Colorado Livin...

Anyone live in Colorado?:naughty:

How do you like it and where are you located?

I've been struggling with the thought of moving to Durango for years and think I may finally be ready to try it.
Time keeps tickin away, I have no girlfriend/wife, kids, pets, or job so now is probably as good of time as any......oh...and my lease is up Dec 15th..

I've lived in Michigan for my entire life.
I was born and lived in Ypsilanti till 5yr, moved to Ann Arbor and then to Brighton when I was 12. When I first moved out of the house I returned to Ann Arbor and then to Ypsi. After loosing my license, I returned to Brighton where I have lived since. I'll be 32 real soon and feel that if I don't take the chance now, I may never take the chance.

I really do like it here but as every year passes, I think more seriousely about trying something different. Just the thought makes me nervious and excited. I've been there twice before and enjoyed the small town feeling and all the surrounding mountains and trails. I enjoy the outdoors, but don't have a lot of options where I currently live.

Anyway, enough with the rambling.....Who lives in Colorado, or has lived there? and what are your feeling toward the beautiful state?

Any thoughts about stepping outside your comfort zone and moving are also welcome as they are very relavent to this thread.:twothumbs

Thanks!:wave:

-Tim

I used to live in Boulder, Golden, and Denver. Denver is a pretty good sized city and is pretty modern. CO can tend to be a bit conservative, but Boulder is a good solution for that and has a decent school. If you like a small town cowboy atmosphere, Golden is a good place. It's situated (shielded from Denver) behind two mesas, but only 20-30min away from downtown Denver and 75min away from Vail, Breckenridge, Arapahoe Basin, and Keystone ski areas. CO is really beautiful and a great place to live or settle down. Denver is a great city. Although I really enjoyed my time there, personally, I'm more of an ocean person. Why Durango, by the way? That's pretty remote. You can find small towns all throughout the mountains that aren't so isolated. I'd also look at Colorado Springs, Pueblo, or Fort Collins. Evergreen is nice too.

Regarding moving out of your comfort zone, I'd suggest not going to someplace too remote as the first step. It seems to me that small towns are varied, you could get lucky and find someplace that you like, or you could end up someplace really depressing. I'm more of a city person and larger cities are pretty consistent in feel. But if you have never lived outside of your own state, I would say go for it! It could be the best move you ever make and it is always easy to move back home if you don't like it (which some people don't). For me, I don't really have a comfort zone. I grew up Chinese-American in Florida where all of my friends were white or black. It was actually a culture shock for me to move to California where there are lots of other ABCs (American born Chinese). I have lived in Florida, California, Massachusetts, Ohio, Colorado, New York, Tokyo, and Taipei. You could say that I'm always a foreigner no matter where I am. My advice is that moving different places gives you new experiences to understand and perhaps change yourself. Have fun!

P.S. You can get free beer at the Coors factory tour in Golden. And no, you don't actually have to take the guided tour again, you can go straight to the tasting room...

Brucec, Thanks for the input!

I've been to Denver and liked it, but I am not a big city type-a-guy....too many people and too fast paced.

I've been to Durango a few times and it just felt right. I don't know how to explain it, but I didn't feel uncomfortable.
It certainly is in a remote location.

Like you said, I can always move back if its not for me so that makes it a bit easier.

DaFab, I've never lived there but used to vacation in Durango, Silverton, Ouray every summer for 15 years straight. I've also spent time with friends there hunting & mountain biking outside of the summer months. I'm sort of set here in AZ because most of my family is here but if I was going to move somewhere else it would almost certainly be to CO with a Durango or similar town atmosphere. Many of my local friends grew up in MI and moved out to AZ for work. Not a single one of them have regretted coming west. Most of them told me it was the best life move that they've ever made. CO and Durango arguably have a lot of things going for it that the Phoenix metropolitinn area doesn't. You're already used to the snow and having read your many post know that your activities match up well with CO lifestyle. Obviously I don't know any particulars like your trade skills or career path but if you have the financial means to make CO an option then I say go for it. I can't think of a nicer place for an pysically active person who's looking to establish roots somewhere.

Hey Tim, I live in Colorado (about an hour north of Denver in the Fort Collins/Loveland area) and love it. CO's beautiful and the weather's great, though some people don't like the dry air. The mountains are close by to most of the state and offer great outings and sports from downhill mountain biking and skiing to great camping and trail running.

I'm rarely in the Durango area as it's the opposite corner of the state. I like the northeast area better but that's where I grew up so your mileage may vary. If I were moving here from out of state I would consider Fort Collins outskirts as my first choice area, or one of the small outskirts of Denver if I worked in the city. Even from the Loveland area one can get to the South side of Denver in about 1 to 1.5 hours if the traffic's good. Denver's offers just about everything if your town doesn't have it including the International Airport with direct flights to most major places. Some of the local airports have nice deal-flights as well such as $39 each way to Vegas.

Let me know if you're going to drop by Denver to visit and maybe we can meet up. Unfortunately I can't help you with Durango as it's a 7+ hour drive.

+

Hey Tim, I worked in Pitkin & Eagle County Colorado, from '93~'02.
It's hard for me to narrow down all the things I'd like to say,

..so here goes;

Wish I was still there & more importantly,...Go for it!!

Brian

p.s. Summers are the best

DaFABRICATA said:

but I am not a big city type-a-guy....too many people and too fast paced.

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For a single 32 year old bachelor, "too many people" has other benefits. That is, if you're into that kind of thing...

