horse property and elevation for older folks

[Nav]

I would say look at Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a rural based community, and pretty emphatic about keeping it that way. (residents continually fight to keep developers out, and to date have won almost all of the battles) You get the lower taxes of Elbert County, but you are within commuting distance to Denver. Elbert is not considered "Front Range" so you are exempt from the emission inspections and the Public transportation fees like most other areas. There is a Safeway for groceries and the exterior walls are up on the new Walmart currently being built. Horse properties are the norm, not the exception. Topography is a mixture of open grasslands and heavy old growth Ponderosa forests. You can choose exactly the type of property you like. Definitely a small town feel since the town was built in the late 1800's and most of the main street buildings are still being used today. The people basically are friendly...they will let you out in traffic and stop to help if you have a flat (Ranchers, not Rednecks...there is a difference). Its almost a total mindset change from from the folks in Denver proper. For example, the other day there were 6 cars stopped on the side of the road. I though it was an accident but when I got closer I realized a deer got hit and people were out helping the deer. There was even a Vet who stopped to help. anywhere else, it would have been just another piece of roadkill. (The deer was fine I later found out) People have mentioned Parker, but Parker has turned into just another Denver suburb, with lots of tract housing and congested traffic. The only way to escape the chaos is to go to the extreme east side of Parker. Unfortunately, east Parker is pretty much treeless, just rolling prairie. Another nice thing about Elizabeth is that Colorado Springs is only a 45 minute drive. Because of its location you are centrally located to tons of outdoor type activities. I would recommend going out to Realtor.com and searching for property in the areas you are considering. This way you can get a pretty good picture of what the area is like.

Nav

[morgansforme]

Nav, the picture you paint of Elizabeth sounds lovely - I do animal rescue myself, so the deer story was very appealing. Here in Texas, if you drive on I10 in the Fall, you can literally pass a hundred or more dead deer on certain stretches of the road. Very, very distressing.

The housing in Elizabeth looks very nice. Definitely looking at the Ponderosa areas. My concern is that it may be too far from hospitals and colleges. And I would very much love hiking opportunities very nearby - although walking amongst farmland is pleasant too.

From posts, it sounds like many areas around Denver are quite pretentious. We are not looking for that, although we do have a lot of "academic" interests and would like to join clubs such as rock hunting, archaeology, astronomy... along with animal rescue, organic gardening and horse riding... oh and golf for my husband

How far would we have to go to find this - stuff like that only near Denver or Colorado Springs?

We are visiting in a few weeks to look around. Thanks to all for your insight.