What is it really like living in Estes Park? (Denver: low income, for sale)

[Mountainman2020]

My family and I are moving to Northern Colorado next year in March/April. I've done hours and hours of research on Estes Park. And I'm pretty convinced this is where we want to raise our family. It looks amazing. Small town, beautiful scenery, in the mountains, close to bigger cities (boulder, Foco), 4 seasons, low crime, and the list goes on and on for us.

I understand that this type of place may not be for everyone. But it seems to fit our criteria nearly perfectly for a great place to settle and raise our family.

That being said, I'm searching to see what locals or people whom have lived here before has to say. What are the negatives? So far I've noted down - an insane amount of tourism (4.5 million a year?), windy, and high COS. Which the last one really isn't so much a negative for us. Can anyone weigh in and share their experience and/or opinions on living in Estes Park?

Thanks in advance!




Side note: We're from/live in a high COS tourist town of 10,000 people in NW Washington.

[bluescreen73]

Estes Park is absolutely overrun by tourists from Memorial Day 'til Labor Day. Over 4 million people visit Rocky Mountain National Park every year, and most of them enter on the Estes Park side. I personally wouldn't wanna raise a family there, but to each his/her own.

Additionally, egress out of Estes can be a pain. US-34 through Big Thompson Canyon is curvy with lower speed limits, and, unless they widened it after the flood, a lot of the drive is on a two-lane road. The roads down to Lyons (US-36 and CO-7) aren't much better.

[StealthRabbit]

I moved from EP to a PNW tourist area, (30 yrs ago) and currently split time between both locations. We have many friends still living in EP. We are there nearly every month.

They both have nice features (especially off season) and it is pretty easy to mitigate hassles. EP can be very windy and cold in winter, but nothing like 40 - 50 yrs ago when there was always great Public Ice Skating on a flooded parking lot behind Bob and Tony's (no longer cold enough for seasonal outdoor ice skating) + there was a small ski area in RMNP (not enough snow for one now, been closed for a very long time). A few of my retired friends say they really enjoy EP a lot more, now that they live in Loveland. (And can go to EP when the weather suits them). Tho we all still attend weekly event in EP on Tues at 7AM.

I consider EP to be much easier to navigate today than 30-40 yrs ago (then... had narrower roads, no passing lanes, no by-passes, lots of tourists towing travel trailers, MUCH smaller commerce area).

Schools are decent, and FT residents quite involved in youth school and sports.

Big T Canyon (US 34) and 36 each take about 30 min to reach civilization / stores, but count on allowing 45 min for traffic and construction. Each has been closed for prolonged periods due to 500 yr floods in 1976 and 2013. Since I lived in Big T Canyon, I lost a few neighbors and school / coworkers in the floods, so stay on high ground!.
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/new...ores/87524858/
https://www.coloradoan.com/story/new...rs/3651296002/

Do any commuting when other people aren't (I worked night shift to avoid traffic). I still schedule my trips off-hours. (mostly avoiding daytime construction / RV / delivery truck traffic). I drove it daily for many yrs without incident, trust you can as well, as do many.

What age are kids? If elementary... Big T (west Loveland / Masonville) is quite good and close to EP and FoCo. Jr High is certainly better in EP (smaller community). HS, I would not bother / waste my kid's time with a PS. (YMMV).

You might as well keep a place in WA so they can attend RS (free FT college) instead of burning daylight sitting around a High School. I expect you can easily do that program (or similar) from where-ever within a few yrs. I was with 57 international youth (age 14 -24) this week at a USA retreat center, and many are doing FT college on-line from desirable locations.

I would keep places to live in each spot anyway for Extra Income / deductible travel expenses / depreciation / equity appreciation / options for spending different seasons in each. If you are currently near Bellingham, you are gonna miss the coast and access to San Juan and Canadian Gulf Islands. I would keep 2+ living spaces in each location cabins for you, and rent out the 'big-house' for Big Bucks. In EP, I would also rent out your cabin during prime season (Jun - Sept) so you can enjoy fresh berries and salmon in PNW. Come back to EP for aspen colors and winter (School year).

I had several friends commute to Mines, CU, CSU, and UNC from EP. Not impossible, but a bit taxing to do daily. Usually we would have friends to camp-out at, in town if weather was nasty. (a few times / yr). Most friends eventually had to leave EP for better pay in High Tech careers (no tele-commute at the time). A few retained their homes in EP and went to urban area M-Th (often CoS or Denver Tech Center). Those who worked in Boulder / Niwot / Golden (Storage Tech, Ball, IBM, National Labs, CU...) would usually retain an EP primary residence.

Colorado is really great for Bicycle riding! and sunshine, but sea and high flow river kayak and fishing sports does not really add up to PNW options.

EP is close to WY, that is nice for more recreation with less people.

[Mountainman2020]

Thank you for the replies. Really helpful info. We currently live in Lynden, WA. My wife and I are born and raised here. And all though we may be biased - this is an incredible place to live, and definitely visit. We really enjoy it here. The Fraiser Valley has so much to offer. Cascade Mountains to the east, Puget Sound to the west, Vancouver BC just to the north and Seattle less than 2 hours south. The weather is very mild, an average of 9 inches of snow per year, and summers that aren't to hot. Lynden in particular has very low crime, friendly people, and a sense of community. A small (all though getting much bigger) farming tourist town that we've called home all of our lives. Using Bellingham (20-25 minutes away) as a hub for retail, grocery, college, and social entertainment etc. We only make 3-5 trips in Bellingham a month. We're country people. Big towns just aren't appealing for us most of the time.

