Need some info. about Montrose (Ouray: living in, shop, airport)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
l lived in Grand Junction a couple years ago. I never used Montrose airport so I don't know anything about it except that when I looked for flights, I was given a choice of going out of either Grand Junction or Montrose, so I think they may be similar regional airports. I used the GJC airport a few times. The way it works is you take a smallish aircraft (30-50 seats) which can be either prop or jet, and take it to Salt Lake or Denver and then get on your connecting flight there. Although the "smallish aircraft" thing isn't entirely true because there's also direct flights to Las Vegas on a much larger jet. As for facilities, the GJ airport is a small, clean place with a small ticket counter for the regional carriers. I don't remember if there's a deli or coffee shop. Normally there's almost nobody there, except once a week for the Las Vegas flight, and then there's a couple hundred noisy people in line.
Quote:
How's the shopping? I'm not really the shopping type of person, so I'm not expecting anything to spectacular.
The only times I've been in Montrose is passing through, so I can't say much except it seems to have the usual Safeway and such. I don't think it actually has a mall. I think Grand Junction is the only place on the western slope that can claim one.
Quote:
And lastly, what's the scenery like? Is it close to the city or somewhat distant?
Not five minutes to the east of town you start climbing the Western Slope towards Cerro Summit (8,000 feet). As the crow flies you're probably 10 miles from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison to the northeast. About a 30 minutes drive south to Ridgway which is basically at the foothills of the San Juan mountains. Montrose basically sits in a river valley with the Utah deserts rising off towards the West, the Western Slope of the Rocky mountains to the East, and the 14,000' scraggly peaks of the San Juans to the South, so yeah there's quite a bit of scenery.
The Montrose airport is a very pleasant little 4-gate airport, attractive and nice to be in. It does appear that "milk runs" from Montrose are more expensive than, say, mik runs from Duranto, by a couple of hundred dollars.
In the Denver airport, all the milk run gates are a pretty long walk (or run, if late) from everything else. You can find yourself hustling along to catch your milk run.
According to some posters on the Colorado board, if you have to ask then you don't deserve to know the answer. But, I'll ask anyway...what is a milk run?
According to some posters on the Colorado board, if you have to ask then you don't deserve to know the answer. But, I'll ask anyway...what is a milk run?
Tis an old railroad term for a local train that hits every station on the way into town, picking up the 5-gallon cans of milk at each station stop, fresh raw milk from small family farms and then getting those milk cans to a dairy in the city. As time progressed, some railroads actually had special milk cars that had large glass-lined tanks inside, the cans of milk were poured into that big tank, which eliminated the hassle of getting the cans back to the specific station stop and farmer. Such milk cans are now the purview of antique shops all over the nation and make nice holders for umbrellas, and walking sticks.
Term is still used to denote a local train that stops often, unlike the "limiteds" and/or long distance trains that only hit the big stops.
__________________
- Please follow our TOS.
- Any Questions about City-Data? See the FAQ list.
- Want some detailed instructions on using the site? See The Guide for plain english explanation.
- Realtors are welcome here but do see our Realtor Advice to avoid infractions.
- Thank you and enjoy City-Data.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 12-30-2011 at 07:48 AM..
Who says Montrose can't still be a nice, friendly place? Everything negative said on this thread has been blown way out of proportion.
What is Montrose now, like 20,000 people? By Western Slope standards that's big, but the last thing Montrose will become is another Denver. Even if that ever happens, it's 100+ years into the future. Let's get over ourselves here. Montrose is perfect for outdoorsy people who don't need to be in a huge city at the same time - Grand Mesa, San Juan Mtns., Black Canyon, Moab and the rest of southeast Utah - it's all that much closer now if you live in Montrose. Of course finding a job is one thing (and important) but the focus is what the town and area is like.
Who says Montrose can't still be a nice, friendly place? Everything negative said on this thread has been blown way out of proportion.
