denver, burbs, rural, surrounding areas - let me get this straight

[mczabe]

Definitely a subjective question.

I hail from NJ, where you can basically drive from New York City to Philadelphia and then another hour past both and never get a break from development. The area around Denver, while not unspoiled virgin land, sure feels a heck of a lot more open to me. When I drive down to Castle Rock, it feels like open space along 25. And once past CR, it's WAY open to Colorado Springs.

Same thing driving west - no virgin land, but it feels rural and open except for pockets of homes/shopping.

East - even more so.

North - when we went up to Erie for pumpkin picking this Fall (my first and only jaunt north of Denver so far) it seemed pretty open, pretty quickly.

But again, I'm coming from the uber-populated Northeast. I imagine if I hailed from Texas or Montana, I'd have a different perspective. I think coming from San Diego, one would have more of the Northeast baseline for comparison sake.

[PsyMom]

to me a city does not mean downtown san diego or LA...
a city is any civilization with streets, residences, stores, movies, schools, blah.. so to me, a suburb is a city... i grew up in the 'city' of santee, and it was nothing like what i am assuming most of you are calling a city...
which is why i was attempting to switch from saying solid city, to solid civilization...

[NYSD1995]

You can drive east of San Diego about 45 minutes and get into a rural area: but you can drive north from the Mexican Border and have an unbroken swath of suburbia dotted with occasional high-rise business districts all the way to Ventura. With the exception of Camp Pendleton, San Diego County is almost unbroken housing and commercial development. San Diego is really oriented N/S along the 5 corridor instead of east/west.

I get what the OP is asking.... I think from what I have seen of CO, it is heavily developed along the highway corridors. However I do believe they have done a better job than San Diego County has with preserving open space and green space. Take a look at a map and check out all the parkland and open, undeveloped space in suburban Denver. San Diego county, if the land is flat enough to be built upon, it is built out with maximum density.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by PsyMom

to me a city does not mean downtown san diego or LA...
a city is any civilization with streets, residences, stores, movies, schools, blah.. so to me, a suburb is a city... i grew up in the 'city' of santee, and it was nothing like what i am assuming most of you are calling a city...
which is why i was attempting to switch from saying solid city, to solid civilization...

I think the best thing to do would be to come out and take a look. Google satellite cannot convey how it really is.

[PsyMom]

thank you so much everyone for your responses... i have now confirmed a general idea of what i will be getting into and where to look...
i am not in a position, nor will i ever be, to stake it out before i move... we are bottom of the totem pole slave class laborers with good english skills... haha... so in two months, we will be looking for the cheapest place to rent for the shortest lease option where i would still feel comfortable living with my children... then take a better look around and move up on the next move after the lease is up...
again
thanks!!

[treedonkey]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

That would be the Greenland Ranch Open Space between Castle Rock and Monument. Here are some pix of it.

Thanks for the pics, Mike. Here are some more...
Snowshoeing in Greenland

I should clarify, though, that the Greenland OSP only accounts for about 7 miles (north-south) of that visually 'open' area. The rest of the 20-or-so between the Plum Creek and Monument exits consists mainly of residential neighborhoods such as Perry Park, Larkspur, and Woodmoor, as well as some ranches. Depending on which side of the freeway you're looking, most of this area only appears to be undeveloped because the homesites are large, the ranches are even larger, and in either case the structures aren't usually built up right next to the freeway or on top of the buttes. Thanks to the zoning in that area, the land there still seems fairly open for now, but that's not to say someone couldn't sell their ranch to some greedy developers waiting to put 80 thousand homes in its place.

[Stormn]

Just get on Google earth and compare Denver to San Diego.

I lived in San Diego for 25 ish years, and absolutely without question, wall to wall humans stacked on top of each other.

I cannot even fathom the mess that area would be if the Marines ever gave up Camp Pendelton. (although they could easily pay off the national debt with the sale hmmmmmm wait a minute.......)

[Kaptain Karl]

I've lived in Colorado for 26 years (moved here from NY; narrowed my move to two cities; Colorado Springs and San Diego). I drive up and down the I-25 corridor on business all the time. It's my opinion, the collective "picture" of these two posts is quite accurate ... if you are able to conjure this picture in your mind's eye.

Good job, you two.

- KK

Originally Posted by mczabe

Definitely a subjective question.

I hail from NJ, where you can basically drive from New York City to Philadelphia and then another hour past both and never get a break from development. The area around Denver, while not unspoiled virgin land, sure feels a heck of a lot more open to me. When I drive down to Castle Rock, it feels like open space along 25. And once past CR, it's WAY open to Colorado Springs.

Same thing driving west - no virgin land, but it feels rural and open except for pockets of homes/shopping.

East - even more so.

North - when we went up to Erie for pumpkin picking this Fall (my first and only jaunt north of Denver so far) it seemed pretty open, pretty quickly.

But again, I'm coming from the uber-populated Northeast. I imagine if I hailed from Texas or Montana, I'd have a different perspective. I think coming from San Diego, one would have more of the Northeast baseline for comparison sake.

Originally Posted by treedonkey

Thanks for the pics, Mike. Here are some more...
Snowshoeing in Greenland

I should clarify, though, that the Greenland OSP only accounts for about 7 miles (north-south) of that visually 'open' area. The rest of the 20-or-so between the Plum Creek and Monument exits consists mainly of residential neighborhoods such as Perry Park, Larkspur, and Woodmoor, as well as some ranches. Depending on which side of the freeway you're looking, most of this area only appears to be undeveloped because the homesites are large, the ranches are even larger, and in either case the structures aren't usually built up right next to the freeway or on top of the buttes. Thanks to the zoning in that area, the land there still seems fairly open for now, but that's not to say someone couldn't sell their ranch to some greedy developers waiting to put 80 thousand homes in its place.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Stormn

Just get on Google earth and compare Denver to San Diego.

I lived in San Diego for 25 ish years, and absolutely without question, wall to wall humans stacked on top of each other.

I cannot even fathom the mess that area would be if the Marines ever gave up Camp Pendelton. (although they could easily pay off the national debt with the sale hmmmmmm wait a minute.......)

San Onofre will always create an open break along the 5 between built up OC and SD counties. Nobody wants to live that close to a nuclear power plant!

[longplant]

hi psymom, i am a truck driver and i will give you my perspective. i drive between denver and fort collins 5 days a week in my truck so i know northbound quite well. not until you get to 120th ave on i-25 does it begin to open up. by 136th it is more open still, and 144th is more sparse still. by the time you reach e-470 it is farmland in all directions with basically very little development. i love the area of 144th because the growth is all new. it is still a bit sparse up that way butg hopefully it willbuild up and out more in the future.