is wyoming right for us? (Cheyenne, Casper: for sale, apartment, movers)

[Princess83]

My Fiance and i are looking for a plot of land thats pretty rural. We have a few tiny issues tough,it has to be within a short drive to a hospital for work, and at least a few acres of woods. we want to be able to see nothing but land, and no houses for a few miles.

also, we want to know does Wyoming have all 4 seasons (summer, winter, fall, spring)?

how are the schools?

how about pricing for houses or land?

what is there to do?

is Wyoming right for us?

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by Princess83

My Fiance and i are looking for a plot of land thats pretty rural. We have a few tiny issues tough,it has to be within a short drive to a hospital for work, and at least a few acres of woods. we want to be able to see nothing but land, and no houses for a few miles.

Most of the "woods" in Wyoming are in the western part of the state. A lot of the state is high desert or prairie, so while there are some trees, they are not thick and dense like most people would consider the woods to be. You can find areas with trees in many parts of the state, however. As for not seeing a house for a few miles, that might be difficult if you want to be close to a hospital. If you purchase land and build a home, you might be able to position it in such a way as not to have any other houses within view. I have 36 acres near Wheatland, and the view in one direction does not have any houses in it, but looking the other directions, there are houses to be seen.

Originally Posted by Princess83

also, we want to know does Wyoming have all 4 seasons (summer, winter, fall, spring)?

This depends on what part of the state you're in. Some people will tell you that Wyoming only has two seasons: Winter and August 11th. In reality, though, some parts of the state do have four seasons, though winter is the most prevalent season in much of the state. Some places only get a month or two of summer weather each year.

Originally Posted by Princess83

how are the schools?

Only repeating what I've read on here: The schools in Wyoming are pretty good. I've heard they are well funded and most of what I've heard about the schools has been very positive.

Originally Posted by Princess83

how about pricing for houses or land?

Like a lot of other places, pricing varies greatly depending on where you look. In places like Jackson, housing starts at around $1,000,000 for a home, and goes up from there if you want a home on some land. At the opposite end of the state, land is about the cheapest you will find, with some of it being well below $1000/acre. Some of these areas are difficult, if not impossible, to access during the winter, however. See the Wytex Ranch thread for details on one such area.

Originally Posted by Princess83

what is there to do?

There is a lot to do throughout Wyoming IF you enjoy being outdoors: hunting, hiking, four wheeling, snowmobiling, riding ATVs, fishing, camping, horseback riding, etc. There isn't a lot of indoor entertainment unless one provides it for themselves. Malls and movie theaters are the exception in Wyoming, so they are few and far between. Only the larger cities have any of them, and even the ones that do only have a little bit compared to many other areas of the country. If you want indoor entertainment, you pretty much have to provide it for yourself (TV, DVDs, CDs, computer/internet, etc.).

Originally Posted by Princess83

is Wyoming right for us?

No one else can make that determination for you. Based on what you read about Wyoming on this forum, I think you need to decide if it's worth your while to even look in Wyoming. If you don't mind being somewhat isolated from the rest of the state, and even the rest of the country, then it might be worth considering. From just about anywhere in the state to anywhere else, it's probably going to be something like 100 miles. In other words, someplace 100 miles away is nearby. This is something people in Wyoming are used to, but people from other places can't understand. Some people can't understand why anyone would want to be 100 miles from a movie theater or shopping mall. It's just a Wyoming thing.

If you need those things, you will want to stay close to the bigger cities, which in Wyoming, aren't really all that big. Cheyenne is arguably the biggest, with just over 50,000 people. It is only 100 miles north of Denver, which is a plus to some people, since Denver offers most everything you can't find in Cheyenne.

[michael11747]

wyoming's climate is pretty harsh. i lived in 3 different locations in yellowstone nat. park, and down in jackson as well. it was cold during winters, and we had highs of 80's thoughout most of the summer. jackson hole did get to 95 once. know that it is one of the more expensive areas of the country as well. i don't know if you would like eastern wyoming. not many people do. southern wyoming near the colorado border would be your best bet. laramie is cheap, the areas to the south and west (medicine bow nat forest) are beautiful. laramie is a college town, and has as much as a mid-sized city can offer, with plenty of outdoor oriented stuff to do. the northwest is where EVERYONE wants to live. the southwest is dry, hot in summer cold in winter, and desolate. the northeast is, well the northeast. not much goin on. there is a town called tumwater (i think) on 1-25 which was giving away land. they were literally giving it away so people would move there. alas, to no avail.

so here is my idea for you:

1. research CODY- it is in a stunning area just east of yellowstone. it is a small to mid sized community, with land parcels at a decent price. it is located in north central wyoming, and it is a cow-town for sure. if you like scenery, with a good amount of things to do, this would be a good option. the town is FLOODED with tourists in the summer, as any gateway community (next to yellowstone). if your man likes to fish he will be in heaven here.

