Castle Rock Commute (homes, moving, downtown)

[2bindenver]

They are all master planned. Tell us more what you like and what you wouldn't.

[BrianAggie95]

I live in Castle Rock. I commute to Colorado Springs, and my Wife commutes to I25 and C470. She says it takes her ~20 minutes to make it that far(door to door time). She works as a restuarant manager though so she often is going at non peak times. When the storms were bad and I was heading south, the North direction of 25 was often crawling if not completely stopped. So commutes can be messy in winter storms.

Downtown-
FREX(Front Range Express - bus service) is an option to go to downtown. It picks up in Castle Rock.
The train ends at Lone Tree, so to use it you would have to drive to Lone tree then swap onto the train. That is about 15 minutes drive, then swapping onto the train for the rest of the commute.

Not sure where Children's Aurora is.. so can't help much there.

Denverite's have said to us, "Why do you live so far out..." when we say we are in Castle Rock, but compared to Houston's sprawl where we lived before, Castle Rock doesn't feel far out to us. It is all relative I suppose. We felt the large lot and not right on top of us neighbors was worth the extra commute. We have a 16000 sq foot lot (about 1/3 acre). Many houses in Highlands Ranch or Centennial or Lone Tree in the same price range had 6000-8000 sq feet lots. Some even smaller.

[goldenplover]

I think that if you are going to need to make the commute, you should try parker or lone tree. Highlands rand and lone tree practically melt into castle rock these days anyways as more and more houses go up. However, the neighborhoods are all good and have good school districts. Watch out for those identical (sometimes literally down to the color) houses in highlands ranch- they were built so close you could reach out and touch the one next door in some cases. Other than that, I would avoid Aurora. Parts are okay, and some parts are not.

As far as driving, that's a LONG commute if the weather is bad (or if there's an accident). If you don't mind driving that far, castle rock is okay, but if you want something a tad close, try parker or lone tree.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by BrianAggie95

I live in Castle Rock. I commute to Colorado Springs, and my Wife commutes to I25 and C470. She says it takes her ~20 minutes to make it that far(door to door time).

How's your drive down to Colorado Springs? What part of town do you work in?

[Mrs. Mom]

Our real estate agent is pointing us towards Castle Pines, northern part of Parker and Aurora in Tallyn's Reach. There are two ranches that I like very much from what I can see online. One in Parker, one in Tallyn's Reach.

Thanks for all the helpful advice on Castle Rock. I think we have eliminated in our search at this point.

[BrianAggie95]

I work in Northern Colorado Springs, just across from the Air Force Academy. It is 37 miles door to door from my house to my office, and it takes me 40 minutes. There is light traffic, and for the most part I cruise at the speed limit of 75 mph the whole way. Comparred to my Houston commute, which was 26 miles and took me 50 minutes to an hour, and stop and go or crawling. I have no complaints...

HOWEVER, I have the ability to work from home if I need to. Over the winter I worked from home almost every time we had a storm come through. The few times I did drive in during winter weather changed my commute to between 1 hr to 1 hr 15 minutes.

Keep in mind with my times that a lot will depend on how far from the freeway you live. It takes about 10 minutes to go from my house to the freeway..

So with my wife's times too.. so her 20 minutes commute is really a time of 10 minutes from The North Castle Rock Exit (which is Meadows/Founders) to get to C470&I25. Thats with no traffic. It's all relative of course... and if you have flexability on start times you can avoid the true rush anyway..

[Colo Mom]

We commute from Castle Pines North (which is north of Castle Rock-about 15 min.) to downtown Denver by driving north to the end of the light rail station at Lincoln Ave. & taking light rail to downtown. The drive to the train station (off-highway, which we prefer) is about 15 min., and the train ride is about 42 min. to the end of the line downtown (18th & Stout/California), but at least you can close your eyes, read, or whatever while on the train. Some of the developments in CPN have their own pool, but no rec center. I can't remember if a rec center was approved recently or not - you could check with the master HOA for CPN if you really are interested. You can find "larger" lots that either are or probably can be fenced in-check the HOA covenants as they vary, but most areas seem to be able to be fenced in by at least post & rail fence with wire fenceing - sounds ugly but you get used to it.

On a good-weather day, the drive to the new Children's Hospital in Aurora from CPN is about 30-35 min. on Sat. mornings and more like 50 min. during rush hours as 225 can get bogged down in spots (but I've done that drive during rush hour only a couple of times to far), but at least it's better than the drive we had to the old/former Children's in downtown Denver.

Worse-case driving is anyone's guess if you're driving or taking a bus. It has taken as much as 3 hours in bad snow to get downtown while driving, but we haven't had to endure that anymore with the light rail extension down to Lincoln Ave.

I don't think Village of Castle Pines is within your price range. A lot of CPN would be outside your range as well. Lone Tree, Parker, and HR might have more options within your range. They are closer drives too. Hope this helps! Good luck!

[steveindenver]

225 is always backed up and there is no train option to get to Childrens (225 and colfax). That would be a long, long commute on most days at most hours.

Tallyn's Reach might actually be a longer commute and the nearby highway is a toll road. You can get some cheap places off of E-470 to be certain, but ask yourself why then look at the forclosure and short sale numbers in the area and be certain you can live with that.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Is there ever any talk about extending the light rail down to Castle Rock? I know voters there refused to join the tax district that pays for the rail. But with oil prices rising, is anyone talking about joining it and funding a rail extension?

[tfox]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Is there ever any talk about extending the light rail down to Castle Rock? I know voters there refused to join the tax district that pays for the rail. But with oil prices rising, is anyone talking about joining it and funding a rail extension?

It's not part of Fastracks, so it would not be part of the phased expansion to be opening between 2013-2018. There is talk of having a Fastracks Phase II or Nextracks beyond that time period. IF Castle Rock voters decided to re-join RTD they could very well be included in that expansion, but even if that happens it would be 20+ years at the earliest before you'd see service.

A slightly more likely scenario is talk about a commuter rail corridor along the front range from Fort Collins to Pueblo. There's a good chance that Castle Rock could get a stop along that route. That said, that effort is currently unfunded.