We were going to stay here, raise a family and grow old here in NW WA. But in the beginning of the year we got to thinking - is there a better place for us within the lower 48? And quite frankly we're just sick of having 157 days of sunlight a year, 35 inches of RAIN a year. To many cloudy and gray days, with mild seasons. Most of our family on both my side and my wife's side we don't talk to for personal reasons and haven't for some time. We're ready to settle somewhere else. Raise our family and call home in a place that betters fits us than NW WA.

In the beginning of the year we printed a map of the lower 48. Made a criteria list. Had no limits of where we'd go. And started searching. We've searched every state, 100's of towns and places. I'd estimate around 100 hours of research before we found it. Estes Park, Colorado! Here's our criteria list below. Maybe some of you know of a place I missed that fits this criteria?

- Living in or right next to scenic mountains
- Around 250 days of sunshine a year
- Not more than around 20 inches of rain a year
- WE WANT SNOW - But not crazy like 100 inches a year on average
- LOW crime (comparable to Lynden, WA)
- Small town (around 10,000 population)
- Within 30-45 minutes driving distance to a bigger town that also has relatively low crime (50,000 - 150,000 population)
- Within 2-3 hours of a big city (around same size as Seattle). To fly out of, professional sporting events, entertainment etc
- LOW sex offender count
- State with low income tax
- Not sticky and humid
- Not an excess of bugs or deathly bugs/animals
- A place that fits our hobbies, Horseback riding, snow sports, hiking, small community, good camping.
- Reputable colleges within 1 hour
- Not heavily prone to natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes primarily)


To answer a few of your questions. Currently we have a 1 year old girl. Planning on 3 more. We're young and in our 20's. We like the idea of staying somewhere long-term. Like grow old and die long term! So I'm taking every effort to make sure this will be the right place for my family. We will be taking a week long exploration trip in early March in Northern Colorado (Loveland, FoCo, Boulder, Estes, Allenspark etc)

Wyoming was actually one of the last states we crossed off. Sounds like a great place to live!

[hikernut]

Pine beetles have significantly impacted this area. You can find lots of information online if you wish to read about it. Also, for us one downside is that most of the area hiking trails do not allow dogs.

[StealthRabbit]

EP is probably a good choice now that we know your list. Close proximity to a large city yet in the mtns restricts your options. Draw a 3 hr commute circle around SLC and Denver as you probably have done. Consider Western slope Colorado for a 'quieter' existence. Run all the numbers for the move (vehicle registration, taxes, medical premiums...). Housing is crazy expensive at the moment, I would probably invest real estate dollars in a cash flowing commercial property (elsewhere), and rent a primary residence. Until right time to buy. EP might be a challenge for income / jobs. Property Management might be the most lucrative career.,. Especially if it helps you find bargain props before they go for sale.

Sandpoint, Columbia Falls, and Sheridan WY are all worth a look on your way south. - but are not near big cities.

[Good Red Road]

Estes Park may be a small town, but during the summer time it has the population density of Manhattan.
If you haven’t already, I would research Lyons and or the far NW corner of Boulder county. Staying in Boulder county would give you access to a much better school system.

[otowi]

Woodland Park is another town that seems to fit the majority of criteria on your list - although its 30-45 minute town is a bit bigger than your numbers. Less touristy than Estes. Other nearby towns that could fit would include Cripple Creek/Victor.

[Mountainman2020]

Thank you replies. I have looked into the beetles a bit. Incredible how many acres they have destroyed. Thank you for all your advice Stealth.

In regards to Sandpoint ID, we've actually visited there and we loved it. The problem we have with it is there are 175 days of annual sunshine. So we had to cross it off. Same goes for Columbia Falls, even less sunshine than Bellingham there. Sheridan WY was high on our list, as most of the places on WY were. Problem with WY for us was the isolation. Like Durango, they're probably great places to live. But not within 1-3 hours of much, as you stated.


Lyons CO is extremely appealing to us, and fits our criteria. But it doesn't seem as scenic as Estes Park? This is one place we haven't entirely crossed off our list. We'll be exploring Lyons for sure. Can anyone chime is and give me a comparable between Lyons and Estes?


Woodland Park was also very appealing to us. Couple things that made us veer away from it were the elevation. 8,500 FT. 1,000 above Estes. And Estes was already pushing it for us. We'd rather be around the Front Range elevation of 5,000. Snow - It seems Woodland Park gets almost 100 inches of snowfall annually. Pushing it for us as well. Not as scenic as Estes (from what we can tell). And Colorado Springs would be our "hub" for the things small towns don't provide. Which isn't appealing to me since it seems CO springs is a bit higher on crime (low income) etc.

Cripple Creek and Victor are just to far out for us. And next to a giant mine. Not sure if that has any drawbacks.


Reassuring that I've actually looked at every town that's been suggested/mentioned so far. Means I've done my homework!

[hikernut]

Lyons doesn’t have the views of high mountain peaks, if that’s what you’re after.

With respect to elevation... Lake Estes is 7522, and pretty much everywhere in town is uphill from there. I know some of the residential areas we’ve looked at are a little over 8000, jfyi.

Every place has its positives and negatives. People I know who have either ruled Estes out as a place to live, or lived there and chose to leave, generally cite two reasons. The heavy tourism, and lots of high wind days.