Nice centralized place to live? (Colorado Springs, Loveland: employment, guidelines, commute)

[jamesdenver]

and is 285 usually open in the winter? acces to crested butte, gunnison and some other nice parks?
more snow!?

285 is open year round, but demands prudence and patience driving it.

See my above post regarding 285 (pictured)

To summarize my wordy post: Colorado has many beautiful sights and with planning they're easy to get to. Just not for day trips

[Sgrrsh26]

You sir, are badass

[jazzlover]

Look, if you are wanting a winter wonderland snowscape for much of the winter, you will find it much more readily in upstate New York. Believe it or not, that area gets much more snowfall in the winter--and much of it stays on the ground all winter--than does any area but the higher mountains of Colorado. At Colorado's lower elevations, the ground is bare and brown for most of the winter (as well as most of fall and spring). The Front Range, especially, gets Chinook winds (which translated to English means "snow-eater") that are warm enough to melt the snowcover. The high pressure system that moves into the Great Basin and Western Slope after a snowstorm is what makes the Chinook winds, so the pattern on the Front Range is typically a snowstorm followed a day or so of cold weather, then the Chinook that melts it all off within a few days. It may not snow again at the lower elevations for up to several weeks, especially in "true" winter (December, January and February). Early spring is when the Front Range (and most of the mountains) get their heaviest snowfall.

The lower elevations of western Colorado get little snow in most winters (around 18"-20" for the whole October-May season in places like Grand Junction), but the Western Slope doesn't get the Chinook, so what snow falls may stick around for awhile, at least sometimes.

Colorado's higher elevations do get a lot of snow in the winter, but, again, the snowiest months are actually at the end of winter and into spring. Early winter snow is unreliable enough that most of the ski areas have seen fit to invest in artificial snowmaking equipment, so their a**es are covered for the "sucker" season--the Christmas holidays. Snowfall is also highly variable from year to year. Colorado's inland location far from moisture sources means that precipitation is highly variable and often unreliable from year to year. Some years are wet, some are very dry. Drought is always a possibility.

People from wetter climates just don't seem to "get" what arid and semi-arid mean. And that is what Colorado is. Period.

Finally, the "Colorado Conundrum" is this: If you want a job, you will most likely have to live on the congested Front Range; if you want a low-traffic, pastoral locale, you will have to live in rural Colorado, where there are very few decent jobs that pay anything and living costs can be higher than the Front Range.

[wanneroo]

Originally Posted by Sgrrsh26

What about Summit county :X

Seems somewhat modern with a target and walmart
Denver is 1.5 hours for the possible commute and entertainment
closer to vail
and is 285 usually open in the winter? acces to crested butte, gunnison and some other nice parks?
more snow!?

Summit County is a cluster of ski resorts in a 25 mile ring with a number of what I call "support" towns(Silverthorne, Dillon, Frisco) that provide lower end housing, retail, services, etc to support the resort towns themselves. In fact Copper and Keystone are not even towns, just clusters of condos and hotels.

If you like winter you'll love Summit County. The temp at night will be below 32F for all but 6 weeks of the year in summer. You notice fall creeping up around August 15 and fall is done by Oct 15. All the snow melt doesn't really shake out until near June.

It all comes down to jobs and supporting yourself in an expensive county. For what you might rent a regular house in Denver, you would end up in an apartment or condo here. The main industries is skiing, some summer tourism and second home real estate, so you pretty much have to make a living off the back of that.

[Josseppie]

Ive been giving this some thought and if you strictly talking about centralized place to live in the state you want a city that is on a north south highway and a east west highway. There are only two cities in the state that fit that. Denver which is on I-25 and I-70 and Pueblo which is on I-25 and Highway 50.

[proveick]

Deleted.

[80skeys]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

Ive been giving this some thought and if you strictly talking about centralized place to live in the state you want a city that is on a north south highway and a east west highway. There are only two cities in the state that fit that. Denver which is on I-25 and I-70 and Pueblo which is on I-25 and Highway 50.

Without realizing it, the OP probably means "central to the mountains" not "central to the state." Most people who move to mountainous Colorado aren't interested in exploring the eastern third Plains.

[smdensbcs]

Originally Posted by Josseppie

... a city that is on a north south highway and a east west highway. There are only two cities in the state that fit that. Denver which is on I-25 and I-70 and Pueblo which is on I-25 and Highway 50.

I'm no expert at reading maps, but a quick perusal of cities on I-25 makes me think Loveland, Colorado Springs, and Walsenburg should all be added to that list. Based on the OP's set of guidelines, however, and assuming one could tele-commute one's employment or there's independent wealth involved, I'd suggest he visit Buena Vista as a possible centralized candidate for infinite day trip access to outdoor Colorado.

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by smdensbcs

I'm no expert at reading maps, but a quick perusal of cities on I-25 makes me think Loveland, Colorado Springs, and Walsenburg should all be added to that list. Based on the OP's set of guidelines, however, and assuming one could tele-commute one's employment or there's independent wealth involved, I'd suggest he visit Buena Vista as a possible centralized candidate for infinite day trip access to outdoor Colorado.

The problem with those cities is there is no major east west highway. In Colorado you have one major north south highway (I-25) and two major east west highways (I-70 and Highway 50).

Now if it was suggested the OP is only interested in the mountains I would still suggest Denver or Pueblo as its easy to get to different parts of the mountains unless the OP specifically wanted to live in the mountains then in my opinion it would be much harder as they have no major north south highway.

[jamesdenver]

OP: Sorry if I missed it. What is your profession and resources (geography, population base, etc) do you need to maintain it?