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Mountain Town Living - Anyone w Experience

Bodhi

By Bodhi
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Bodhi

Bodhi 1124

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Strongly considering moving into the mountains in Colorado.  I live near Denver currently and have a job that allows me to work largely remote.  I've found a home in a small town of ~1500 people.  The house sits on 2 wooded acres but is only 3-5 minutes from town.  The town has a couple breweries, grocery store, coffee shop, and a few decent restaurants.  The home is also 15 mins from a ski resort and minutes from some incredible mountain biking.  I am an avid skier, mountain biker, and hiker.  The town is also an hour from Denver so getting into an urban area isn't too challenging.  What downsides am I not considering?

  • Longer Winters
  • Small Community
  • Dreadful dating
  • Greater amount of work to hang with existing friends

 

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Not a cat

Not a cat 5706

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Have you thought about getting a yurt?  Ok, that was mean.

I think you covered the big ones.  I used to live in Denver and dreamed of living in exactly the type of place you mentioned, but never was able to pull it off 

If you're looking to get back on the dating horse, it'll be challenging in that environment but you may just meet some mountain country girl of your dreams, too.

This also goes with longer winters, which you covered, but the people I talked to lamented how few hours of direct sunlight there are in the winter, due to the mountains blocking a lot of it.  

 

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Your Mom

Your Mom 4852

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Nederland kicks ass.  Nobody’s comparing it to Breck but if you want to be an hour or less from Denver, have bad ass mountain biking right out your back door and a small mountain to snowboard on that won’t be overrun by Texans then it’s a fine spot.  If you want tourists and souvenir shops, 5-star restaurants, and resorts full of out of towners it’s not for you.  And Boulder is half an hour away if you need city shit.  

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Helobious

Helobious 9466

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1 hour ago, Bodhi said:

Strongly considering moving into the mountains in Colorado.  I live near Denver currently and have a job that allows me to work largely remote.  I've found a home in a small town of ~1500 people.  The house sits on 2 wooded acres but is only 3-5 minutes from town.  The town has a couple breweries, grocery store, coffee shop, and a few decent restaurants.  The home is also 15 mins from a ski resort and minutes from some incredible mountain biking.  I am an avid skier, mountain biker, and hiker.  The town is also an hour from Denver so getting into an urban area isn't too challenging.  What downsides am I not considering?

  • Longer Winters
  • Small Community
  • Dreadful dating
  • Greater amount of work to hang with existing friends

 

Forest fires

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6th Street

6th Street 6508

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I live in Denver too and have kicked the tires on a second home before rates went to 8%. Buying a mountain property is a blessing and a curse. Snow removal is expensive and a pain in the ass. Shit breaks and finding someone to repair it is hard. Mud is everywhere in the spring when the snow melts or after it rains. And mosquitos and weeds suck in the summer time. Oh and getting to DIA is problematic for travel.

 

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immamac

immamac 43126

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Posted
2 hours ago, Bodhi said:

Strongly considering moving into the mountains in Colorado.  I live near Denver currently and have a job that allows me to work largely remote.  I've found a home in a small town of ~1500 people.  The house sits on 2 wooded acres but is only 3-5 minutes from town.  The town has a couple breweries, grocery store, coffee shop, and a few decent restaurants.  The home is also 15 mins from a ski resort and minutes from some incredible mountain biking.  I am an avid skier, mountain biker, and hiker.  The town is also an hour from Denver so getting into an urban area isn't too challenging.  What downsides am I not considering?

