Contemplating Colorado Mountain Towns — what’s it like for kids? (Denver: renters, houses)

[ginnyberry]

We are planning to move from our suburb in Ohio to a mountain town (<10,000 people).

Although we have never lived in the west, I used to live in a cabin in the woods in the Northern Appalachian Mountains. My husband grew up in a small town. I am attracted to Colorado — the views, the air, the independent lifestyle, and the sense of space. While places like TN, KY, WV and NC are beautiful, the culture is not a fit for me. Judge-ie — depending on if you are in religious, conservative or liberal town. My visits to CO have been amazing. A nice co-existence of people. Still, there’s much we don’t know about CO — and I’m learning a lot on these forums.

I’m researching Salida, Basalt, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, Ridgway, and Ouray. It is compelling to think about living in town, near a restaurant or two, and be within 10 minutes of awesome hiking. (I don’t ski....at least not yet).

My main question is what’s it like as a kid in these places? My kid is 10. Is it easy for kids to find and make friends? Are there places / events where kids get together, ride bikes, swim, play, etc. or do most stick with their own families and siblings? In rural Ohio, teenagers like to drive too fast on the roads and make bonfires — those activities seem out of the question!

Are any of the towns I mentioned better for kids than others? Should I add suburbs like Evergreen and Manitou Springs to my list?

I’m not sold on CO. I also plan to look at Montana and Idaho; I just haven’t been there yet.

[brightdoglover]

I can only speak for Ridgway, and I'm not a parent, but I do know many! Parents seem very involved with their kids in a very good way, the schools are super and there are lots of enrichment and arts programs for kids. It certainly seems that kids interact with other kids and are not stuck away with family-only, of course in the current public health environment there are precautions but I see kids at the park, at the enrichment program down the street, working with horses and the artist who has the horses (in town!) and there are plenty of bikes, library programs, etc. Although it's small here, I think it's a super area for families and kids, without question. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like to talk or visit. Take good care!

Just one example from the Telluride news- (Telluride 34 miles away)

https://www.telluridenews.com/news/a...3cYFeJHSrT9dsc

[NW Crow]

There are differences between towns of 1k, 2.5k, 5k, 10k and 25k population of course.

Have or have not hospital. Dentist, optician? Pharmacy? Hardware store? Probably but check and evaluate how adequate. Wal-Mart or any general merchandise store beyond convenience store level? Some parents complain about finding clothes, some travel or shop online. Amount of local home service personnel. Want a national name grocery store? Probably not in places below 5k. May not even get regional chain below 2.5k. Prices and selection may matter to some more than others. Restaurants- under 5 (and maybe all resort pricing) or you want 20 and a broader range?

Some find very small towns a too frequent nuisance. Others manage. Tolerate driving to the bigger city? How far, how often? For years and years and years?

Kids activities? Some might occur super small scale, word of mouth. Some might lack critical mass. Rec center? Maybe not in small places. Movie theathers? Some, limited or none?

[StealthRabbit]

Generally, life for kids is very good in mtn towns with stable / balanced community with strong local support for schools and families.
Vail, Aspen, Crested Butte .... .may stretch that since they have a lot of tourist / absentee landowners.

I would scratch the idea of considering a suburb if you really seek a small and supportive town. Commuters don't have the time to invest in their own community, and since they are often in the city, they also consider that a main resource for their families.

Find a small town at least 2 hours from a metropolis.

ID and MT are good choices as well. DIL grew up in Sandpoint, other friends moved their young families to Columbia Falls, MT. Good friend grew up in Moscow, ID. All very nice choices. Small college towns offer more stimulus for learning and diversity of economy, art, people, jobs.

I was from Estes Park, CO (much smaller 50 yrs ago).

We still got in plenty of trouble.... driving Big Thompson canyon everyday.
Life is fragile, handle with care.!

[bluescreen73]

A good starter question would be do you have the budget it takes to live in a mountain town? The quality mountain towns in Colorado are all extremely expensive. If you don't have the budget, you're going to end up living in a peripheral mountain town like Craig where the schools are complete garbage, and drug and alcohol abuse are rampant.

