Homesick for Colorado (Denver, Aurora, Greeley: house, schools, pharmacy)

[TruBlu12345]

After living in Kansas for several years, I really miss Colorado and want to come HOME. We spent several years living in the Conifer area, but are considering the west slope. We'd like to find a place with the following: 1. Clean air. 2. Good bike riding, but not extreme mountain biking nor riding on or next to a busy road (car exhaust can make me sick in a hurry) 3. A good health food store not too far away 4. A well-built 3-bedroom house for under $400,000 (are there any?) 5. Not an extremely long drive for access to good medical care. Any suggestions?

[delta07]

I would avoid Grand Junction. Traffic is terrible and every road is busy if you plan to commute by bike. My husband rides his to work often, and he has been hit twice already! People do not watch for road bikes here at all. The air is becoming less clean, but the county does not have any sort of emissions so we must live with the dirty inversion in the winter. Suburbian sprawl is out of control. There used to be farm land all around me even four years ago. Now it is becoming subdivision after subdivision with no real planning. It is a mess!! I am moving soon and can't wait to get out of here!

[Katiana]

Are you planning to work? If a job is not a concern, you could live just about anywhere. Good medical care (I actually prefer the term health care) is available along the Front Range, with Denver/Aurora being the leader by far. The CU Medical, BS Nursing, Pharmacy, and Physical Therapy schools are all in Denver. Also Regis U. has a BSN program and PT school in Denver. Metro State has a BS Nursing pgm. COS and Greeley also have BSN programs. I mention this because a teaching presence is important in health care. The Greeley students come down to the Denver/Boudler area for clinical experience. Of course, most every medium sized city in the state has a hospital, including the moutnain communities.

[TruBlu12345]

Thanks for the information--that's pretty much what I had heard about Grand Junction. We've been looking at some of the smaller communities within driving distance, wondering if they are any better.

Thanks for the input. Fortunately, we don't have to work. Good medical care is important, but more important is staying out of the smog. That pretty well eliminates Denver as well as a lot of the front range.

[DgoNative]

Why not check out Durango? It seems like it would totally fit your bill. I just looked up realty around the area for up to 400,000 and it looks good. Also there is that new Mercy Medical Regional Center which is gigantic in the south part of town. And, of course, mountain biking abounds in Durango.

[NickMan7]

Originally Posted by DgoNative

Why not check out Durango? It seems like it would totally fit your bill. I just looked up realty around the area for up to 400,000 and it looks good. Also there is that new Mercy Medical Regional Center which is gigantic in the south part of town. And, of course, mountain biking abounds in Durango.

I second this; Durango is a wonderful town.

[brightdoglover]

Montrose has a good community hospital, and just instituted a new cancer center. Certainly the price range for housing is where the OP mentioned. And the outta-town (Ridgway/Ouray within 30 minutes) can't be beat. I'm sure there's some kind of healthy food store in Montrise, after all, the Mountain Market in Ridgway has its own section for same.

[TruBlu12345]

We've been investigating both Durango and Montrose and both sound promising. I wasn't quite sure whether the mountain bike riding in the area was too extreme for us or not. Both sound like they should have access to health food and good medical care, a big plus.

[Katiana]

Originally Posted by TruBlu12345

We've been investigating both Durango and Montrose and both sound promising. I wasn't quite sure whether the mountain bike riding in the area was too extreme for us or not. Both sound like they should have access to health food and good medical care, a big plus.

If you have some health condition that requires special care, I would suggest checking things out before moving there. Both of these places will offer good standard care, but if anything extraordinary happens to you, you will probably have to get care in Denver.

[DgoNative]

Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango is an excellent hosipital. For some reason Pittnurse thinks it is just some small mountain facility, but it is actually a state of the art hospital with many services offered that one could find only in large cities. Here is their website Mercy Regional Medical Center; Durango, CO for you to check out.
Also, I forgot to mention the health food store options. There is the Durango Natural Foods Co-op, and Nature's Oasis downtown. Nature's Oasis is about to start building a new store south of downtown which will increase their sq footage immensly. Also, the Farmers Market which happens every weekend of the summer in the First National Bank of Durango parking lot is an awesome opportunity to sample local, organic fare.