Want to relocate to Colorado with young family from COLD Minnesota (Denver: home, live)

[cranfordusa1]

I have raised my family in Longmont and alas, it is time to sell my home and hopefully downsize. This is a really nice, peacefull, safe and quiet place to live. It is so family orientated, great schools and neighborhoods, beautiful views of the mountains, yet it's in the 50's this week. We don't get much snow and it always melts fast. The few kids in my cul de sac have a great place to play, I have come close to selling and changed my mind, but my child is now a professional back East and staying there, so thats my reason to leave. My neighbors would welcome you and yours, we need some young ones here and the closest thing to rush hour is waiting for families on their bikes to cross into our many lake recreation parks!

[mzumwalt]

Parker is also really nice! Check it out before you make a decision on anywhere. If you like the idea of living in a mountain town that is near to a bigger city Woodland Park is really beautiful. About 20 minutes drive down (altitude wise) into Colorado Springs. I'm blown away at how much construction is going on past Woodland Park and think it'd be a great place to consider for your husband and yourself considering your trades. Good luck on your decisions!

[ragerunner1]

Castle Rock is a really nice town. Some of its attributes: great park system with a lot of open space and bike/pedestrian trails, good school system, a historic downtown with several shops and restaurants, a new hospital will be constructed starting this year, great scenery (right in town with the all the bluffs, and small canyons) with mountain views including, pikes peak, mt. evans and even longs peak. Most of your basic shopping needs are right in town (walmart, target, home depot, lowes, movie theaters and the large outlet mall - plus a 10 minute drive to the Park Meadows Mall area), a really good recreational center for fitness, including and indoor aquatic center, low crime, and several local and national restaurants. You can get to downtown Denver in about 25 minutes and downtown Colorado Springs in about 35. There are three state parks in the area and you can be in the mountains in about 20 minutes (through Sedalia). If you are looking to be out in the 'country' look towards the south, west or northwest of the town. You will still probably see a neighbor but, its is open country. As I mentioned in my previous post we have quiet a bit of construction going on (home building as well as commercial/office) you might be able to land a job. Hope this helps.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by ragerunner1

Castle Rock is a really nice town. Some of its attributes: great park system with a lot of open space and bike/pedestrian trails, good school system, a historic downtown with several shops and restaurants, a new hospital will be constructed starting this year, great scenery (right in town with the all the bluffs, and small canyons) with mountain views including, pikes peak, mt. evans and even longs peak. Most of your basic shopping needs are right in town (walmart, target, home depot, lowes, movie theaters and the large outlet mall - plus a 10 minute drive to the Park Meadows Mall area), a really good recreational center for fitness, including and indoor aquatic center, low crime, and several local and national restaurants. You can get to downtown Denver in about 25 minutes and downtown Colorado Springs in about 35. There are three state parks in the area and you can be in the mountains in about 20 minutes (through Sedalia). If you are looking to be out in the 'country' look towards the south, west or northwest of the town. You will still probably see a neighbor but, its is open country. As I mentioned in my previous post we have quiet a bit of construction going on (home building as well as commercial/office) you might be able to land a job. Hope this helps.

Until the Denver Basin Aquifer that supplies much of the area's water runs dry--probably within about 25 years . . .

(Covered in other threads, so I won't repeat here.)

[Minx]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

Until the Denver Basin Aquifer that supplies much of the area's water runs dry--probably within about 25 years . . .

(Covered in other threads, so I won't repeat here.)

Geez.....you never cease to amaze me.....you find a negative in everything....

"signed....one of those transplants"

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by Minx

Geez.....you never cease to amaze me.....you find a negative in everything....

"signed....one of those transplants"

No, truth.

[ragerunner1]

The Town of Castle Rock and other communities are in the process of building a renewable water source with the new reservoir. It still has a ways to go to before it is filled and finished but the work has begun and it is a step in the right direction. The town is also very water wise smart, lots of xerioscape, water conservation classes for its citizens, etc...

[tfox]

Just so the OP knows... Castle Rock, Parker, etc are definitely part of suburban metro Denver. The outer edge of the metro (for now), but part of it nonetheless. It sounded to me like the OP was looking for more of a "smaller town" type environment. For that, I'd say you'd have to look past Metro Denver or frankly Metro anything to the less populated parts of the state.

My first recommendation would be northern Colorado -- Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor... etc. While these are hardly small towns (Fort Collins at around 120k, Loveland at around 80k), they are at least outside of the commuter range of Metro Denver. If even that's too populated or busy for the OP (and it very well might be), might want to consider somewhere like Canon City / Florence on the eastern slope and Grand Junction on the western slope.

[RedSoxFanGoingWest]

Originally Posted by tfox

Just so the OP knows... Castle Rock, Parker, etc are definitely part of suburban metro Denver. The outer edge of the metro (for now), but part of it nonetheless. It sounded to me like the OP was looking for more of a "smaller town" type environment. For that, I'd say you'd have to look past Metro Denver or frankly Metro anything to the less populated parts of the state.

My first recommendation would be northern Colorado -- Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor... etc. While these are hardly small towns (Fort Collins at around 120k, Loveland at around 80k), they are at least outside of the commuter range of Metro Denver. If even that's too populated or busy for the OP (and it very well might be), might want to consider somewhere like Canon City / Florence on the eastern slope and Grand Junction on the western slope.

I totally agree with tfox on this. Castle Rock is definitely part of suburban Denver and with the new "Canyons" development being planned at/near Happy Canyon Rd it will seem even more connected to Denver.

That being said, my wife and I enjoy Castle Rock for much of the things others have mentioned. You won't find homes with any sort of acreage but it has a reputation as a great place to raise children. The '25 minutes' to downtown Denver description that was posted earlier is a little misleading. You can probably do that on a weekend or non-rush hour but it takes me about 20 minutes to get from Castle Rock to E. Arapahoe Rd which is 3 miles south of the Denver city limits. For a suburban town, Castle Rock has some very good restaurants when compared to other towns its size.

Further south are the towns of Larkspur and Monument, I don't know too much about them but they have more of a rural feel.

Best of luck in your move. Let me know if you have any other questions about Castle Rock. I'd be happy to help if I can.

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by ragerunner1

Castle Rock is a really nice town... You can get to downtown Denver in about 25 minutes and downtown Colorado Springs in about 35. There are three state parks in the area and you can be in the mountains in about 20 minutes (through Sedalia).

I think Castle Rock is a fine town, as suburbs go, but please don't exaggerate things to make it sound better than it is.

Unless you're talking about flying, there is NO WAY you can reach downtown COS in 35 minutes, even if you're starting your timer from the Plum Creek freeway entrance. I live good half hour south of that (about 20 minutes of freeway time from entrance to exit) and it takes me nearly a half hour of freeway time to reach the Uintah St. exit, which is still north of downtown, and does not even count extra driving time from there to your destination. As for going to Denver, if you only count freeway time MAYBE it would take a half hour before you reached Invesco Field, but that doesn;t even count any time on surface streets which could easily total another half hour if your home and your destination are not both right off the freeway. Also, there' no way you're getting into the Mountains (assuming you're talking about taking that dirt road up through Deckers) in 20 minutes.