Planning for a Well in Park County

How deep are wells around Park County?

How much water do wells make near Park County?

A 240-Foot Starting Point, Not a Bailey-to-Hartsel Rule

Among the 16,108 wells reporting depth, Park County's median is 240 feet. The middle half runs from 140 to 380 feet, and the 90th-percentile depth is 520 feet. For a drilling bid, that spread matters more than the median alone: ask what additional footage costs and how the contractor handles a hole that must go deeper than expected.

The permit aquifer field is dominated by unnamed or fractured-bedrock entries, with fractured crystalline and granite also identified. Water moves through fractures rather than a uniformly productive layer. A nearby successful well is useful evidence, but it cannot establish where your lot will intercept water. Compare records around the actual parcel in Bailey, Como or Guffey before using a countywide depth for budgeting.

What Park County's 5.5 GPM Median Means at the House

The 9,476 wells with reported pump yields have a median of 5.5 gpm, with the middle half between 3.0 and 9.0 gpm. A reported yield in that range can support household use with appropriate pumping and storage, but the number alone does not tell you how the well handles sustained demand.

Reported yields fall below 1 gpm for 5% of wells. That is a meaningful buying risk: a low-producing well may need storage and careful demand management, and it deserves closer testing before closing. Another 57% report 5–15 gpm. Ask for the pumping-test duration, drawdown and recovery information rather than treating the permit's yield entry as a current performance guarantee.

Water Levels Are Deeper in Recent Park County Records

Static water level is the resting depth to water, not the bottom of the hole. Among 1,700 reporting wells, the median is 100 feet below ground, with the middle half between 55 and 160 feet. Pump placement and pumping drawdown still need separate evaluation.

The decade medians show deeper water in later records: 40 feet in the 1960s, 58 in the 1970s, and 60 in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. The median reaches 103 feet in the 2010s and is 100 feet in the 2020s. That suggests deeper measured water levels over the longer record, but it does not prove a countywide falling water table. These are different groups of wells, not repeated measurements of the same wells.

Park County's Permit History and Recorded Drillers

The largest permit decade was the 1990s, with 5,691 permits, followed by 4,331 in the 2000s. Records show 2,018 in the 2010s and 1,641 in the 2020s, with the newest permit year listed as 2025. The current decade is incomplete, so its total is not directly comparable with a full decade. Permit issuance also is not the same as completed construction.

The most active drillers in the records are Allen Drilling & Excavating Co., Inc. (Allen, Jack R.), with 3,726; Living Water Systems Inc. (Goble, Robert), with 1,482; and Stan'S Drilling (Stansbury, Larry), with 952. Those historical counts can help you recognize names on neighboring well reports, but they do not establish current availability.

Budgeting a New Well in Park County Bedrock

The local cost model uses $65–$100 per foot for fractured mountain bedrock such as granite and gneiss. At the 240-foot median depth, the drilled hole is about $15,600–$24,000. A finished well with pump, tank, trenching and electrical is modeled at about $21,600–$36,000.

Treat those figures as planning allowances, not a parcel-specific quote. The 140–380-foot middle depth range leaves substantial room for the final footage to change. Get a written scope that explains casing, grout, testing, drilling access and the route from the well to the house. On a mountain lot, access preparation and utility routing deserve attention before a drilling rig is scheduled. Confirm which site-work items are included and which are separate.

Mine Features, Water Testing and Low-Yield Ground

The mapped environmental inventory within about 10 miles includes 3 PFAS sampling/contamination sites, 31 historic mine features and 3 EPA Superfund/cleanup sites. Those entries are reasons to investigate the parcel's surroundings; they do not establish that a particular household well is contaminated. Sampling locations and cleanup sites need to be evaluated in relation to the property.

Before buying, arrange laboratory water testing and discuss locally appropriate testing with the county or a qualified water professional. Inspect the wellhead, casing and available grout records. Fractured rock can produce low yields or an unsuccessful hole even near a working well. For a build, coordinate the well location with septic siting, required separations, drainage and building access before committing to the site layout.

Before Closing on Land in Fairplay, Jefferson or Lake George

Start with the parcel's DWR permit and the closest useful well records, not just the listing description. Domestic/household use appears on 91% of Park County permits, but that does not mean every permit allows outdoor watering, livestock or every proposed use. Read the actual authorization and confirm that it fits your plans.

For an existing home, obtain the well construction report, pump information, water-quality results and a current performance evaluation. For vacant land around Fairplay, Jefferson or Lake George, verify permit eligibility before treating water as settled. Exempt household-use permits can carry tight use restrictions, and some proposals in over-appropriated basins may require augmentation. Settle those questions alongside drilling access, septic feasibility and the house location—not after buying the lot.

Well permits by decade near Park County

What a new well costs in Park County

How this is built: the median permitted depth here times the per-foot range for this ground, plus the normal system costs. A lot at the 75th-percentile depth (380 ft) would run roughly $30,700–$50,000. See the full Colorado well cost guide.

Environmental sites mapped within about 10 miles

Counts come from EPA, USGS and state datasets layered on the Colorado Well Finder map. A count is not a verdict on any one well; it tells you what to test for.

Buying land near Park County? Know what it costs to build before you buy the dirt.

A listing photo can't tell you whether a lot is a dream or a money pit. Two parcels near Park County can carry the same asking price while one needs an $80,000 driveway and a $45,000 engineered septic the other doesn't. The well numbers on this page are the start of that answer. A Tri-Lakes Site Feasibility Report is the rest of it: a licensed general contractor, excavator and septic installer reads the parcel the way we would if we were about to build on it, and puts the real cost in writing before your money is committed.

Spend a little to know. Or gamble a lot to guess. Realtors sell the view and inspectors look at houses that already exist. We're the people who'd build it, so we catch what quietly turns a "great deal" into a budget disaster: bad access, buried rock, steep grade, soil that won't pass for a normal septic, water that's a fortune to reach. And if the lot is good, you've already got a builder ready to do the work, driveway to drywall.

• Instant Online Report, $99 — type the address and get a buildability read on the spot: parcel, terrain and slope, soil and septic outlook. Cheap enough to run on every lot you're shopping.
• Desktop Report, $500 — a contractor's from-the-desk feasibility read: Regulation 43 and county code, GIS parcel data, terrain, flood and drainage, soil and septic viability, setbacks and buildable envelope, nearby well depths from our 591,000-well database, the likely driveway route, and a preliminary site-development cost breakdown.
• On-Site Report, $2,000 — everything above, then boots and a drone on the actual ground: house pad and septic zone located, access and winter conditions checked, rock and soil observed in person, a 15 to 20 page written opinion you can hand a lender or seller. Credited toward your project if you build with us.

Under contract, comparing parcels, or a realtor with a rural listing whose buyers keep asking "what will it cost to build here?" This is the due-diligence step almost everyone skips, and the one that saves the most.

Common questions about wells in Park County

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Towns and areas in Park County

Neighboring counties