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I agree with everything except your part about the traffic. Driving in the Denver metro area, and the front range, is not hard at all. Its nothing like the traffic between two large metro areas like La and San Diego or Orlando and Tampa or the north east corridor where the OP is from.
I'm from the Northeast and know what the OP is talking about, however to think that there is no traffic and no idiot drivers would be setting oneself up for disappointment. Just last week I watched someone drive the wrong direction in a rotary, almost hit a couple cars and then he decided to drive onto the center island, destroy the landscaping and get on the highway.
You got some big misconceptions about Colorado. It is really ridiculous to fall in love with a place and not having been there.
Driving through the Rockies are much different and more difficult than driving to PA.
The mountains are not so lush with lakes, streams, gorges and colorful leaves as you envision. I do not care what kind of advertising pictures you are seeing--reality is much different. Colorado, including the mountains does not have the year round precipitation that you see in the east, and thinking the mountains look like the Catskills or the Adirondacks is wrong.
I suggest you take a trip and take a look. Some of your "pipe dreams" will be shattered. Yet, you will find that which pleases you, but see other aspects that will not; and much will require adaptations to the different land and culture, or you will not be happy. You would say the same to a Westerner who lushes over New York and has never been there. So, I am saying that to you, as an ex New Yorker, who has lived here for many decades and now is a citizen of the West.
Livecontent
This is very informative thanks. Like I said I'll have to take a trip. As far as the driving goes I'll take winding mountain roads over city traffic any day. At least the raise in auto insurance will be dependent on my own actions as opposed to the high rate of morons over here (aside from dogmama's fluke of a brilliant driver)
The adirondacks are absolutely gorgeous to me no doubt about it. But you are right advertising could give me the wrong idea about the place, from my understanding there is much less foliage due to the dry climate. So in your opinion can you tell me if these pictures have an inflated feel to them? Because this is my idea of the place http://www.rockymtnrefl.com/coloradogalleryone.htm
There are multiple galleries but all are absolutely breathtaking. You seem to like it there, can you give me some reasons why? It's nice to speak to somone from my area.
Also thanks everyone else your opinions have given me even more information to take in.
hello Sgrr... I moved to Fort Collins from Michigan last fall. I had no illusions about living 'in the mountains' here but I have a great view of them and can take AWESOME road trips on the weekends. Fort Collins is about an hour north of Denver, cool college town with CSU here and nice downtown and microbreweries abound. Traffic up here is nothing like Denver. Just a little rush hour back up. It's all about perspective . Jobs are a little tougher up here, but there appears to be lots of IT stuff in town. Good luck! I hope your visit confirms your feelings about CO !
Given that you're in a technical field (I'm going to assume something software), you're almost certainly going to be working in Metro Denver or Boulder (in reality Metro Denver and Metro Boulder are really one in the same). Unless you have a background in working on DoD contracts or with a security clearance, Colorado Springs is not going to be a good option for you as most technical work there is defense related. (If you do, then it's probably a very good option). Fort Collins area does have a few technical companies (HP, Intel, AMD, etc) but there's really just a handful of companies there. I'd guess that 90% of the technical/software engineering work in Colorado is within the Metro Denver/Boulder area, with Colorado Springs and Fort Collins supplying most of the remaining 10%.
Since you want to be close to the mountains, I'd look at the western edge of the metro, up against the foothills. Some areas, such as Boulder or Golden, are going to be fairly expensive, but there are other options, such as western Lakewood, for instance.
This is very informative thanks. Like I said I'll have to take a trip. As far as the driving goes I'll take winding mountain roads over city traffic any day. At least the raise in auto insurance will be dependent on my own actions as opposed to the high rate of morons over here (aside from dogmama's fluke of a brilliant driver)
The adirondacks are absolutely gorgeous to me no doubt about it. But you are right advertising could give me the wrong idea about the place, from my understanding there is much less foliage due to the dry climate. So in your opinion can you tell me if these pictures have an inflated feel to them? Because this is my idea of the place Colorado Photographs - Gallery One, Landscape Photography
There are multiple galleries but all are absolutely breathtaking. You seem to like it there, can you give me some reasons why? It's nice to speak to somone from my area.
Also thanks everyone else your opinions have given me even more information to take in.
I'm not going to look at all 6000 of them right now, but they're the "best of the best". It's not all like that, statewide. Denver is a city like any other city, and it's not in the mountains.
This is very informative thanks. Like I said I'll have to take a trip. As far as the driving goes I'll take winding mountain roads over city traffic any day. At least the raise in auto insurance will be dependent on my own actions as opposed to the high rate of morons over here (aside from dogmama's fluke of a brilliant driver)
The adirondacks are absolutely gorgeous to me no doubt about it. But you are right advertising could give me the wrong idea about the place, from my understanding there is much less foliage due to the dry climate. So in your opinion can you tell me if these pictures have an inflated feel to them? Because this is my idea of the place Colorado Photographs - Gallery One, Landscape Photography
There are multiple galleries but all are absolutely breathtaking. You seem to like it there, can you give me some reasons why? It's nice to speak to somone from my area.
