■ An off-the-grid log cabin is for sale at Cold Creek.
Wildlife, stars plentiful in Cold Creek
There’s a home in Cold Creek, about 50 miles northwest of Las Vegas, that comes with features few of even the most expensive homes in the Las Vegas Valley can match.
Inquisitive foxes and other wildlife neighbors. Pristine nighttime skies that bring the universe to the front door. Even the sheer coolness of living in what resembles a luxe treehouse.
And the 2,867-square-foot log cabin-styled getaway is available for a surprisingly reasonable — in the current real estate market, anyway — asking price of $794,900.
Located at 146 Blanda Circle in the village of Cold Creek, the three-bedroom, three-bath upscale home sits at what broker Ken Calder of Addicted Realty describes as a “secluded cul-de-sac lot on the outer edge of Cold Creek.” (However, Cold Creek has a homeowner association, and public access to the home, and to the community, is not permitted.)
Calder — a Cold Creek resident himself as of September — said the multifloor house with an oversize deck offers unobstructed views of nature. Thanks to the area’s topography, the view from the deck also allows clear views of nighttime skies with little light pollution from Las Vegas.
And at just about any time, Calder said, “it’s very peaceful and quiet up there.”
“It’s a different environment up there,” the homeowner, Ben Zimmerman, acknowledged. He has lived in the home for 25 years and now has put it up for sale.
The luxury log cabin was built in 1993, but when Zimmerman discovered it, he had been living in
Blue Diamond for seven years. He remembers the day he was hanging laundry at his home when a bus filled with tourists stopped at the local market.
Tourists pulled out their cameras and “started taking photos of me hanging my laundry,” Zimmerman said. “At that point, I decided I lived too close to town and I needed to live somewhere else, and I came across Cold Creek.”
Zimmerman, 71 and a corporate event photographer, purchased the home from its original owners in 1996. There are 360-degree views from the multilevel deck, and indoors, the look is upscale rustic log cabin.
Two bedrooms are on the main floor, each with its own loft and bathroom. The ground floor also has an office or bedroom space and an adjoining den or sitting room with a private entrance. It’s all on an a nearly 3¼-acre fenced and gated lot.
Another certain feature: Inevitable visits from four-legged visitors. Zimmerman has seen wild horses and burros, foxes, elk, mule deer, bobcats, coyotes, squirrels, various desert mice and rats, chipmunks, lizards, snakes — including rattlers and sidewinders — great-horned owls, goshawks, red-tailed hawks, Cooper’s hawks, pinyon and scrub jays, migrating songbirds and hummingbirds. While he’s never been lucky enough to spot a mountain lion, he said others have.
Calder said most of the interest in the property has been coming from Californians who are thinking of using it as a second home. Potential buyers also include people who, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, want to escape crowded urban life.
“One unique feature of Cold Creek is all of the homes are off the grid,” said Calder, who is seeing “a definite movement from people getting out of urban areas and the city.”
Then, “I’ve gotten a lot of interest from artists and authors and reporters,” he said. “It’s just a beautiful place to write and create.”
Zimmerman said he is selling because “I’m here 25 years. I’m just looking for a new adventure.” One thing he’ll miss is his “proximity to nature.”
Zimmerman said his favorite stories about living at Cold Creek are reflected in the nature photos he has taken there. There, “you’re going to experience nature — open skies, stargazing, fantastic sunrises and sunsets and, of course, the peace and quiet.”
Zimmerman said he’s particularly pleased about ”having a small herd of wild horses befriend us and come by every single day.”
“I think it’s probably just having nature around us, having nature accept us in their midst and overcoming their fear of us, just sort of considering us their neighbor, (that) has been the most rewarding thing about being here,” he said.