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Another area to consider would be Brigham City, Logan, or up one of the canyons outside of Ogden or SLC, UT (Morgan, Park City, Sandy, etc.). These locations could meet all your needs, especially Logan, Morgan or Sandy. Sandy is not up a canyon, but is a south east suburb of SLC. Still a somewhat conservative Mormon culture, but far, far, far more liberal than even 10 or 15 years ago. Micro breweries and coffee shops are pretty common these days. None to be seen only a few years ago.
Bend / Bozeman "vibe" - of today (lots of restaurants, breweries, events, etc.) - generally goes with pretty big / crowded and much much more expensive than it used to be. The places that are ever are going to be fully like that are generally the places well along to that. It is a lot about location and acceptable access to major populations for customers by road or plane.
It would help to set a population size range. Under 5k, 20k, 50k, over 50k are very different and the number of choices vary.
And have a real estate price range. Of course buying / selling land parcels under $100k in lower level areas or houses under 300k is very different than some resort areas where much of the action is in a much higher range, into the millions to tens of millions.
You might like Kalispell / Whitefish area for "alpine" (most reachable at ski resort or peak of summer and less so otherwise) but not "sun" in winter. The latitude is a big part of this issue.
Hailey Idaho or further up Sun Valley might work for some. Summit County CO. Park City to Heber UT. Steamboat Springs CO is a mid-sized option. Near Cedar City UT might be a lesser known option that might work for some. Expect plenty of competition most places.
Durango to Telluride is 111 miles and over 2 hours on best days and is sometimes impossible for brief periods in winter due to pass closures.
The main local ski resort is Purgatory. If you want lush green into alpine, you'd want areas north, northeast or way east of Durango as opposed to south or generally west, though northwest might work for some. Gardening? Think starter greenhouses and short maturation crops and generally not crops that need lots of sunrays / days. Frost free period is among the briefest in country. But some stuff can be done on good enough land (not just anywhere) with right knowledge, investment, effort.
In terms of size & vibe, Flagstaff is somewhat comparable. More sun and a little alpine with plenty of sub-alpine forest and some small lakes.
Thanks so much, NWCrow! We are going to spend more time around CO and hopefully find something that will work and live somewhere else in the summer.
isn't it too dry? I will look into it. I prefer more alpine over desert.
Santa Fe has access to the high desert but is at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. It is situated above 7,000 ft. elevation and has it's own ski area and easy access to the mountains. It has four seasons and sunny most days. Taos is an hour north with more skiing and mountain access. Albuquerque is an hour south and sits below the Sandia Mountains but is a bit drier than Santa Fe.
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