After several trips out west, Colorado seemed to keep calling us back.  Several years ago we starting thinking about buying land and building a log cabin somewhere in the mountains (off the grid, of course) and started seeking our dream. 

In the fall of 2006, we finally found what we believe to be one of the nicest places we have ever visited, so we bought a lot.  We cleared the deadwood from the lot in 2007, then installed a septic system and drilled a 170' well in 2008 and are planning to build our dream log cabin in the next year or two.  The picture above was taken the day we headed home in late October of 2006.  Mostly Spruce, Aspen and Juniper populate our lot. See some pics of the park and our lot here.

Our lot overlooks the railroad track that runs from Alamosa to LaVeta and we enjoy watching the trains go by on their daily trip over the mountain. 

Since we do overlook the railroad, we are considering building a cabin that looks sort of like an old train station.  This is one log model we have found and this is how it would look on our lot.

We have also considered building with cordwood as there is plenty of dried aspen in the area.  It would look somewhat like the image below.

Forbes Park is a "Covenant Protected" gated community. The following text was taken directly from the Forbes Park website:

Forbes Park is a private, rural subdivision located in the heart of the Sangre de Cristo Mountain range in Southern Colorado. It can be accessed from Rt. 160 at the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, 40 miles west of Walsenburg, 19 miles east of Fort Garland, and 45 miles east of Alamosa. Forbes Park is located in Costilla County and supports the Sierra Grande School District.

Forbes, Inc. developed this area, began selling lots in 1977, and "sold out" around 1982. There are 3,346 lots ranging in size from 1 to 14 acres. The Park encompasses approximately 13,046 acres of land. About 8,000 of these are specific lots, the rest of the acreage is comprised of Common Land.

The Forbes Park Land Owners' Association's mission is to preserve, protect, and enhance the environment in Forbes Park in order to increase the value of member properties. Members are encouraged to become involved with any of the volunteer committees or other activities in the Park."

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02/01/2009