Where is the best place to live in Wyoming? (Cheyenne: ski resort, apartment)

[SarahKVaughn]

I am currently in Vancouver, Washington and am looking to move out of state. In about a year I will be educated to be a dental hygenist. Where is the best place for someone in this profession? I've never been the type for night life (clubbing and what not), but am single and would enjoy being near somewhere where I could find myself a man . No kids. I am pretty much looking to start my life in Wyoming.

[sunsprit]

There's a huge number of factors that will affect your ability to live here and enjoy life ....

highly dependent upon what you consider acceptable standards of housing, access to shopping, entertainment, health/medical facilities, restaurants, isolation (or not), and your income relative to your ability to meet your expectations.

If you aren't bringing in a bit of money to get started with your relocation here, then a major determining factor in "where is the best place to live" here will be where you can obtain employment that will pay your living wage.

Your best opportunities to have a job and a social life exposure will be in the larger towns; ie, Cheyenne, Casper, Gillette, etc. While dental jobs might be available in smaller communities, the social life exposure becomes a much more limited pool ... although there may be the ideal "man" for you there, the opportunities to meet become very limited unless you can rely upon such resources as a church group affiliation or similar social gatherings. Not being into "night life", you'll be highly dependent upon other social avenues to meet people ... volunteer groups, public service groups, activity clubs/groups, etc. Consider, too, that climate and recreation opportunities here will play a large part in your living circumstances here and your social contacts.

As always, I urge you to come visit Wyoming for awhile in those likely job opportunity towns to see for yourself what presents for jobs, housing, living circumstances, and the prospect of a social life to your tastes.

[WyoNewk]

My late wife liked to tell folks that she moved to Gillette because she'd heard there was a good-looking cowboy behind every tree... and that she didn't realize there were no trees around Gillette until she got here.

Rest assured, there are guys in every town and teeth in every town. But I agree with Sunsprit, the larger the town the more prospects, for jobs and single guys too. There are a few towns that I'd have to wrinkle my nose at the thought of moving to them, but rather than list them (for political reasons) I'll list a few good ones. Starting with Sunsprit's list and in no particular order: Cheyenne, Casper, Gillette, Sheridan, Buffalo, Cody, Jackson, Lander, Douglas and Laramie. None of these are perfect and there are other good towns in the state, but there's a start for ya.

Some of these are out on the high prairie, some are nestled next to mountains. I'd also advise you to visit Wyoming and any particular town you're interested in before accepting a job. They're all a far cry from Vancouver.

[Goin'toasquarestate]

Lotsa' good places there!

Agree fully here, bring al you're positivity, tennacity, grattitude and acceptance to Wyoming. You can make it!

& Carhart's

[KillerK]

Sarah, did you love Vancouver, or were you indifferent, or did you not like it much? I just ask because Vancouver is many many times larger than even the largest cities in Wyoming (none of which even reach 100,000 people). The majority of towns here are pretty small and far away from anyplace bigger. But, like it was for me, that might actually be a selling point for you.

I think the top things to consider are:

1) Housing: the availability and cost of it. I can't speak for the whole state, but I know where I live (Pinedale, in Sublette County, western Wyoming) housing is pretty steep and hard to come by. But then again, it might be even steeper in Vancouver so it could possibly be cheaper here, who knows?

2) Weather: The weather will be a lot different here than Vancouver. It will get much colder in winter (specially farther west into the mountains you are) and a bit hotter in the summer. However it is very dry here whereas it seems Vancouver would be moist, being near the ocean. So while in my area in deep winter there will be days and even weeks where the high doesn't reach about 0 degrees F (almost -18 C) it doesn't feel so bad during the day when it's sunny because the air is so thin and the sun feels warm.

It's also pretty windy in Wyoming. We don't get it too bad here in Sublette County, but when it blows it BLOWS. And with the snow being so dry and light, it creates crazy "ground blizzards" (which I actually think are fun and kind of pretty). Also winter lasts a long time out here with somewhat short spring/summer season. Fall is GORGEOUS here but comes and goes so fast if you blink you might miss it.

HOWEVER it is almost always sunny and beautiful here (Even if it might be -20 F outside!) I love the clear sunny skies, especially in winter, making all the icicles and snow sparkle and giving you the best sunrises and sunsets! It is very seldomly gloomy here compared to the Pacific Northwest.

That leads me to my next point...

