In Telluride, Colorado, the rugged landscape is a total scene-stealer. The same can be said of a luxury vacation home designed to “steal” the spectacular scenery that half a century ago jettisoned the area from an old mining town into a star ski resort.
Turkey Creek Ranch at 8210 Highway 145 comes with a three-story home built in 1994 on almost 29 acres of untouched land with a creek and a pond. The property is surrounded by national forests.
“The home was designed for this specific piece of land,” says co-listing agent Ben Jackson of Telluride Real Estate Corp. “I would call it a marriage of the property and the building because it’s set in such a way that you pick up sweeping views from every window.”
The contemporary home faces north, showcasing views of the San Sophia Ridge in the San Juan Mountains and peaks at nearby Telluride Ski Resort. The exterior of each story presents a series of long curves with rounded corners, offset with glass walls and thick sloping roofs. Inside, the curves form view towers at each end of the building to create light-filled rooms that point ever outward.
Rooms are set on two levels above a garage and covered porch area. The house was remodeled to remove walls and create an open plan in which the living room flows to the dining area and kitchen—and then outside to a wide, rounded balcony with mountain views. Six bedrooms (some of which can be turned into office space or other types of rooms) are located on the upper level. All levels of the house are connected by an elevator.
“The architect made the house slope down to be built with the land instead of blasting and building into the land,” Jackson says.
The home was designed by Michael Fuller Architects based near Aspen, the other, flashier ski town a couple of hundred miles northeast of Telluride. The award-winning firm also designed a landmark Telluride home on a rocky slope to capture the best views of 365-foot Bridal Veil Falls, the tallest free-falling waterfalls in Colorado. No surprise, the house is nicknamed The Falls.
Turkey Creek Ranch sits at a cool 9,000 feet in elevation. It’s a setting with maximum privacy that’s just minutes from the ski resort and the town of Telluride. It also provides easy access to outdoor passions that Colorado is known for.
In summer, you can go horseback riding, hike into the surrounding national forest, golf at the ski resort, and fish or stand up paddle on the on-site pond. In winter, along with downhill skiing at the resort, you can snowshoe or cross-country ski from your back door.
It’s also a house that’s good for entertaining, inside and out, Johnson says the owners have had “80 people in that house, in the living room, dining and kitchen area, and they could have had 50 more.”
Telluride opened its first ski lift in 1972, quickly becoming a popular, off-the-grid ski spot with abundant access to the outdoors. As its popularity grew, so did the number of wealthy people seeking luxury homes (actors Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey have had property here) amid the mountain backdrop. The population is about 2,600 people.
The property is on the market for $10.79 million. Jackson shares the listing with Andrew “Drufur” Williamson at Telluride Real Estate Corp.
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