What is Montrose now, like 20,000 people? By Western Slope standards that's big, but the last thing Montrose will become is another Denver. Even if that ever happens, it's 100+ years into the future. Let's get over ourselves here. Montrose is perfect for outdoorsy people who don't need to be in a huge city at the same time - Grand Mesa, San Juan Mtns., Black Canyon, Moab and the rest of southeast Utah - it's all that much closer now if you live in Montrose. Of course finding a job is one thing (and important) but the focus is what the town and area is like.
This is all true, with the caveats that jobs are hard to come by and the next biggest town is a 4-hour drive.
I've been in Montrose since '04 and hate it with a passion. I wanted to live near the scenery. Well, I got that and that's about it.
Montrose natives are people who have no idea what's beyond the City Limit sign. They reject all forms of progress. This past summer, the City built a nice round-a-about at a formerly dangerous intersection which I happen to use every day. These locals hate it, as they never lived anywhere where you learn to drive to stay alive. They have no concept of what "Yield" means, so of course they have problems with a round-a-bout.
They complain about anything new coming in here, including national retailers. The south end of town is the only decent area here with the new stores and restaurants built in the last 4 or so years. I avoid anything north of there -- it's depressing as heck. Downtown? Forget it. I have gone to the TruValue and ACE hardware stores now and then, but I much prefer Home Depot, which the natives despise. They all go to the local places where their friends from high school now work. I have a whole network of people I rely on for various services around my house, but none of them are natives of this area -- I check that out when hiring people. If they're natives, I don't mess with them.
One good thing about this place, though, is that the taxes are low (property taxes, that is). But.....as friends have pointed out, you get what you pay for. They just dumped the curbside recycling program, so now if you want to recycle, you have to take your stuff to the putrid recycle center up there by the airport.
Most of the people here know little about current events, yet they are mostly Republicans. I ask, "How would they know what a Republican (or Democrat) stands for?!". Reading the Montrose Press surely is no educational adventure.
I have a nice house here with a gorgeous view, cable tv, internet, and a small personal library and Kindle, so I do keep up my mental health and further education. Good thing, as you will not find anything of challenge in this town, except that of putting up with the local ignorance and backward ways without your blood pressure going up every time you step out your front door.
I've lived all over the country, and Montrose is by far the worst place I've ever lived in. But it's SO pretty -- if that's enough for you, then move here, but it's not enough for me, and I'm looking for another place to call home, but I'll be cautious this time. I don't want to make the mistake I made in '04. I've had enough of The Clampetts, Western slope style.
Montrose is indeed becoming an unpleasant place, but for the exact opposite reasons that WhereToNext cites. Montrose used to have a very vibrant downtown, with a retail community there that was customer-service friendly, had a good selection of stores, and local merchants who contributed heavily to the community. Prices might have been a little higher than elsewhere, but that was more than made up by good customer service. That all changed with the proliferation of big-box crap that now putrefies the whole southern end of Montrose. Downtown is dying and there is no walkable shopping in town, anymore--and the traffic on US550 shows it.
Suburban transplants seem unable to comprehend any type of shopping or retail experience different from the suburban ghettos they profess to wish to escape, so they transform every small town they infest with the very same thing that they had back in suburbia. It's a disgusting cycle--and it is transforming every medium-size town in Colorado into a rural-suburbia wannabe kind of place. WhereToNext indicates quite clearly from his post that he holds EXACTLY that mentality. Nor do those transplants have any real idea about what living in a small community really is. All they know is the suburban life they've lived and they don't know how to adapt to or really live within a small community. It's a small wonder, then, that they feel like "outsiders"--they ARE really outsiders, and they tend to hang out only with others like them. In order to fit in to a small community, you must adapt to it--not the other way around. If you're not willing to do that, then you need to be someplace else. It's just that simple. The other alternative is live in one of Colorado's phony resort towns--which aren't really normal small towns at all--where everybody is from somewhere else and there is really no sense of community--just a bunch of pretentious folks trying to impress each other about how cool they are.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $53,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 1.5 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