2. research LARAMIE- this town is surrounded by flat land, but the mountains are close and plentiful. land is cheap on the outskirts, expensive in sub divisions, and if you buy an old home you can get a steal. not to mention the colorado front range towns are very close and offer international airports, and shopping. this town is a strange mix of cowboys, and college kids. look up matthew shephard to get a good idea of the people. (although the few people in town who are homophobic, racist hicks, they still are generally welcoming).

[sunsprit]

So you want to pay for and own only just a few acres, but have nothing developed on the land around you by the adjacent landowners within your view? And still be within a few miles of a town and easily accessible to a hospital so you can conveniently go to work? A wonderfully idyllic little glade to call your own?

While you didn't mention the price point you'd be willing to pay for this wonderful, tree'd, secluded and private piece of property .... you won't find it around Cheyenne, Casper, Laramie ... or any other town in Wyoming with a short drive to the local hospital.

Price points for such a piece of land would be anywhere between a few thousand dollars per acre to close to 6 figures per acre, depending upon utilities to the site and access, and how close it might be to some of the pricier areas of the state ... Jackson being the most expensive.

Wyoming is not densely forested like other areas of the country with thick woods and underbrush, nor does it have the topography where you have a year-round accessible site that has limited line of sight views.

For example, we have friends that bought West of Cheyenne by the Veedauwoo area ... which has tree'd draws and 40-60 acre parcels available where you wouldn't be able to see signs of any neighbors ... and only 30 minutes to town in clear weather. Their first winter in 2006-7 had them snowed in for over 3 months; the only reason they survived without too much difficulty was because we'd cautioned them to have adequate food supplies, water supplies, stand-by power generation, and a laid-in wood supply for supplemental heating and cooking. (They thought we were joking about the prep required for survival, by the way ....) They finally made arrangements to have friends come in with snowmobiles and fetch them out, where they went to town and bought a new 4x4 pickup truck and snowmobiles ... which they now park on another neighbor's property and can get to that most of the time in the winter months so they can take the truck to town. It's still remote and inaccessible for most of the winter ... the county "road" into their property is not maintained during winter months, and it's under a mile of snowed-in hillside during the winter months that's drifted in with wind-blown deep snow; simply impossible to keep plowed out even if you owned a big Caterpillar 'dozer and spent all your time clearing out the road.

Just to give you another example of how the wind blown snow drifts around here (and how fast!) ... in the days before New Year's Day this winter, we received a couple of inches of new snow. We were supposed to take care of a neighbor's horses while they went away for New Years (down to Trinidad, CO .... which was another story unto itself for I-25 travel at the time) ... and we watched the county roadgrader plow our county road, which has several "draws" running E-W between our driveway and 1 mile south at their private road. In less than 20 minutes after the plow had "cleared" the road, we couldn't see the roadway at all. Our neighbors had just returned from shopping, and gotten back into their house right behind the road grader/plow ... they called us to see if we'd remembered our promise to feed their horses ... and I told them we'd tried to get to their house after seeing the road plowed. We were unable to get to their road, and had to turn back, and got back to our own driveway only with great difficulty. Those few inches of fresh snow were drifting about 3-6' deep within minutes in the draws on the road. That wind packed snow doesn't give much support, and it's very easy to high-center a 4x4 pick-up truck on it; the only vehicles that get though on it are big tracked earthmovers or big roadgrader rigs ... even at that, they cannot keep the roadway clear. It was Thursday morning after NewYears' Day that the county finally got the county road opened, and another neighbor with a snowplow on a 4-ton truck (his well service rig) was then able to plow the private road open to the point of our neighbor's driveway so they could get out and go to work. We had to 'phone our neighbor that the county road was opened so they knew that they could call for the plow to open their road up ... otherwise, they wouldn't have known what was going on 1/2 mile away from their house unless they'd snowshoe'd out.

All in all, unless somebody knows of a very specific site that meets your requirements ... at any price ..... I think you've got a totally unrealistic expectation of site and location and access in Wyoming.

You will not find such a site in Laramie or Cody, contrary to the poster above. Don't even waste your time ... and "tracts" of land out there are expensive at many thousands of dollars per acre when you buy larger amounts of acreage (hundreds, if not thousands of acres ....). The price per acre goes up a lot when you're just buying a few acres ... for example, fractional acre building sites in the Cheyenne area run in the $50,000 per SITE range ... and we're not talking wooded, forested, tree'd, or secluded land.