By the way, Great Sand Dunes National Park is a great place for camping. Very unique.

I've lived in CO for a dozen or so years now. I moved here from AZ (and before that, way back east). I liked AZ better but it's nice here. The weather is pretty good but the drivers are the worst. I call them "aggressively slow" drivers. They'll pull out in front of you then go 15 below the speed limit. Most roads are 2 lane with nowhere to pass. Then there's I25 . . . . your choices there are 90 in the left lane or 50 in the right. In areas where there are three lanes, about 1/2 the time it's not moving much at all.

Yes, I've bitched about the drivers for most of this post but I do agree with all of the good stuff the guys above said already.

I took a mountain bike trip once in CO in general and focused mostly around Crested Butte. It was fantastic on many levels. My best experience was the people. They were all so ... outdoors. Odd to me was how hard it was to tell how old people were when they were in great shape. It's a cool thing.

On any given day I'd hear some local kids say something to each other like "Hey you want to go up mount <whatever> today?"

I live South of Boston now and if you want to go do something outside it's a bunch of preparation and some big deal planning session.

I desperately wanted to move to Colorado but my wife has roots here, with her grandmother, her mom, and her dad & stepmom not far away either. We're never moving from Boston so the best I can do is to vacation in CO.

I say move.

Also, I lived in Ann Arbor during most of my formative years. I loved it, but Colorado in my opinion has a lot more to offer. If you want a college town you can always hit that there too.

Go man, go.

As you can tell I live in Colorado for almost 30 years.

I am 60 miles south of Denver in Colorado Springs.

I have worked in Durango and it is a beautiful city.

Living on the east coast and then the west coast, I really like living here in Colorado Springs.

:twothumbs

I moved from rural NW Ohio to the Denver area in 2004 and have no regrets whatsoever. The winters are mild (especially in comparison to most of Michigan) and there's tons of stuff to get into with an hour drive. There are some very cool small towns just to the west. As a fellow "too many people" person, you may dig Morrison, Evergreen, Conifer, Idaho Springs or any of several similar towns in that area. They're still within convenient driving distance of anything you could possibly need.

I can't really speak to Durango as I haven't spent much time there.

I say go with your gut.

lived in boulder for a year. if you can get over the libs and the hippies, then it's an awe inspiring place to be! so healthy and so beautiful!

I'd love to live out West somewhere. Why limit yourself to one location? There are many places you could go. I'd research the job market and cost of living, assuming you will need the money, of course. Unless you know someone, securing a place to live can be an issue without a job or a big upfront payment given the recent economic woes.

Perhaps you could go on a month to month at the place you are now so you could have more time to check out locations. Dec 15th will be here before you know it.

being in the army i move...a lot, roughly every 2 years, sometimes more often, sometimes less, i dislike it, i love having a place, having a routine, (i also have a family now) i hate moving and hate trying to meet new people. Some people move for roughly the same reasons that women change their hairstyles, they think that if they do it, the dramatic change will cause them to be a different person and life will get easier. I meet a lot of young soldiers that are eager to move on to the next duty station, always eager to get to the greener grass on the other side of the fence.

The other hand, I loved Colorado when I was there and I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI and I miss it every day. So my advice is to do a soul search and make sure the move is for the right reasons, and most of all, don't wait, indecision kills lol. The only thing I didn't like about Colorado was the lack of dirt (i love farming) and everywhere i went was almost always an inch or two of topsoil followed by granite.

I forgot to mention Durango in my first post.

We visited Durango a couple of months ago and wanted to move there ourselves!! Take a look at some of the scenery taken from the train ride to Silverton. It's almost surreal.

Wattnot, thanks for the photos. Some very picturesque scenes, but my personal favorite was the puppysplash pic--now that made me smile!

flashfan said:

Wattnot, thanks for the photos. Some very picturesque scenes, but my personal favorite was the puppysplash pic--now that made me smile!

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Yeah, only the ones labeled Durango were in Durango. I didn't feel like segregating the photos so you got whatever I had up there. The others were a neighbor's party where I got those other shots, and a couple from Montana.

Beautiful pics Wattnot. They bring back some wonderful vacation memories with family. Thanks.

Yes, Thanks for sharing Wattnot!..:wave:

I am going to do the Durango/Silverton train ride next time I go...All I've heard is good things about it!

Thanks for all the input everyone!:wave:
I really think I'm going to do it!..I have a ton to do in the next few months to make it happen......though it will be worth it.
I would like to find a house in town or very close to town since I don't drive...yet

Heres a few pics from my last visit there in may '07...
I had such a good time. The people were nice and I kinda felt at home in a strange way while there. I rented a mountain bike for a day and went all over the place! The bike trails in and around town were a TON of fun and the veiws were amazing! There is a smaller mountain right before Perins Peak that I had climbed a few years previous to that while visiting a friend, that I decided to climb again. Theres a large boulder at the top that offers a great place to rest and take in the surroundings. You can see Downtown Durango in the pics allong with Perins Peak in the distance. I ended up following the ridge in the picture to the base of Perins Peak. I had to go back before it got dark as I was alone.


This photo was from the plane.



Downtown Durango










From the porch of the General Palmer Hotel

Finally went back to Colorado on vacation in June! I had been vowing to go back ever since I left Ft. Carson for Germany.I wanted to stay! If I was in the position to move I would go in a heartbeat!The climate suites me better than the humidity here and of course the scenery is spectacular.Glad to hear you might be able to work it out-Best of Luck !

BTW-Great pics!