Its massive western façade is a striking companion to drivers traveling north and south along state Highway 75 between Hailey and Bellevue.
Cow Catcher Ridge, where an undulating and treeless spine defines much of the southern Wood River Valley's eastward skyline, is a brooding and hard-to-miss landmark.
The rugged ridgeline is a constant reminder of the magnificence of the greater Wood River Valley landscape—especially during winter when its snowy heights are splashed in brilliant reds and purples as the sun slowly drops beneath the western horizon.
Now, with the anonymous donation of 672 acres in the area to the Hailey-based Wood River Land Trust, the future of this iconic landmark is as clear as those inspiring alpenglow-tinged sunsets.
Last Friday, land trust Program and Membership Coordinator Heather Kimmel confirmed the anonymous donation of the large parcel of land.
The majority of the 672-acre parcel is located on the west-facing slopes of Cow Catcher Ridge, from Slaughterhouse Canyon next to Bellevue to the southern end of the Woodside neighborhood in Hailey.
From the bottom up, the undeveloped property also spans the entire distance from valley floor to ridgetop.
"It's very, very large," Kimmel said.
Another important aspect of the donated land is its proximity to nearby open space lands.
Between Hailey and Bellevue, the property directly abuts the large expanse of open farmland east of Highway 75 where steeper hills meet the valley floor. East of Cow Catcher Ridge, the property also lies adjacent to a large expanse of undeveloped lands owned and managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
Taken together, the land trust's Cow Catcher Ridge property serves as an excellent bridge between the farmland and BLM lands and creates an unbroken expanse of secure open space.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game considers the property to be within critical elk winter range as well as a wildlife corridor used by mule deer, Kimmel said.
"It's excellent, excellent wildlife habitat," she said. "It's a really nice open stretch of land where wildlife can continue to roam."
While portions of Cow Catcher Ridge north of the donated property do still remain in private hands, the donation has made the future of the area much clearer, Kimmel said.
The former owners of the land, who have requested anonymity, formally handed the property over to the land trust in late December, she said.
Both sides have been working on the deal for some time.
"The landowner had held on to it for a number of years," Kimmel said.
With the land trust now having sole ownership of the property, exciting new prospects for public recreation on the property have become a real possibility, Kimmel said.
One possibility would be to expand Hailey's popular Toe of the Hill Trail south to the Bellevue area, she said.
Locating the trail in that area—near the valley floor—would help discourage too much recreation use of the critical wildlife winter range located higher on the slopes of Cow Catcher Ridge. Details concerning how the land trust will manage the property, however, are still in the works.
So what's in the name? On Wednesday, Kimmel asked around.
The name was given not because of some storied cow-catching incident that took place high on the ridge, but, rather, because of the shape or profile of the ridge itself.
Viewed from the south, Cow Catcher Ridge looks like the triangular device on the front of a train designed to push cows or other objects off train tracks and out of a locomotive's way.
Express graphic by Gavin McNeil
The Hailey-based Wood River Land Trust is now the owner of a 672-acre property on Cow Catcher Ridge between Hailey and Bellevue, outlined above.