The only lands I know of for most of the state where there's no development on adjacent property would be if you're buying land adjoining BLM or State public lands. Due to the demand for "private" access to these public lands, the cost per acre is high, with a typical minimum of 40 acres per parcel ... if somebody was even willing to sell such a small property.

[michael11747]

i beg to differ:

Land - Irene Dr, Wapiti, WY, 82450 - Realtor.com

Land - Laramie, WY, 82070 - Realtor.com

both areas are accessible in winter, i have been in the area in winter. this is after 5 minutes of searching as well.

[wyolady]

Originally Posted by michael11747

i beg to differ:

Land - Irene Dr, Wapiti, WY, 82450 - Realtor.com

Land - Laramie, WY, 82070 - Realtor.com

both areas are accessible in winter, i have been in the area in winter. this is after 5 minutes of searching as well.

michael11747, you say you know both areas are accessible in the winter. Do you know where the Albany County property is? I lived in and around Laramie for years, know the area of north Albany/Medicine Bow very well and suspect that property is quite remote, desolate and hard to navigate in the winter. Other properties around Laramie often don't have dependable or accessible water. The minute you get out of the city limits around Laramie, utilities become more of a challenge. I'd also like to see the older homes in Laramie you indicate someone can "steal".

Now Cody, I'm not familiar with.

[jdavid93225]

Originally Posted by wyolady

michael11747, you say you know both areas are accessible in the winter. Do you know where the Albany County property is? I lived in and around Laramie for years, know the area of north Albany/Medicine Bow very well and suspect that property is quite remote, desolate and hard to navigate in the winter.

I would agree with this. If I'm not mistaken that property is up in the same direction as the Wytex Ranch area. There is a thread on this forum about Wytex Ranch, and it illustrates quite well the problems with accessibility in that area in the winter.

[sunsprit]

Originally Posted by michael11747

i beg to differ:

Land - Irene Dr, Wapiti, WY, 82450 - Realtor.com

Land - Laramie, WY, 82070 - Realtor.com

both areas are accessible in winter, i have been in the area in winter. this is after 5 minutes of searching as well.

This is a prime example of intelligence/information without comprehension, all proven within 5 minutes ....

I'm LMAO at how totally ignorant of the realities of living in Wyoming this poster has given us ....

First of all, any of you can also access the WYDOT's roads website. There you'll find the road conditions listed. When they've got blowing & drifting snow, limited visibility, icy, black ice, or slick conditions listed .... you are not going to do your normal 65-75 mph commute on a road, let alone the secondary roads in the county which receive much lower levels of clearing from the county or state resources. You may frequently be pushing the envelope of relatively safe travel in an appropriate private passenger vehicle at 25-30 mph in these conditions, if the roads are passable at all.

You'd be amazed at how you can be traveling along, OK on your local county road for a few miles, and come across a few 4-6' deep windblown drifts across the road in a low spot or aligned with a draw ... even where there's a "snow fence" to help divert the build up located some distance away from the road; you're not getting through that with a regular motor vehicle until the plows clear it. Might as well turn back, possibly try another circuitous route, but it won't be much easier.

So, for example ... Wapiti is about 20 miles from Cody. In CLEAR weather conditions on dry roads, it's about 30 minutes from a wooded area in Wapiti to the hospital area in Cody. Add in the typical bad road conditions, white outs, black ice, etc. ... in the winter, this 20 miles could easily be a one hour trip. Not just once or twice in a winter season, but numerous times over a 5 month period of the year.

Let's take Laramie, for another example. With a break in the recent winter snowfalls this season, we had a friend in an animal rescue group set out recently from Steamboat Springs CO to Laramie to deliver a couple of dogs. In his big Surburban 4x4, he was pushing snow with his bumper and front axle from the Colorado border all the way past Woods Landing, almost to Laramie. That's one very determined fellow ... and the travel in Wyoming took several hours to Laramie. I know that area pretty well, and you'd have to be in the hills outside of Woods Landing to have a building site/acreage with the "no other homes in sight" requirement met by the OP. It wouldn't be uncommon to take an hour or two ... if the roads were passable ... to reach the Hospital in Laramie. Once you're outside of Laramie City limits, it's a whole new game for getting around in the winter months.

Even just West of town, at the Brees airport ... where I've been forced to land by weather fronts on all quadrants moving in around me and layover for awhile ... it's taken 30 minutes to make it downtown from the airport.

