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One that is not in a housing tract but more in a rural area and is not in a high crime area. Size of home 1,500 sq ft to 2,500 sq ft. Prefer not to have alot of maintenance in landscaping. Just want privacy, quiet and peace with no traffic.
I would prefer no traffic, no traffic signals or signs. No waiting in lines when going shopping, seeing a doctor or doing any kind of business transactions in regards of having to people ahead of you where you have to wait or cannot get an appointment.
Are some areas of Wyoming to be avoided such as areas near South Dakota or Nebraska Tornado Alley?
Are there high crime areas if so which areas to be avoided?
Does one need a special vehicle to drive in Wyoming because of snow, weather or condition of roads?
Lol... Californians are funny. I remember visiting CA in '91 while in high school and being asked if we had roads, rode horses to school, still had the pony express.
Compared to where you are, there is no traffic in WY at all, anywhere, at any time. Consider that JUST San Francisco, not including Oakland or any other "cities" that butt up next to San Fran, has almost double the population of all of Wyoming. So, you could live Anywhere in the state and have the home size, landscaping, privacy, quiet and no traffic. If you want no traffic signals, then you're going to be searching more and limiting yourself to towns under about 3000, and there are none with no traffic signs (all will have cross-streets with stop or yield signs).
But, if you want that solitude, you're not going to really have a grocery store (maybe a convenience store for essentials) and certainly no doctors offices and next to no businesses.
There are no areas in Wyoming to avoid. There are tornadoes in the SE corner of the state, but people live there. There are earthquakes all over the state, avalanches in the mountains, flooding everywhere on occasion, etc... just like anywhere else. And there are certainly no "high crime" areas. I let my wife work around the state, driving by herself, living by herself, people knew she was alone (and at 5'2" and 120lbs, she's not big). The crime that exists tends to be domestic violence or involve drugs/alcohol ~ all easy to avoid.
And no, you need no special vehicle. My wifes car is a 2001 Jetta. With snow tires, we went everywhere (including skiing quite frequently) there were paved roads, and on some gravel roads. That's in a car with 4" of ground clearance and 90hp. AWD and 4WD help you get moving, and are handy if you have an maintained driveway/road to navigate, but the public roads are well maintained.
What you really need to be looking for are things like, do you need to work? Where can you find that work if you need it? Do you need medical care, where's That located? How about access to an airport? How much money do you want to spend (the same house could be $100k in one place, like Green River/Rock Springs, and $500k in Jackson). Mostly it sounds like you need to take a vacation and spend a few weeks driving around Wyoming to get to see the state.
Lol... Californians are funny. I remember visiting CA in '91 while in high school and being asked if we had roads, rode horses to school, still had the pony express.
Compared to where you are, there is no traffic in WY at all, anywhere, at any time. Consider that JUST San Francisco, not including Oakland or any other "cities" that butt up next to San Fran, has almost double the population of all of Wyoming. So, you could live Anywhere in the state and have the home size, landscaping, privacy, quiet and no traffic. If you want no traffic signals, then you're going to be searching more and limiting yourself to towns under about 3000, and there are none with no traffic signs (all will have cross-streets with stop or yield signs).
But, if you want that solitude, you're not going to really have a grocery store (maybe a convenience store for essentials) and certainly no doctors offices and next to no businesses.
There are no areas in Wyoming to avoid. There are tornadoes in the SE corner of the state, but people live there. There are earthquakes all over the state, avalanches in the mountains, flooding everywhere on occasion, etc... just like anywhere else. And there are certainly no "high crime" areas. I let my wife work around the state, driving by herself, living by herself, people knew she was alone (and at 5'2" and 120lbs, she's not big). The crime that exists tends to be domestic violence or involve drugs/alcohol ~ all easy to avoid.
And no, you need no special vehicle. My wifes car is a 2001 Jetta. With snow tires, we went everywhere (including skiing quite frequently) there were paved roads, and on some gravel roads. That's in a car with 4" of ground clearance and 90hp. AWD and 4WD help you get moving, and are handy if you have an maintained driveway/road to navigate, but the public roads are well maintained.
What you really need to be looking for are things like, do you need to work? Where can you find that work if you need it? Do you need medical care, where's That located? How about access to an airport? How much money do you want to spend (the same house could be $100k in one place, like Green River/Rock Springs, and $500k in Jackson). Mostly it sounds like you need to take a vacation and spend a few weeks driving around Wyoming to get to see the state.
CALIFORNIANS ARE STUPID PAY MORE $$$$ AND GET LESS.
I want to retire and need peace of mind. Don't want high maintenance but it seems to be rural life may involve more landscaping maintenance?
The traffic is driving me crazy here in fact I am on meds (anti-anxiety) because of that and tired of waiting in lines wherever I go from shopping to getting a doctor's appointment. it's so crowded here that it is challenging to find a parking space and people will fight you even shoot you over a parking space.
I don't plan on working or commuting like I have been for 30 years plus using public transportation currently and used to always drive to work in the 90s 35 miles one way which now takes an hour or more depending on how many collisions there are.
It's the commute that is killing me now which is why I want a slower pace of life with less people, less cars, less government regulations, more privacy and again little or no traffic. I want to be able to drive on the highway free of traffic with no tailgaters or trouble makers like we have here along with (ROAD RAGE). And we have LOTS of that here.
I don't want to live in a police state. I Prefer to have less government interference and taxes as previously mentioned. I am tired of paying more $$$ and getting less service and driving on these torn up public roads that ruin our cars and bodies. They keep raising taxes and creating new taxes here but use the $$$ for other things instead which is why the PUBLIC roads don't get fixed full of pot holes and public transportation system is horrible. GRIDLOCK.
