New owner of Cielo Vista Ranch, home of Culebra Peak, says there are no plans to change public access to 14er
William Bruce Harrison, scion to one of Texas’ original oil fortunes, has purchased the storied 83,000-acre Cielo Vista Ranch in the San Luis Valley, according to Costilla County property records. The property sold last month after listing for $105 million, but the buyer and sales price were not disclosed at that time.
The address of the new owner — a Delaware-registed limited liability company named Cielo Vista Ranch II — traces back to the Houston office of Cathexis Oil & Gas LLC, an investment firm founded by Harrison in 2010.
Harrison’s father, billionaire oil and ranching baron Bruce Harrison, passed away in 2004 at age 54 when his son was only 17. According to a lawsuit he filed against his uncle, who was trustee and executor of his father’s estate, Harrison was scheduled to receive his inheritance when he turned 30 in 2017.
The ranch’s website — which also offers guided five-day elk hunts for $10,000 — notes that there was no allowed climbing access in August. But a statement from a representative of the new owner said the ranch will continue access programs that allowed climbing on Culebra Peak.
HIkers walk past a huge cairn along a ridge on Culebra Peak on July 27. Culebra is the only 14,000-foot peak in Colorado to lie entirely on private land. Climbers pay $100 to scale the peak. The peak doesn’t have enough traffic for a trail to form, so the cairn is a useful route marker.
HIkers walk past a huge cairn along a ridge on Culebra Peak on July 27. Culebra is the only 14,000-foot peak in Colorado to lie entirely on private land. Climbers pay $100 to scale the peak. The peak doesn’t have enough traffic for a trail to form, so the cairn is a useful route marker.
