Land Report: Dallenbach Ranch

Gin-clear and teeming with trout, the world-famous Frying Pan River courses through the heart of Colorado’s Dallenbach Ranch.

From the Dallenbach family’s 130-acre Rocky Mountain ranch to the Town of Basalt is about a five-minute drive, and the hustle and bustle of Aspen, Colorado is about another half an hour down Highway 82. But if you’re lucky enough to spend a day on the Dallenbach Ranch, what you’ll probably find yourself thinking is that it’s even closer to heaven.

In 1973, Wally Dallenbach’s racing career shifted into high gear. Thanks to back-to back- to-back wins for Patrick Racing on the Indy car circuit, he had the opportunity to fulfill his dream of buying a piece of property in Colorado. And as Peppy Dallenbach points out, it was definitely her husband’s dream, not hers. “I was perfectly happy back home in East Brunswick where our families lived,” she says. Years before, however, Wally had promised himself that he and Peppy would make the Rocky Mountains their home. The seed had been planted in 1960 on their honeymoon when the couple made a stop in Aspen. “It was all hippies and dogs back then,” Wally says. The New Jersey native was already making a name for himself as a drag racer and a stock car racer; his open cockpit racing days were still to come. But already he knew that he had fallen for the small-town charm and scenic beauty that can be found a short drive down just about every road that crisscrosses the Colorado Rockies. It would take more than a decade to fulfill that promise, but he finally closed on a beautiful old homestead just outside of Basalt in 1974. Thanks to more than half a mile of frontage on both sides of the Frying Pan River, a dozen cabins dotted its 100-plus acres. Known to anglers as the Wooden Handle, the breathtaking encampment had also served as base camp for hikers and hunters who roamed the millions of acres of the White River National Forest bordering the property. “Growing up on the ranch was like growing up in Disney World,” says Wally Dallenbach Jr. Like his father and his brother, he pursued a career in racing, and his training ground was the mountains and valleys surrounding his family’s ranch. “We rode dirt bikes in the summertime. We rode snowmobiles in the wintertime. There was everything a kid could want to do. It was a great place for my sister and brother and I to grow up,” he says. In the 1970s, Basalt was nowhere near the cosmopolitan getaway is has since become. Paul Dallenbach recalls “a whopping 400 people” living there when the family first arrived, and going to Basalt High School had nowhere near the cachet of archrival Aspen High. “That’s all right,” he says. “We beat them in every sport they played.”

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