  • Longer Winters
  • Small Community
  • Dreadful dating
  • Greater amount of work to hang with existing friends

 

Unless it’s a big tourist town or you are a hermit type you arent going to like it very much living there full time. The recreational stuff is great, but after the first year the charm wears completely off and you either need a strong core friend group or tourists coming through to keep things fresh. Making friends in these places is difficult as most of the people that live there already have their friend group and have likely been friends for a while, you’ll be an outsider until one day you aren’t. If it is truly only an hour from Denver why is this even a question? You would trade an hour drive to just go biking or skiing? Why not just rent a place for 3 days at a time and live in Denver when you aren’t doing that.  

shoulder seasons are brutal, everything is fucking muddy and shit isn’t open or too dangerous to do in the backcountry. Living in a small mountain town is nearly all downsides except for the nature and proximity to activities. Everything is inconvenient, not very good, expensive and likely ridiculous to a normal city dwelling person. It’s you hate people and never want to see them and just want to disconnect quite frequently these are actually upside not downside, but be aware most of the people that live there are likely there because they hate other people and/or modern society. 
 

All towns are different, but that’s what I can gather from conversations I’ve had passing through other small towns and talking to folks and living in crested butte for almost 3 years. I loved my time there, but had a very tight knit group of friends generally hate people, love being forced to disconnect and had my wife then girlfriend with me so didn’t need to date. She hated it and had the negative experience I talked about and lived in the same exact space as me. It all depends on your outlook and what you are looking for.  

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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7787

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I've had a second home in Fraser (near Winter Park) for several years and we are in the process of remodeling so it can become our primary residence (but we are keeping our Denver house so we can still get away if we want to).  Lots of good info so far in this thread, I'll add my two cents.  You're spot on with your concerns so far.

  • Winter lasts from now until May.  If you don't love the snow and getting outdoors in the winter, you'll hate it.  Cabin fever is a real thing.
  • The communities are very small and it takes work to make friends.  We are very fortunate that we love our neighbors and they have introduced us to several of their friends.  I have also volunteered and joined a board of a nonprofit based in Grand County.
  • It will be harder to get together with your friends, but if they like skiing, they'll likely want to visit and stay with you.  Everyone wants a friend with a mountain house.
  • Even in resort areas, dining options are not even close to what you're used to in Denver and the good places are very expensive.
  • Finding medical professionals is challenging, and health insurance can be difficult to get if your only address is in the mountains.  We will keep our Denver doctors and come down when we need to see them.

You really need to love the mountains because it's not all sunshine and puppies, but I love it and can't wait until we're there full time.  

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Frank Drebin

Frank Drebin 5658

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21 hours ago, Scary Stranger said:

I'd move to Evergreen in a second if I didn't have two money sucking high school kids that would freak out about leaving all their friends and sports.

Once my kids are out of high school, I am going to spend October to April in Texas and the rest of the year in Montana. I love summers in the mountains.

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DaysOff

DaysOff 7975

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I'd move to Evergreen in a second if I didn't have two money sucking high school kids that would freak out about leaving all their friends and sports.

If I finish my career doing DEN flying, Evergreen is where I'm looking. Women don't realize how cold it can get at that elevation, but what they don't know won't kill them.
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6th Street

6th Street 6508

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Few other things to consider

Cooling - in the summer, most homes don't have AC, and that sun blasting through those large windows of an A frame is intense, making it hard to cool down during the day.

Heating - you'll probably not have nat gas from the energy co, and might need a massive propane tank for heating. This needs to be refilled regularly.

Septic - another think to worry about in terms of maintenance and waste removal.

Broadband - connectivity is a toss up and many of these locales do not have prior access to cable/fiber 

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texasdago

texasdago 7580

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22 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

I've had a second home in Fraser (near Winter Park) for several years and we are in the process of remodeling so it can become our primary residence (but we are keeping our Denver house so we can still get away if we want to).  Lots of good info so far in this thread, I'll add my two cents.  You're spot on with your concerns so far.

