Bitch Creek Canyon Ranch

Listing Price: $1,200,000

Bitch Creek Canyon Ranch is located in Fremont County, Idaho, a 20-minute drive from the ski destination of Driggs and an hour from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Air travel to and from Bitch Creek Canyon Ranch is convenient due to the 7,300-foot runway at the Driggs Reed Memorial Airport, which accommodates large private jets. 

The resort town of Jackson Hole is located an hour to the east and offers commercial air service, endless all-season recreation and countless cultural amenities. Idaho Falls, the closest large city, is an hour’s drive from the ranch and hosts all major conveniences including a larger commercial airport.

This region of eastern Idaho and western Wyoming offer some of the best alpine skiing in the lower 48 states with snowfalls occasionally exceeding 600” on good years, and averaging 400” annually.  For the avid angler, numerous possibilities abound with reasonable access to blue-ribbon streams in Idaho and a short distance away in southwestern Montana.  One could spend a day on the nearby Henry’s Fork River in Idaho or take a trip to the Madison River, a two-hour drive north.

Bitch Creek Canyon Ranch is comprised of two 160-acre parcels and is defined by gently rolling alluvial hills with drainages that slope gradually towards Bitch Creek.  The landscape is covered with annual dry land crops of barley interspersed with stands of aspen, chokecherry, rose and snowberry and views are highlighted by the grandeur of the Teton Mountains.  Bitch Creek Canyon borders the ranch on its southern boundary and is located primarily on Bureau of Recreation lands.   Currently the property is being leased on a year-to-year basis by a neighboring rancher who plants dry barley on approximately 288 tillable acres.  Adjacent and nearby larger ranches provide open landscapes and seclusion while accessible amenities offer conveniences for an incoming owner. 

There are currently no improvements on Bitch Creek Canyon Ranch, creating a blank canvas for tailored lodgings and amenities.

Due to the size and ecological importance, including critical winter range for Mule deer and elk, this ranch is considered a sensitive property and may provide significant tax benefits to the incoming landowner who places it under conservation easement.

Bitch Creek originates along the western slopes of the Teton Mountain Range of Wyoming and flows through the Jedediah Smith Wilderness before entering Idaho. From there, it continues its journey through the Caribou Targhee National Forest and private lands before converging to form the Teton River.  The largest of the Teton River tributaries, Bitch Creek descends rapidly from the high mountain terrain of the Tetons along its 15-mile journey to the Teton River.  There are a few poorly marked, rugged access points on the creek used by some area anglers in search of a reprieve from the overcrowded fisheries nearby.  However this exceptional fishery is often overlooked as most anglers visiting the area head to the larger well-known waters of the Henry’s Fork and South Fork.  With direct private access to Bitch Creek from the property, the lack of pressure from other anglers and average size cutthroat and rainbow trout in the 14”-18” range makes this a truly private place for Idaho angling.

Live water in the immediate vicinity consists of the Henry’s Fork, Teton River and the Fall River while the famed South Fork of the Snake River is only 50 miles south.  The Henry’s Fork River is a classic wild trout fishery, world renowned for its rainbows and browns.  This fishery is constantly changing due to seasonal hatches, providing a variety of fantastic and nearly year-round floating opportunities.  From its inception near Island Park, the river takes on a spring creek and tail water quality through the famous Railroad Ranch section, transitioning into freestone canyon habitat and back into a freestone meadow river above the Ashton Reservoir.  Some fly fishermen favor the Teton River where fish average 10”- 15”, while the Fall River is a healthy fishery that in the past has received less fishing pressure than many of the area fisheries.  Exciting experiences on the South Fork abound while wade fishing on the riffle sections or floating over deeper water for large browns that hunker down.

In addition to the wild trout populations in the area, birds on the ranch are prevalent with populations of Bald eagles, Golden eagles, grouse, Hungarian partridge and a sustained huntable population of sharp-tail grouse.  Big game animals, particularly Mule deer and elk, frequent the property and are most common in the fall and winter months.  The south facing side of the canyon provides critical winter range for large ungulates and is a migration corridor to the Teton River, which is one of the largest and most crucial winter areas for Mule deer on the western slope of the Tetons.  The Mule deer that migrate out of the nearby mountains have some of the best genetics in the West and are a prized resource for big game hunters.