Also thanks everyone else your opinions have given me even more information to take in.
Most of the wet weather Colorado gets is above 8000 feet in elevation and very few people live above 8000 feet due to the harsh cold and winter weather for most of the year.
As I have pointed out for 4 years on this forum, where you see the purdy pictures is from places that have access for 3-4 months of the year and where almost no one at all lives.
I looked at the pictures and they just about are all places accessible by hiking into the backcountry in the summer time. And that's it.
People from the outside I don't think understand that isn't where people in Colorado live. Almost the entire population of Colorado lives below 7000 feet in a high desert or high prairie climate.
This is very informative thanks. Like I said I'll have to take a trip. As far as the driving goes I'll take winding mountain roads over city traffic any day. At least the raise in auto insurance will be dependent on my own actions as opposed to the high rate of morons over here (aside from dogmama's fluke of a brilliant driver)
The adirondacks are absolutely gorgeous to me no doubt about it. But you are right advertising could give me the wrong idea about the place, from my understanding there is much less foliage due to the dry climate. So in your opinion can you tell me if these pictures have an inflated feel to them? Because this is my idea of the place Colorado Photographs - Gallery One, Landscape Photography
There are multiple galleries but all are absolutely breathtaking. You seem to like it there, can you give me some reasons why? It's nice to speak to somone from my area.
Also thanks everyone else your opinions have given me even more information to take in.
These pictures do not express places where most people live or can live, as they are very high elevation where there is more moisture. I can see others have expressed the same opinions.
Colorado, as much of the west, is arid or semi-arid--that includes much of the mountains. The forest in the mountains do not have the undergrowth of bushes that you see in eastern forests. Most of the trees are coniferous and not very big and lush like the California Coastal redwoods. There are very few dicideuous and there is not the wide range of color in the fall as the east. It is called the Rocky Mountains because it is more rock than plants.
There are few nice little pastoral towns that you would see in the mountains in New York. They range from some shabby old mining towns to super rich fake enclaves. You are not going to find all the century old estates on many lakes as you see in the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and along the Hudson. Much of the Colorado mountains are very rough and untamed and will remain so because no one can live there for lack of water and the extreme weather.
Most people in Colorado live, work, and recreate on the semi-arid plains. Denver and all the cities along the front range are either totally on the Great Plains on partially or in the foothills. All areas are semi-arid, being on the leeward side of the mountains. That is why Denver is considered a good place to live because the mountains block much of the severe weather and the moisture which causes the snows, the humidity and the rains that many do not like in the east.
I was born in Queens. Lived there for a time. Raised mostly near Buffalo. Went to school on the southern tier of NY and along the Hudson. Worked and lived in Manhattan. I know both worlds. There is much that I miss about New York but there is much I like about Denver. I am in my sixties and it will remain my home because I can not take the cold, the humidity of New York State. If you move here, you have much to accept--that being the weather, the dry air, minimum vegetation, and the topography. In addition, Colorado is consider the West, but parts are of the Southwest and consequently has a significant Hispanic culture, which I find very appealing. If you cannot see yourself accepting those characteristics of this State, then you will be miserable in Colorado.
Livecontent
Last edited by livecontent; 12-14-2011 at 04:21 PM..
These pictures do not express places where most people live or can live, as they are very high elevation where there is more moisture. I can see others have expressed the same opinions.
Colorado, as much of the west, is arid or semi-arid--that includes much of the mountains. The forest in the mountains do not have the undergrowth of bushes that you see in eastern forests. Most of the trees are coniferous and not very big and lush like the California Coastal redwoods. There are very few dicideuous and there is not the wide range of color in the fall as the east. It is called the Rocky Mountains because it is more rock than plants.
There are few nice little pastoral towns that you would see in the mountains in New York. They range from some shabby old mining towns to super rich fake enclaves. You are not going to find all the century old estates on many lakes as you see in the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and along the Hudson. Much of the Colorado mountains are very rough and untamed and will remain so because no one can live there for lack of water and the extreme weather.
Most people in Colorado live, work, and recreate on the semi-arid plains. Denver and all the cities along the front range are either totally on the Great Plains on partially or in the foothills. All areas are semi-arid, being on the leeward side of the mountains. That is why Denver is considered a good place to live because the mountains block much of the severe weather and the moisture which causes the snows, the humidity and the rains that many do not like in the east.