  • Winter lasts from now until May.  If you don't love the snow and getting outdoors in the winter, you'll hate it.  Cabin fever is a real thing.
  • The communities are very small and it takes work to make friends.  We are very fortunate that we love our neighbors and they have introduced us to several of their friends.  I have also volunteered and joined a board of a nonprofit based in Grand County.
  • It will be harder to get together with your friends, but if they like skiing, they'll likely want to visit and stay with you.  Everyone wants a friend with a mountain house.
  • Even in resort areas, dining options are not even close to what you're used to in Denver and the good places are very expensive.
  • Finding medical professionals is challenging, and health insurance can be difficult to get if your only address is in the mountains.  We will keep our Denver doctors and come down when we need to see them.

You really need to love the mountains because it's not all sunshine and puppies, but I love it and can't wait until we're there full time.  

Had a family member who lived in Fraser and from what I remember it was cold as balls as in colder than most of Colorado.  

If it were me, I would go for a town like Durango which feels a little larger and you can still get to Purgatory and can also make day trips to Telluride, Silverton, Wolf Creek or Hesperus.  Of course I look at things through the lens of skiing.  

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66BUFF

66BUFF 2565

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On 10/30/2023 at 8:13 PM, Your Mom said:

Goddammit, if you’re about to put Nederland on blast we’re gonna have issues.  I need that place to stay under the radar and affordable for a couple more years. 

Sundance Cafe still around?  That place had some kick ass views and breakfasts.

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Chewbacca

Chewbacca 7787

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38 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Had a family member who lived in Fraser and from what I remember it was cold as balls as in colder than most of Colorado.  

If it were me, I would go for a town like Durango which feels a little larger and you can still get to Purgatory and can also make day trips to Telluride, Silverton, Wolf Creek or Hesperus.  Of course I look at things through the lens of skiing.  

Yep, Fraser is one of the coldest spots in the lower 48.  The town sits at the bottom of the valley like a bowl, so the cold air collects at the bottom.  I've seen temps down to -40* at my house.  But really, only Dec and Jan are super cold.

I tried to get the wife to move to Durango before we bought our place in Fraser.  Too far from Denver, so she said no.  Fraser is a great place that is close enough to Denver to go to Costco, go see the Dr, or just get out of the mountains for a bit, but it still feels like a small town most of the time (only 15,000 residents in Grand County).  And I'm 15 min from the Mary Jane parking lot and 1.5 hours to Steamboat and the Summit County resorts (and I can get to Silvertorne without getting on I-70).

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Gladeite

Gladeite 375

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Pagosa veteran here.  Very good information has been given.  It is difficult to live in a small town in Colorado year round.  Elevation, sunlight and precipitation are all much more dramatic there.  Our house was at 8100 feet and we averaged over 200 inches of snow per year there.  We lived about 7 miles from downtown and our lives revolved around the county snow plow in the winter.  I don't care what kind of 4x4 or tires you swear by, 18" of fresh snow on the ground and you are going to use a shovel.  

Things that were important to us:

Late fall/early winter sucks.  Weather is rainy, cold and not much to do.

Late April thru June 15 sucks.  Roads are muddy, town is muddy, trails are muddy, rivers are muddy.  See the theme?

If you enjoy the restaurants, shopping, ample places to buy things, small town Colorado is not for you.  Everything is more expensive and harder to come by.

Trades people are in very short supply and in demand.  Very hard to get workers and a long time to get projects completed.  When we stained our log home, we had to book over 1 year in advance.  Same for driveway work.  It took 6 months to get the microchip in our MW/oven replaced.  

Reliable internet can be a problem.  Starlink was a game changer for us.  

The working people that I know and retired executives that are "full time" in Colorado, all have places in Scottsdale, Florida, Mexico or some other warm spot to be early winter and mud season.  

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Tylerocks

Tylerocks 2555

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Did it for a year after college although not in Colorado

It was fine back then..single, boarded, biked, hiked, rafted...  drank and drugged...had a solid group of friends to hang out with.  

Owning a house on a 2 acre wooded lot sounds awesome.  It also sounds like a lot of work, potentially.

 

The no chicks thing is real.

Everything is expensive AF is real as well....and this was 20+ years ago.

 

 

 

 

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