[ginnyberry]

Wow — that outdoor program described in the Telluride News sounds wonderful. When I ask about a “place where kids can hang out,” I am thinking of any natural spot where kids might congregate— a park, a swimming hole, etc. Ridgway really sounds great.

I am encouraged by these responses; it’s been hard to get information on family life. And I’ll definitely check-out small college towns in MT and ID. Good idea.

We can afford to live in all the places I listed and others. We cannot afford Telluride or Aspen. At some point, it becomes a question of the value, of course. I really don’t want to spend more than $650k on a home and would prefer a home sized more modestly (like a 2BR, 1000-1200 sqft house). It seems a lot of houses are HUGE and $800k-$1.2M is an average. So, for right now, the housing price is not the first selection criterion. I certainly do want to understand what areas might be on the fringe, from the perspective of having a family.

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

When we were looking at retiring and moving from our home in Denver to a small town in Colorado, we spent two or three summers driving around the state and looking at the various small towns. We ended up in Buena Vista, near Salida, because the price was right at the time, there are gorgeous views, there was enough employment that we could find renters until we moved, and it was still reasonably close to family in the Denver area.

Buena Vista is a nice, family oriented town, but we definitely suffer from the huge influx of tourists in the summer. I don't know much about the schools, but it does seem like a good place to raise kids. We have a great Rec District with skate park, ball fields, etc. Some cons to a small isolated mountain town -- hospital is 25 minutes away although there is a small medical practice in town (but it isn't 24/7). Shopping choices are limited, restaurants are packed in the summer, wifi is iffy at best, cell phone service is spotty.

"independent lifestyle"? I think you should be looking in Idaho.

[ginnyberry]

Oh NW Crow had some questions, so I will respond, in case it helps others provide answers.

We’re fine with 2-5 restaurants, basically, just looking for a place we can grab a drink and nachos sometimes. “Resort pricing” is something we likely need to accept if we want to live in a mountain town in CO. I don’t know how we will feel about tourists; that’s an unknown.

We mostly shop online. I’m fine with a small market having limited choices. I recognize that my kid my feel different about shopping for clothes, depending on what is normal with other kids.

I do need to have WiFi— so that is a serious consideration.
...and I’ll definitely check-out ID. Lol.

[Mike from back east]

There are lots of choices, mostly on the western slope. Telluride and Aspen can be insanely pricey with the extreme wealth that flocked there.

Worries me that you've never lived at 7000+ feet of elevation. Suggest rent for a year before buying to see how you acclimate as a few people have a hard time at it. Best to visit for at least a week and if you do you must drink lots of water as the climate will dry you out in a heartbeat; saline nasal spray is a good idea too as a lot of people have small nosebleeds from the dry air. Reduce alcohol consumption, and protect yourselves from the sunlight in the thinner air with sunglasses, sunscreen, chapstick and a hat. Long sleeve shirts for the very fair skinned. The climate really is different here from back east where I lived for 57 years.

In years past I recall people in these forums saying that Edwards, CO was a good choice for families. It's on the I-70 corridor which give you a chance to hop over to other nearby towns for things to see and do.

A good sized town on the western slope is Grand Junction, for which there are quite a few threads already here and easy to find with our search tool. Lots there to do and it's also on the I-70 corridor as well as Amtrak. If anyone needs it, there is an FAQ file in the About The Forum forum that explains search tool usage.

Winter is long in the mountains, lots of snow, driving can be a chore.

[GuitarDaver]

You need to watch some episodes of Southpark no seriously, there are some small mountain towns that can be pretty weird and funky with colorful characters that you might not want to be raising a family around. As already stated.
I grew up in Denver metro area and spent a lot of time in the mountains.
Check out Granby and Fraser alng the US40 route.
Tourism is CO's number one industry so you'll want to find a town with enough population to support the needs of your family but not lopsided to be entirely dependent on tourism. I haven't live in CO since 97 and I know things have changed according to my parents. Like commuting on I-70, it sounds like the traffic in CA now...
Estes park is nice also like Rabbit mentioned, we owned property there for many years. Loveland although not in the mountains is very close, so is Lyons. These are nice little towns, or used to be...