Buena Vista...Salida?? (Denver, Colorado Springs, Fountain: home, live, move to)

[tangerine55]

I am planning to move to Colorado Springs but have been hearing the weather is better in the 'banana belt' towns of Buena Vista and Salida.
Is it true that area gets less snow?
Do most people there have to commute to Colorado Springs for work?
Just would like comparison information....is it better to start out in the Springs to get a handle on a job, ect?
Thanks for any help.

[lalahartma]

I would say very few to zero people commute to CoS for work! It's way too far. Did you mapquest/google maps it?

[proveick]

Yes, the weather is better and I am making that commute weekly. The game on the highway is really bad right now. Last Sunday my son had to throw rocks at the big horn sheep to get them off the highway. That canyon is not fun to drive in the winter as many parts recieve no sunlight and get really icy. RP

[COflower]

Buena Vista to Colorado Springs is about 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 hours one way in good weather...would anyone want to commute 4 1/2 - 5 hours (in good weather) per day?

Let's see: Full time job = about 9 hours (including an hour for lunch), 5 hours drive time, wear and tear on the car/truck, gas...not to mention time to take off for personal business, snow - maybe not in Chaffee County but getting to C Springs.

Not a life I personally would enter into. I'd rather live closer to C Springs in places like Woodland Park, Penrose, Cañon City so home life could be achieved.

To each their own I guess.

[tangerine55]

OK I see it is too far to commute but tell me about Chaffee county anyway as far as the weather there verses CS or Denver.
Thanks

[proveick]

We have a microclimate here. The continental divide and 14ers hold the weather from the west, dump their load and all we get is wind. Last winter Monarch got 70 inches in 36 hrs and we here 25 minutes east got 6 inches. Truly amazing phenomenom. Ski in 2 feet of new snow, come home and wash your truck in your shirt sleeves. Last Jan and Fed it was in the 50's almost every day. RP

[otowi]

The altitude is considerably higher in Chaffee, in general, than in El Paso or Denver counties - 2000 to 3000 feet or so. I think the weather is not terribly different from the majority of the cities proper. Northern El Paso county may get more snow than Chaffee, but, I'd be very surprised if, say, Fountain/Security/Widefield at the south end of the Springs did.