Upper Bear Creek Colorado Well Guide

How deep are wells around Upper Bear Creek?

How much water do wells make near Upper Bear Creek?

Upper Bear Creek well depths and mountain bedrock

Among wells with reported depths, the median is 300 feet. The middle half runs from 165 to 460 feet, so a bid based only on the median can miss the local conditions. The 90th percentile is 650 feet, and the deepest recorded well reaches 1,978 feet.

The depth mix shows why neighboring research matters: 10% are under 100 feet, 37% fall from 100 to 300 feet, 39% from 300 to 600 feet, and 14% exceed 600 feet. Most permits identify unnamed fractured bedrock; other records name Fractured Crystalline or Fractured Granite. In this granite and gneiss terrain, fractures control where water is found, so two close lots can require very different drilling depths.

What Upper Bear Creek wells produce

Reported pump yields have a median of 6.0 gpm, with the middle half between 3.0 and 9.0 gpm. The largest group, 57%, produces 5 to 15 gpm. Another 34% produces 1 to 5 gpm, while 7% reports more than 15 gpm and 2% reports less than 1 gpm.

For a typical household, the median is a workable planning figure, but storage and pump sizing still matter. A low-yield well can serve a home when the system is designed around its recovery rate. Ask for the well test, pump setting, storage-tank size, and any production limitations. An exempt household-use well has a 35 gpm pumping limit, but that limit does not mean the well will produce 35 gpm.

Water levels in Upper Bear Creek

Only 178 records report a static water level, so this part of the dataset is thinner than the depth and yield information. Across those records, the median depth to water is 80 feet, with the middle half from 40 to 129 feet.

The decade pattern does not show a simple, steadily dropping water table. Median depth to water was 50 feet in the 1960s, 70 feet in the 1970s, 88 feet in the 1980s, and 100 feet in the 2010s, then 80 feet in the 2020s. Measurements can reflect different locations, seasons, and well conditions, so treat the series as context rather than a basin-wide trend. A current static-water measurement from a nearby comparable well is more useful for a purchase decision.

Permit history and drillers around Upper Bear Creek

The records include 5,391 permitted wells within 5 miles, with 3,686 recorded as constructed. Permit activity was strongest from the 1970s through the 1990s: 1,173 permits in the 1970s, 874 in the 1980s, and 1,206 in the 1990s. There were 545 in the 2000s, 259 in the 2010s, and 119 in the 2020s. The newest permit year is 2025.

Among the most active names in the records are James Drilling Company (Keaton, Michael K.) with 460 permits, Walton with 404, and Ernie's Mountain Drilling Inc. (Malovich, Ernest J) with 332. These records show local permitting history, not a guarantee of present availability or workmanship. Confirm licensing, insurance, access requirements, and a written scope before hiring.

What a new well costs in Upper Bear Creek

Fractured mountain bedrock changes the cost calculation. The drilling model uses $65-$100 per foot. At the 300-foot median depth, the drilled hole alone models to about $19,500-$30,000.

A finished system, including the pump, pressure tank, trenching, and electrical work, models to about $25,500-$42,000. That range is a planning allowance, not a fixed bid. A 460-foot well, for example, is materially different from a 165-foot well before equipment and site work are added. Rocky access, steep driveways, difficult staging, casing and grout requirements, and the final pump design can all affect the proposal. Get a site-specific estimate after the driller reviews the lot and intended well location.

Risks to check before building near Upper Bear Creek

Low production and dry holes are the main physical risks in fractured mountain rock. The records include a small but real share under 1 gpm, and the broad depth range shows why a nearby successful well is not a guarantee. Request neighboring well logs, test data, construction details, and any records of failed or replacement wells.

Water quality also deserves investigation. Mapped sites within about 10 miles include 19 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 101 historic mine features, and 51 EPA Superfund or cleanup sites. That does not establish contamination at a particular home, but it is a reason to test before closing and again when ownership changes. Check septic setbacks, available building area, groundwater direction, and access for drilling equipment. A septic designer, well contractor, and local permitting authority should review the lot together.

Buying or building on a lot in Upper Bear Creek

Start with the Colorado DWR permit record for the parcel and compare it with wells in Upper Witter Gulch, Echo Hills, Brook Forest, Evergreen, and Pine Valley. Those nearby areas can provide useful context, but the best comparisons are wells with similar elevation, geology, access, and intended use. Kittredge is also nearby, though distance alone does not make its wells comparable.

For an existing home, obtain the well permit, construction report, pump test, water-quality results, and maintenance history. For raw land, make the well location part of the feasibility plan before purchasing. Confirm the permit pathway, household-use limitations, septic area, electrical route, and driveway access. In an over-appropriated basin, ask whether an augmentation plan is needed. Price the well and site work together; a low drilling bid does not help if the lot cannot support the complete water and septic system.

Well permits by decade near Upper Bear Creek

What a new well costs in Upper Bear Creek, CO

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 (460 ft) would run roughly $35,900–$58,000. 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 Upper Bear Creek? 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 Upper Bear Creek 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 Upper Bear Creek

Keep researching

More in Jefferson County

All wells in Jefferson County — county-wide depth, yield and cost figures.

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