I was born in Queens. Lived there for a time. Raised mostly near Buffalo. Went to school on the southern tier of NY and along the Hudson. Worked and lived in Manhattan. I know both worlds. There is much that I miss about New York but there is much I like about Denver. I am in my sixties and it will remain my home because I can not take the cold, the humidity of New York State. If you move here, you have much to accept--that being the weather, the dry air, minimum vegetation, and the topography. In addition, Colorado is consider the West, but parts are of the Southwest and consequently has a significant Hispanic culture, which I find very appealing. If you cannot see yourself accepting those characteristics of this State, then you will be miserable in Colorado.
Livecontent
See most of that I can accept. I think a lot of you guys think that I'm expecting to see sights like that every day out my back yard. No I understand that those are select locations in national forests. Just answer for me is my ideal lifestyle is possible. Realistically I would be working weekdays and coming home at night. But the weekends Id like to be able to spend at locations like the pictures, whether relaxing, fishing, hiking. Again I understand you dont see those sights every day, but are they so out of reach that you can't make a lifestyle out of visiting them on the weekends?
Also I am not in software im in electronics. RF amplifiers to be exact and a security clearance is a possibility in the not too distant future.
See most of that I can accept. I think a lot of you guys think that I'm expecting to see sights like that every day out my back yard. No I understand that those are select locations in national forests. Just answer for me is my ideal lifestyle is possible. Realistically I would be working weekdays and coming home at night. But the weekends Id like to be able to spend at locations like the pictures, whether relaxing, fishing, hiking. Again I understand you dont see those sights every day, but are they so out of reach that you can't make a lifestyle out of visiting them on the weekends?
Also I am not in software im in electronics. RF amplifiers to be exact and a security clearance is a possibility in the not too distant future.
You could have your recreation better and easier in NY. There is natural beauty and real water bodies in New York, that is with natural fish vs. stocked fish in mostly artificial water bodies in Colorado. Do you not know your own State? There is much more to New York State than the area around New York City, contrary to the arrogant and self-centered attitudes of its residents and the princes and princesses of Long Island. Yea, that is another reason I am not in New York--a One City State with its vassal upstate Regions and Cities which are ignored.
You could move to somewhere in the State--to Upstate which people of New York City call anything not where they can myopically see, and not know all the other regions of the Empire State that is Western New York, The Southern Tier, The Great Lakes Region, The Thousand Islands, The Finger Lakes, Lake Champlain, The Adirondacks, The Hudson Valley, the The Catskills etc.
There is many areas to live in New York or many other Eastern States, that are centrally located and can give you all the recreation you seek and can be gotten much easier than some remote areas of Colorado that are not accessible all year round. In addition, there are few highways and roads through much of these areas and the popular areas get constipated with the wealthy, the wantabees, and the skiers who make access even more difficult or impossible on weekends.
You want a New Yawk answer--forgetaboutit! Come and visit and see. Come and visit in the winter and see or better yet, make your life in the East and stop dreaming. Many people post on this forum and they want others to substantiate their delusions--well I ain't gonna do it--so get outta h're, D ya knowatta mean!
Livecontent
Last edited by livecontent; 12-14-2011 at 07:32 PM..
See most of that I can accept. I think a lot of you guys think that I'm expecting to see sights like that every day out my back yard. No I understand that those are select locations in national forests. Just answer for me is my ideal lifestyle is possible. Realistically I would be working weekdays and coming home at night. But the weekends Id like to be able to spend at locations like the pictures, whether relaxing, fishing, hiking. Again I understand you dont see those sights every day, but are they so out of reach that you can't make a lifestyle out of visiting them on the weekends?
I find few people on the Front Range get up to the mountains as much as they expect. It's kind of like skiing, getting up to go skiing from Denver makes for a long day or a whole weekend with lodging. It's a lot of driving and sitting in traffic to make it happen and most people can't commit that much time and money to do it all the time.
The other reality is that much of Colorado at the high elevations is covered with a thick blanket of up to 30 feet of snow and you are looking at 9 months plus of winter at some of those places. It's like before on this forum when I mentioned Rocky Mountain National Park is closed in the winter and one techocrat, said no it wasn't. Well technically yes it's open, but realistically to 99.9% of the people out there and unless you are Jeremiah Johnson it is "closed". I'd never point anyone in the direction of some of these high mountain areas past October for hiking unless they are well prepared and trained for harsh rapidly changing conditions and know how to negotiate the mountains and know where they are going.
I think the first thing to do is actually visit and spend some time in the state. I have known many people from back east that can't hack it because they have been used to sea level, humid air and just can't deal with the intense sun, dry air and high elevation with it's thin air. It's also a big cultural change in my opinion.
So come out, visit, explore and see if the reality is what the fantasy is.
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. Jobs are a little tougher up here, but there appears to be lots of IT stuff in town. Good luck! I hope your visit confirms your feelings about CO !
