what can you tell me about elk city/new meadows, idaho? (Orofino: housing, work)

[huskerfreak]

hello all. i'm thinking of moving to elk city, or New Meadows in the next year or two and am wondering about the people, weather, etc. I love snow so the more of that the better. I also love to hunt, fish, and backpack. I"ve heard good things about both cities. could you guys give me a good comparison of the two since I have not been able to visit either yet?

[Miborn]

It is breathtakingly beautiful....... Cold in the winter....

[Miborn]

Elk City is way more remote than New Meadows.

[shades_of_idaho]

Huskerfreak,

Because of the Tamarack Resort going in in the McCall area New Meadows is becoming a very expensive area to move into. New Meadows is a nice town with some services. It is about 90 miles to shopping unless you choose to shop at McCall and that is so much more expensive to shop up there. There is a grocery store in New Meadows but it is not like the Albertson's or other large grocery store you might be used to.

New Meadows is very pretty with lots of pasture ground and the cows out -standing in their fields. LOL Then mountains around the edges. The snow can be brutal but in the last few years that has not been the case.

Elk City is an hours drive from Grangeville on a windy narrow river road. Would be icy in the winter. It is a beautiful drive into Elk City but once you get there is could be disappointing. I would choose New Meadows over Elk city any day.

Council is between New Meadows and Cambridge and it is also a nice town and the housing might be a little less than New Meadows. It is 20 miles closer to shopping. Still in the pine trees if it does not get burned down in this years fire season.:^(((( There is a nice grocery store there and hardware ,veterinarian and a few shops. Enough to get buy.

Cambridge is another 20 miles down the highway and this is where we live. It is a nice small town with a few services. Small grocery,expensive, lumber yard coffee hut a couple of greasy spoons and a couple of shops to dink around in.

We have been looking all around. My husband decides to move about every three years. UGH The places we have found we really like are Pierce and Weippe. Then there are a few really nice looking places in Kamiah and Kooskie. Grangeville is a really nice town and I would be happy to live there. Pierce and Weippe are remote and old and not much in either town. Of the two we think Pierce is the prettier town but it is 12 miles further away from Orofino and shoping.

Now I keep mentioning shopping. I really am not a shopper as in cruzing Wally world daily kind if thing is fun for me. I HATE shopping. But when the snow is deep and the roads are icy and it has been a few weeks since a trip to the grocery store."shopping" becomes a consideration. We used to live 189 miles one way to a K-Mart. Shopping was once every 6 months and we just kept a running list of what we needed. Was a long hard shopping day and certainly not fun. When your plumbing breaks on a Saturday and your small town is closed up at noon for the weekend you better hope you have enough saved water to flush or duct tape to get you by until you can go shopping. I have done some pretty goofy things with sink traps and such just to get by until we could go to town.

You did not say if you still need to work? Kids in Schools etc. All of that is a consideration. You really need to come look.

I think the people is all the mentioned towns are great. We have not run into any one cranky in all of our trips around.

Chris

[millagerobert]

If you want remote mountain living then Elk city is your ticket. For ski hill access and more neighbors then New Meadows. For in between Kamiah and Kooskia along the Clearwater River provide a good central location.