North of Laramie, it's out on the wide open plains ... which fails the requirement of a wooded site ... and where your closest neighbor even a mile or two away is still very visible to your site. Most importantly, it can be very problematic getting to town from this area due to winds/snowpack/drifting snow/ice/black ice many times during the winter season. Again, you can look up the WY road reports .... this is an area where "no unneccessary travel" or "road closed" warnings are frequently posted during the winter months.

East of Laramie, the housing on the flats is going to be thinly tree'd, and your neighbors will be visible. A little further East, and you're up the pass toward Veedauwoo. One of the most treacherous portions of I80 in the winter, and this gets you up to high country such as I described of our friends living up that way. You'll not make it to either Laramie or Cheyenne from these locations in the winter months in a reasonable amount of time, if at all. Even if you owned you own helicopter and had a landing pad at home.

So that leaves South of Laramie, down the canyon. For the most part, you won't find an acre or two site for sale ... these are generally bigger properties. Even on those ... you'll still see your neighbors. And you'll have to be pretty far out of town, so you're again looking at mileage and road conditions which aren't favorable many times during the winter months to get to Laramie or Fort Collins.

Still, I've gotta' give it to michael's research .... it was good for a hearty belly laugh this AM. I also got on realtor.com and checked out the "bargains" that were there for the "stealing" in the Laramie area ... like a 528 sq ft 1Bd/1Ba house on a lot on the outskirts of town, asked at $72,500. From the picture, it looked like it needed just a little help from a loader to complete leveling the site in a couple of minutes. Yeah, real bargains to be had in that area right now ....

[jazzlover]

Unfortunately, there are lot of people that don't "get it" about what it means to live in rural parts of the Rocky Mountain West. They think that it's just an extension of suburbia. It's not. Cheap fuel, plentiful incomes (often from somewhere else), and several years of easy winters have allowed all kinds of people to move out into the hinterlands. They don't realize that all of those things are transitory--the exception to the rule--and they aren't going to last. My personal prediction is that, in the next few years, you are going to see some pretty fancy places (and a lot of not so fancy places) in the rural Rocky Mountain West sitting out there pretty much abandoned. It has only been in the last 30 years or so that very many people lived in the rural parts of the Rocky Mountains other than those who had to live there to make a living--miners, ranchers, farmers, etc. I think we will return to that regimen in the not-too-distant future. Now, I'm sure someone will pipe up and say that telecommuting, etc. has made it possible for people to live out in the sticks and make a living. Well, when gasoline is $6+ a gallon, and propane about the same, local governments are so strapped for money that they have to "prioritize" what roads will be plowed in winter, school bus routes have to be pared back because of spiraling expenses (meaning the kids have to board in town during the school year), and a lot of that "mailbox income" dries up--something tells me that being a "lone eagle" out in the sticks is going to lose a lot of its luster for transplanted suburbanites.

Just to put this in perspective, I'll relate a story about a lady I know in Wyoming. She is in her 40's--this shows how much things have changed in the last 30 years. When she was growing up, her father worked maintaining oil field equipment in a fairly remote oil field. They were about 40-50 miles from the nearest town. The family lived in a company house. Though they lived on a winter-maintained road (so the oil trucks could get in to empty the crude tanks), there would be days on end in winter that the road would be closed. She and her parents would generally go to town to shop about once a month, winter or summer. In September, she and her siblings would move into an apartment in town (they had relatives nearby) and live there for the school year. So, for 9 months of the year, she would see her parents for a few hours once a month when her parents came into town to shop. Now, how many suburban refugees would like to live in rural Wyoming with that lifestyle? Take away cheap fuel and plentiful money and that's pretty much what you've got.

[wanderlust00]

I grew up in Pinedale and the area is beautiful. However the oil industry has taken over...and land prices have sky rocketed and the town has grown considerably. When I go back to visit my parents I'm amazed at all the new construction. And it's not exactly a short commute to a hospital being in Jackson...lol...though I do know people that do it. The schools are good and are some of the wealthiest in the country due to oil royalties. This has happened mainly in the past 5 years.

Please keep in mind that many parts of the state are very windy...due to most of Wyoming being plains, not mountains. I think a lot of people don't realize that the plains are much more abundant than the mountains and forest. Even the most temperate areas of the state have long winters. My Mom said it warmed up to 0 degrees F the other day.

And as far as what is there to do...well some towns have theaters and rec centers and malls, etc. But the best things to do are go hiking, camping, fishing, skiing/boarding, snowmachining, etc.