for skiing but also boasts a world-renowned art community and offers theatre and dance performances throughout the year. The Historic Main Street of Park City is home to more than 250 shops, lodges and restaurants, including gift shops, fly shops, art galleries and much more for all your recreational and domestic needs.

Acreage
Freestone River Ranch is comprised of 204 deeded acres of lush meadows. The Upper Provo River with its healthy cottonwood tree-lined corridor and a beautiful meandering spring creek connecting 8 different oxbow ponds bisects the ranch. Expansive landscape and mountain views both up and down the Upper Provo River Valley provide endless postcard worthy vistas. Serving as the focal point, 1.6 miles of both sides of Upper Provo River meander through the heart of the ranch providing action packed freestone river fishing for healthy trophy brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout.

The deeded acreage is comprised of land in two different counties: Summit County on the north side of the river and Wasatch County on the south side. This diverse terrain provides a unique setting ranging from healthy riparian bottomland and excellent river fishing, to picturesque open spring creek meadows. It continues all the way to the more elevated acreage on the south transitioning to aspen groves and elevated bench ground overlooking the ranch.

Water Rights
The Provo River provides irrigation and water rights for the lush meadows of the Freestone River Ranch. The ranch has historically been flood-irrigated for pasture. In addition to the water rights from the Provo, the ranch is naturally sub-irrigated via literally dozens of springs originating on the property. Please contact listing broker for more detail on water rights information.

Wildlife and Hunting
The natural healthy riparian corridor of the upper Provo River Valley is a haven for wildlife. Both game and non-game species are abundant on the Freestone River Ranch. The cottonwood forest and lush grasses and forbs along the river provide ample feeding and bedding areas for both Mule Deer and Rocky Mountain Elk. The ponds and spring creek provide first class habitat for a plethora of birdlife, including; ducks, geese, cranes and herons as well as various songbirds. Birds of prey such as Red Tailed Hawks, and osprey are frequent visitors and are often seen hunting in the meadows and along the waterways. The habitat on the ranch is of such high quality that any wildlife species native to the region of northern Utah may be spotted on that ranch at any given time.

Various opportunities exist for the hunter on Freestone River Ranch for big game, waterfowl and small game species. The ranch falls in a General Unit for deer and the General Unit for spike bull elk. The ranch also falls within a Limited Entry Bull Elk Unit, which the State manages for trophy quality bulls. The hunt unit allows for the pursuit of cougar and black bear on the ranch during the specified seasons. Hunt applications must be submitted to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and the appropriate permits must be obtained prior to hunting.

Conservation Easement
Given the rich recreational diversity of the Freestone River Ranch with its proximity to one of the country’s most sought after and ever growing ski resort towns, the ranch would be an ideal candidate for protection via conservation easement. The gentle topography of the majority of the deeded acreage and the abundance of live water and wildlife habitat lend itself to protection. There is buildable land on both sides of the river with the majority of its acreage available for development lying on the south side of the ranch overlooking the river corridor. We are confident that both regional and national land trusts would love to be considered as easement holders for such a spectacular and important private holding in the Upper Provo River Valley.

Recreation
Vail Resorts acquired two of the three ski resorts in Park City in 2014, making the resort town one of the nation’s best ski destinations. These Park City ski areas are blessed with consistent deep, dry and fluffy powder year after year, which is why SKI MAGAZINE rated the resort one of the top three ski resorts in North America in each of the past ten years. Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) and Canyons ski areas offers 16 lifts serving 114 runs and nine powder-filled bowls. The resort is also well known for its four terrain parks and two half pipes. Another unique advantage to PCMR is its Park City proper location with a lift right off of Main Street.

Live Water
The ranch controls 1.6mile of the Upper Provo River, a tightly held wade-friendly fishery with trophy-sized brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout. The Provo River is recognized as one of the top blue ribbon fly fishing stream in the country. The river is divided into three sections, upper, middle and lower. The Upper Provo is the portion of river that runs through the ranch, it is combination of riffles, runs, and pools with lots of holding water for large fish. The ranch’s location just upstream of Jordonelle Reservoir is especially significant as the river sees big numbers of lake fish that move up through the system to spawn. Due to the high quality habitat on the ranch section, several of these fish tend to take up residence on the ranch. Fish in the 24-inch class are a regular occurrence, something that is incredibly rare on a freestone stretch of western water.

In addition to the Provo River, there is 1.6 miles of private spring creek including 8 distinct oxbow ponds. The presence of the spring creek system provides the owner with not only varied fishing options but also makes Freestone Ranch a true year round fishing ranch when the river is in run off mode. Run off time varies from year to year based on snowpack in the high country but when this necessary seasonal event occurs, fishing on the spring creek and the ponds is a fantastic option to have on site. Although already enhanced and highly productive, the spring creek system could be further improved and sculpted to match one’s fishing style and needs.

Operational Considerations
While currently managed as a trophy sporting ranch, the Freestone River Ranch offers an array of options from an agricultural standpoint. An incoming owner could run a modest cattle operation and/or horse ranch with substantial pasture for grazing and the potential for producing a hay crop. The entire ranch is perimeter fenced.

Summary
This unique 204-acre ranch offers private world-class fly fishing on over 3 miles of professionally enhanced live water comprised of both Freestone River fishing and a spring creek, 8 oxbow ponds full of large trout, breathtaking mountain views and ranchland vistas, and endless recreational opportunities, on and off the ranch. The Freestone River Ranch is the perfect retreat for any outdoor enthusiast looking for exclusive, private fishing. There are 3 different fishery settings, as well as convenient access to one of the finest resort towns in the country, Park City, with multiple ski resorts and close proximity to a well-served international airport less than 1 hour away. A blank canvas, the Freestone River Ranch offers numerous choice home sites for an incoming owner to build their dream mountain home getaway or quaint fishing and hunting cabin.

• Over 1 mile of Upper Provo River
• Tremendous mountain views
• Fully enhanced spring creek
• Located 15-20 minutes from Deer Valley and Park City resorts
• Numerous choice home sites and great conservation easement opportunity