Basecamp
Trinidad
52.92 acres on the Purgatoire · at the gate of Colorado's newest state park · Trinidad, CO
Fishers Peak got a front gate
before it got a basecamp.
19,200 acres of new state park, 16 miles of trail, and no full-program place to stay on this stretch of US-160. Basecamp Trinidad is the missing piece: a river commons on one side of the highway, a working basecamp on the other, and a stake in the place for everyone who shows up.
Every component,
placed.
The plan follows the land's own logic: everything that can move lives by the river, everything that's financed lives on the upland, and the meadow keeps its 1862 water working. The highway isn't an obstacle — it's the property's main street, with its own frontage on each side.
One cross-section explains
the whole plan.
"All buildable. Insurable is what you design for." — the flood map became the layout, not the liability.
Nothing here has a foundation and nothing here carries a premium: ~15 walk-in tent sites, a movable stage on the event lawn, trailer-mounted sauna and cold plunge on the best bank of the river, trails and horse turnout on movable fencing. The whole program can strike camp in an afternoon — which is exactly what a floodplain asks of it. Riparian restoration is already two seasons in (invasives cut 2023, treated through 2025).
The homestead — priced first
The derelict homestead at the SE hinge sits in/near the floodway. HQ reuse gets a floodplain permit, floodproofing scope and a real insurance quote before a dollar commits. Fallback locked: unconditioned day-use shell; HQ moves to the Commons.
Water fourteen years older than Colorado itself: two Chilili Ditch shares with an 1862 priority convey at closing and already run a working hay meadow — two cuttings a year. The hay lease keeps the parcel's agricultural footing while glamping pods take the meadow edge, the barn anchors bring-your-own-horse, and farm rows feed the Commons kitchen.
Zone X, county OWTS territory, sandy-to-clay soils with groundwater at 10–50 feet: this is where every financed, insured dollar lands. The Commons is the front desk, living room and margin engine in one long gable; the RV loop phases 8→16→24 so phase-one cash funds phases two and three; the cabin row and bathhouse complete the core.
Layout freeze — Colorado Interstate Gas
A 2.14-acre CIG fee parcel (schedule 10689801) plus a probable pipeline easement may sit inside this core. Nothing is sited final until title + an 811 locate map it. Once mapped, the corridor doubles as firebreak, utility run or trail alignment.
Four buildings carry
the whole program.
The Commons
Store, café, taproom and work hub under one roof — solar-ready ridge, porch as the property's porch.
Cabin / Dome
Six pull-up units on the upland bench — built to normal financing because the flood map allows it.
Glamping Pod
Arched canvas on timber decks along the meadow edge — glamour with the ditch running past the door.
Bathhouse
Showers, laundry and the utility core — the quiet building that sets the whole property's capacity ceiling.
Elevation studies — original concept drawings, massing and program only. Architecture to follow diligence.
Four swing items.
Three resolved, one being mapped.
Water
Existing extraterritorial domestic tap. Base case: commercial extraterritorial tap under the county regime — keeping by-right lodging, restaurant and office. Annexation stays shelved as pure option value.
Flood
FEMA panel read: floodplain touches Parcel 1 only; Parcels 2–3 are Zone X. The constraint became the layout — movable north, insured south.
Restoration contract
The riparian cost-share is not an easement: ~3 acres, a few hundred dollars a year of spraying, ~two seasons left — and likely optional for a buyer to assume at all.
Gas parcel
The CIG 2.14-acre parcel is the one genuine open constraint. Title + assessor GIS + 811 locate resolve it inside diligence — before a dollar of Parcel 3 capex commits.
Wastewater is a known path, not a question — the whole corridor runs on county-approved septic. One old tank to inspect, one engineered commercial system to price, both scoped inside the diligence period. A 22-row tracker travels with this deck.
Open small. Let each phase
buy the next.
Phase 1 — Open
Revenue from month one: first 8 pads, riverside camp, lawn mowed, trails cut.
Phase 2 — Anchor
The Commons opens, bathhouse comes online, loop doubles, pods land on the meadow.
Phase 3 — Full build
Cabin row completes, stage program matures, barn built. Annexation + micro-hydro sit here as options, exercised only if they pay.
We have a lot of land.
Units aren't how it pays.
Overnight capacity is capped at ~150 guests by water and septic — not by acres. So the land we keep open earns through uses that draw nothing from that cap: events on the meadow lawn, and day-use from the state-park traffic passing the gate.
Events
Weddings, festivals, corporate retreats and community days on movable infrastructure. A single wedding can net more than a week of RV pads — on land we're already keeping open, with porta-facilities that never touch the septic system.
Day-Use
Trailhead parking, river access, and taproom-and-café foot traffic from Fishers Peak visitors who don't stay the night. Revenue per head, with zero overnight-capacity cost.
Illustrative placeholders — validate against the local market. The uplift carries no additional septic or tap load.
Campground economics.
Hospitality margins on top.
Lodging carries the base; the Commons and event days carry the margin. Add-on tiers — riverside camp, BYO-horse, outfitter stable partnership — are modeled separately so each stands or falls on its own return. Capital is tiered by the flood line: insured and financed south of the highway, movable and unfinanced north of it — same program, lower risk per dollar.
Two P&L views, one switch
View A: the Alliance treasury funds member participation and cash NOI is untouched. View B: Basecamp funds it from operations. Both live in the model as a single editable cell — the deal is stress-tested in either world.
All figures illustrative — the model re-runs when tap and septic quotes land.
No membership fee. No day pass.
You earn your way in.
Access is status
Entry to member experiences is earned standing, never a billed fee. The gate is contribution — showing up, spending, building, hosting — not a credit card.
Spend becomes stake
A share of every on-site and e-commerce dollar converts into a locked, compounding ownership stake for the people who spent it. Not points that expire — a stake in the place.
Node becomes engine
Basecamp launches inside the NCTR Alliance and graduates into its own engine as the community matures — the property's upside increasingly held by its regulars.
Members earn ownership through contribution, not extraction. Detailed mechanics on request.
Colorado's newest state park is still building its visitor infrastructure — the basecamp arrives with the trail network, not after it. Trinidad Lake's horse trails anchor bring-your-own-horse; the full stable stays a partnership play with a local outfitter rather than a thin standalone build. Two Amtrak trains a day roll the D&RG line along the river's edge — atmosphere, not nuisance.
A probate sale is slow.
Slow is our diligence window.
Title
Which schedules convey · CIG parcel in or out of the 52.92 ac · pipeline easement terms · mineral status · ditch shares signed over at closing.
Utilities
Commercial extraterritorial tap capacity and fee in writing · perc + OWTS feasibility · old-tank inspection · CDOT access pre-application, each side of 160.
Overlays
Per-parcel floodplain determination · restoration-contract term and transfer status in writing · 811 pipeline locate across the build core.
Every open item closes inside a standard diligence period — none requires closing first, and each one answered strengthens the price conversation.
The river keeps the wild side.
We build the other.
Basecamp Trinidad · an NCTR Alliance project · developed by Butterfly Studios, an Innovation Studio · Denver, CO
Confidential working draft · All figures illustrative · Plat labels per BH2 Land Surveying, 2025-05-08