Rancho Romero - 1977

My parents bought this Southern Colorado property in 1977. They visited it a few times and took some rocks home for their backyard gardens. My brothers and sisters camped out here a few times in the 1980s and 1990s. Over the years, my mother and father gradually went from making plans for a cabin or second home here to simply paying the property tax and HOA dues each year and never visiting the land.

Finally, a couple of years ago my wonderful mother asked me if I would like to have it. Connie and I visited it, camped there and decided that we would try to find a use for the property besides just camping.

At that point it was our turn to consider what we could do with this remote mountain getaway. Connie has dreamed her whole life of having a plot of land where she could grow her own organic gardens. The locals have a saying: "It's beautiful, but you can't eat the mountains."

There is no surface water here at all, perhaps 14" of precipitation in a good year, and so a well 500 ft deep is required to have a dependable source of water. It's more than 25 miles from Canon City, the nearest real town, and the last five miles of roads are unpaved. Looking at the low quality of the soil, the short growing season, the hard winters and the semi-arid climate, we decided to try the Ozark mountains instead. We're pretty sure we made the right decision. We love it, but goodbye Colorado, and hello Eastern Oklahoma!