What to Know About Wells in Walden, Colorado

How deep are wells around Walden?

How much water do wells make near Walden?

Walden well depths vary across the mountain bedrock

The median reported well depth near Walden is 100 feet. The middle half runs from 29 to 150 feet, so many wells are relatively shallow, but the spread is wide. The 90th percentile is 274 feet, and the deepest well in the record reaches 845 feet.

Depth records are nearly split between wells under 100 feet and wells from 100 to 300 feet: 46% are under 100 feet and 45% fall in the 100-to-300-foot range. Another 8% are 300 to 600 feet, while 1% exceed 600 feet. For a drilling bid, use the 100-foot median only as a starting point. Fractured granite and gneiss can produce water at different depths on neighboring lots, so ask for a written depth assumption and price per additional foot.

Reported yields near Walden are often workable

Only 26 wells report a pump yield, so the yield statistics are less complete than the depth records. Among those reports, the median yield is 15.0 gallons per minute, and the middle half ranges from 8.0 to 15.0 gallons per minute.

Fifty-eight percent of reported wells produce more than 15 gallons per minute. Another 31% fall between 5 and 15 gallons per minute. Four percent report 1 to 5 gallons per minute, and 8% are under 1 gallon per minute. That under-1-gallon share is important for a buyer: a low-producing well may still serve a modest household with adequate storage, but it can limit irrigation, livestock, or future building plans. Confirm the test method, recovery, and storage capacity rather than relying on a nearby yield alone.

Shallow recorded water levels do not prove a stable table

The eight wells reporting static water levels show a median depth to water of 28 feet. The middle half is 23 to 45 feet below ground. Those figures can help a driller think about pump setting, casing, and construction, but the sample is small.

The permit history does not show a water-level series by decade, so it does not establish that the water table is dropping or holding steady near Walden. Static level also changes with season, pumping, recharge, and the local fracture system. Have the well tested after it has recovered, and ask for the recorded static level and pumping drawdown. A shallow water level is not the same as a guaranteed high-yield well.

Walden permit history shows several active drilling periods

Permits have been issued around Walden from the 1950s through the 2020s, with the newest permit year recorded as 2025. The strongest permit activity in the record was in the 1990s with 53 permits, followed by 47 in the 2000s and 40 in the 1970s. The record includes 29 permits from the 2010s and 8 from the 2020s.

The most active drillers listed are Authorized (Pe, Pg), with 43 records; Stolns & Son Drilling (Stolns, Lewis B.), with 31; and High Desert Irrigation LLC (Hersh, Larry), with 11. These names can help when tracking down construction details, but an old permit is not a substitute for a current flow test, water-quality test, or inspection.

What a Walden well may cost to drill and finish

Local drilling is modeled for fractured mountain bedrock, including granite and gneiss, at about $65 to $100 per foot. At the 100-foot median depth, the drilled hole alone models to about $6,500 to $10,000.

A finished well with pump, pressure tank, trenching, and electrical is modeled at about $12,500 to $22,000 at that median depth. A deeper hole can raise the cost quickly, and the total can also change with access, casing, grout, difficult rock, pump requirements, and distance to the building site. Get the driller to separate drilling, casing and grout, pump equipment, trenching, electrical, and testing. A bid based only on the median depth may not cover a lot that follows the deeper end of the local record.

Walden buyers should check water quality and site constraints

Mapped environmental records within about 10 miles include 12 PFAS sampling or contamination sites, 42 historic mine features, and 3 EPA Superfund or cleanup sites. These records do not prove that a particular well is contaminated, but they are a reason to order a laboratory water test and review the well location against nearby environmental features.

Low yield and dry holes remain possible in fractured bedrock even where nearby wells perform well. Also check septic setbacks, drainfield soils, access for a drilling rig, electrical routing, and the distance from the proposed house. Domestic or household use accounts for 47% of the local permit mix, while stock use accounts for 21%. A Colorado DWR permit controls the allowed use; it does not by itself guarantee safe water or a successful new well.

Well permits by decade near Walden

What a new well costs in Walden, 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 (150 ft) would run roughly $15,750–$27,000. 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 Walden? 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 Walden 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 Walden

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