The Royal Gorge Ranch & Resort will have an incline like Manitou Springs, an amphitheater like Red Rocks and a climbing wall similar to the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park, but it has a view like nowhere else in the world.

Ty Seufer is inching closer and closer to his vision of 300 individual smart homes situated on the 805-acre property that once housed the iconic Buckskin Joe Frontier Town and the former Royal Gorge Scenic Railway.

Of the 805 acres, 500 will remain as open space. That, combined with the city’s adjacent 5,000-acre public land, gives these future homeowners a massive backyard, complete with mountain bike trails and world-class outdoor recreation just outside their back door.

Seufer calls it Adventure Valley.

The Royal Gorge Ranch & Resort is a first-class gated recreational retreat designed for the middle class to be able to afford a vacation home or for others to enjoy a permanent year-round residence.

“It’s a gated community for people who want to hike, mountain bike, mountain climb and just live free out here in the wide-open spaces,” Seufer said. “It is a private community.”

In addition to its unique view, Royal Gorge Ranch & Resort also has something else that is quite special.

It will be one of the largest eco-adventure communities in the nation, Seufer said.

“The goal is you will have enough solar panels that you will give more back to the grid than you use,” he said. “There is the opportunity for the whole community — all of us — to be a net-zero community, the only one in the nation where we are using less electricity than we are producing. That’s our goal.”

Each of the 300 one-acre lots will have space for a 608-square-foot smart home, or mod-villa, underground 200amp electrical service, 3,500-gallon water cistern storage tank, solar system and small state-of-the-art infiltration septic system with tank and leach field.

“Everybody has a zero water bill, zero sewer bill because you have your own sewer system,” Seufer said.

The Royal Gorge Ranch & Resort plans to purchase water from the Upper Arkansas Water Conservancy District, then the City of Cañon City will treat it, store it and sell it back to the resort.

“The city has been really great with us,” Seufer said.

In addition to the 608-square-foot smart home, each lot has an extra 1,000 to 2,000 square foot deck and patio for a hot tub, pergola and outdoor kitchen.

All lots are priced at about $109,000 and have space for up to two mod villas….