3) Scenery: Does natural beauty and scenery mean a lot to you in where you live? Wyoming is a very scenic state, but there are swaths of it, particularly in the eastern/southeastern parts that some people would describe as nondescript or even ugly. Unfortunately, from what I've heard of the state, the more cheap and abundant housing is found in those areas. However, even there it's not too far a trip to pretty places.

I think most of the state is beautiful, but I am easily impressed - what I think is pretty or cool-looking other people might think is ugly or boring. But there are many small-medium sized towns nearby various mountain ranges that are pretty.

I love Sublette County because it has wide-open spaces of rolling sagebrush desert with mesas and stuff and is surrounded by 3 mountain ranges, the Wind River range by Pinedale being my favorite. (Google Wyoming Wind River mountains and Pinedale Wyoming). For such a small town we have a lot of nice things due to the presence of the energy industry in the area. We have an awesome public library, a great museum of local history (Which is fascinating), a beautiful mountain lake, Fremont Lake, just out of town, a small ski resort, a great aquatics center (Gym), nice schools, etc. In fact in 2012 Pinedale was listed in a list of Top 100 communities for Young People (in the US).

There's also Big Piney/Marbleton in southwest Sublette County near the Wyoming Range of mountains. It's smaller than Pinedale and probably a bit cheaper to live but still has nice people and nice places.

If you like mountain vistas, you might also look at Lander, Thermopolis, Dubois, Cody, Sheridan... (am I missing any other nice mountain-viewing towns, other Wyomingites?)

4) Town size/amenities: The biggest cities in Wyoming are Cheyenne and Casper (60,000 and 55,000 ish, respectively), with Laramie (30K), Gillette (29K), Rock Springs (21K), Sheridan (17.5K ish), Green River (12K), Evanston (11.7K) and Riverton (10K) following. All the other towns are less than 10K. Jackson is a bit less than 10K people and that is where many people think of when they think of Wyoming. It's gorgeous there but very expensive to live and very difficult to find affordable and available housing. Cody is just a bit over 9K people and I think is a really nice town. All those places have most of the amenities you would need, including Walmart or Kmart etc.

But here in Pinedale (1,500 people), we may not have big chain stores or whatnot, but we have lots of locally owned businesses that cater to almost all our needs, and we are only an hour and a half from Jackson, where more specialized services can be found. Here in Pinedale we have our own small high-quality microbrewery if you're into beer (one of them won Gold at a World Beer Fest), a couple other nice restaurants, a nice little grocery store, hardware store, outdoors shops, and other things.

Basically, my vote goes to Pinedale, or Lander/Thermopolis, or Cody. If you come here, be prepared for long, cold winters, get involved in some outdoor activities, and be friendly to the people you meet as they will be friendly right back. This is the friendliest place I've ever been I think.

[ElkHunter]

As much as I hate to say it, I would advice against Sheridan and the area. The reason is that the Sheridan College has a Dental program and turns out a lot of graduates, so the area has a lot of hygenists that want to stay in the area.

I was recently in the VA, having my teeth cleaned and the hygenist was telling me that she had landed a job but was upset that it wasn't going to be in the area, she was having to move to Utah.

Sheridan is a wonderful area and if you could secure a job, I'd go for it, but I'm thinking it's pretty full up around here.

[KillerK]

Oh duh I forgot to mention that Pinedale has a nice little health clinic and I think one privately owned dental office, and they're actually looking for a Dental Assistant. Here's the classifieds site: Job Board - Pinedale Online - Pinedale, Wyoming

There also are ads for house and apartment rentals on that site too.

D'oh, I realized now you said Vancouver WA and not Vancouver BC...Vancouver WA isn't that much more metropolitan than Wyoming cities, lol....but is still at least 2 or 3 times bigger.

[Goin'toasquarestate]

Originally Posted by SarahKVaughn

I am currently in Vancouver, Washington and am looking to move out of state. In about a year I will be educated to be a dental hygenist. Where is the best place for someone in this profession? I've never been the type for night life (clubbing and what not), but am single and would enjoy being near somewhere where I could find myself a man . No kids. I am pretty much looking to start my life in Wyoming.

Research

You go kid!

[SarahKVaughn]

Vancouver is a nice place, for the right person. It is too close to a big city for my taste, and it is a small area trying too hard to be a big city. I love scenery, not watching traffic due to road construction. I want somewhere that isn't jam packed with people I always try to escape to the smaller towns in Washington, but those seem to be falling to how Vancouver is becoming. I will take the advice and actually visit Wyoming to check for myself!

[KillerK]

To further entice you to include Pinedale/Sublette County in your visit, watch this video about the area:
Sublette County Wyoming.mp4 - YouTube