Gun laws here are a joke. San Francisco banned hollow point bullets and just lost its last gun shop.
You must wait 10 days on all firearms before purchase and pay a $25.00 fee to Dept. of Justice to do a background check. You also must pay another fee to pass a test to get a certificate that will show you have the competence to own a firearm which is fine but you still pay for it. They didn't use to have these regulations here but they always had the 10 day wait period and we didn't have to pay for the background checks like we do now for registration of all firearms. Yet we have lots of crime and they blame firearms for all of this violent crime.
I have a Corvette and a Mustang as far as cars go and I would prefer to live in a automobile friendly state. Gas here has recently has gone down to $2.95 for premium at Arco or Costco. I am sure it will go back up to $4.00+. Chevron gas is $3.35 per gallon and up. Where I am now we have too many smog laws that they keep changing smog laws to make it more difficult for older cars to pass because they want to get the older cars off the road and they are pushing electric vehicles on us. The automobile is no longer the symbol of freedom and mobility here. Here they want you to car pool, bicycle to work or use public transportation which is unreliable and when they go on strike (BART Bay Area Rapid Transit) they hold the SF bay area hostage as you end up driving anyway which = GRIDLOCK.
Even if I could afford to buy a house in San Francisco for $800,000+ in a decent neighborhood in a small fixer up house ($600,000 in the ghetto) I will not bicycle to work because you will get run over with all the traffic there is.
We cannot burn fire in our fireplaces on "spare the air days". The ENVIRONMENTALIST extremists AND corrupt POLITICIANS are making things worse than they really are. Can't mow the lawn. Right now they request that we not use electricity during peak hours. Water rationing is in effect for face $$$$$FINES. Have to recycle or face fines if you put the wrong items in containers. Just too many fines and restrictions and I am tired of it. Court fees keep going up for those who get parking tickets or any type of vehicle equipment or moving violation regarding driving a vehicle. We are talking in the hundreds of dollars and it goes up every year here. We are being nickel and dime to death.
Back to Wyoming. My understanding is that in snow you need a different type of vehicle..I do need dental care and doctor care as I get older.
I can't take heat anything above 77 and I start to get uncomfortable. 55-65 degrees is fine with me but I know it's gets colder than that in Wyoming. I understand it is very windy in Wyoming.
I will sacrifice and prefer more cold over heat. I like rain. But as far as driving in snow and ice I am not sure about that.. Air conditioning is a plus for me. I am not a sun worshiper and try to avoid the sun rays. I certainly will avoid the south east part of Wyoming as I don't want to deal with Tornadoes. Earthquakes fine . So stay away from South Dakota and Nebraska? Stay north in Wyoming or far west away from South Dakota and Nebraska.
Sorry for the long rant but I have been here over 50 years now born and raised here and have seen the changes. It isn't getting any better just more crowded and more expensive to live here under this corrupt regime of idiot laws and corrupt government which continues to make up all of these local ordinances and state law that you can't do this or do that.
"We gotta get outta of this place even if it's the last thing we ever do".
Back to Wyoming. My understanding is that in snow you need a different type of vehicle..I do need dental care and doctor care as I get older.
I can't take heat anything above 77 and I start to get uncomfortable. 55-65 degrees is fine with me but I know it's gets colder than that in Wyoming. I understand it is very windy in Wyoming.
I will sacrifice and prefer more cold over heat. I like rain. But as far as driving in snow and ice I am not sure about that.. Air conditioning is a plus for me. I am not a sun worshiper and try to avoid the sun rays. I certainly will avoid the south east part of Wyoming as I don't want to deal with Tornadoes. Earthquakes fine . So stay away from South Dakota and Nebraska? Stay north in Wyoming or far west away from South Dakota and Nebraska.
I understand your complaints and issues completely, from that perspective WY and MT would be a good fit. Anyway, as I said before, you don't need anything special for a car... not that rear wheel drive sports cars are ideal for winter travel, they are among the hardest to drive (right up there with a truck that has no weight over the rear axle). It can be done, especially with seasonal tire and a helping does of experience, but you would be best served with a different vehicle for the daily dependable. Had we not already owned our Jetta and needed to buy something, I'm sure we would have picked one of the AWD cars available and made sure it had closer to 8" of ground clearance than 4" (the min and max commonly available, with the Subaru Outback being a hugely popular choice and having 8"). Adding even an all-season Winter rated tires (Nokian WR3 being the newest generation of the tires we used) would make up for a TON of missing driver experience. Though the best option is always education, and if you have the money, then taking a structured winter driving school is the best option (Winter Driving Training Center | Bridgestone Winter Driving School).
Since you need easy access to medical (you're still going to be sitting in waiting rooms, these are medical offices we're talking about... with one patient to serve, they'd still be running 30 minutes behind), take a look at the towns here: Wyoming Hospital Association - Find a Hospital those are where the hospitals are located. If you're planning this move as your only/last, then you might want to consider assisted living options and the best association I can make with that are senior centers. Here's a map of those through the state: https://www.google.com/search?q=wyom...rlha=0&tbm=lcl to cross-reference.
About the only 3 towns I, personally, would avoid (due to size) are Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie... Sheridan being the largest I might consider. Here's a list of the towns and their populations (might come in handy with the above when searching): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ies_in_Wyoming
Sorry to say with the weather, but you're not going to find anywhere with temps Always lower than 77. Most places in the state will be in the 80's through July and August with peaks in the 90's or 100's on rare occasion. Not too many people have AC (I certainly didn't have it growing up, and didn't know anyone else who did) as nightime temps are low (60's). Most people simply open windows overnight, maybe use fans to vent the house, then close windows and blinds through the day to keep the cool in. On the other end, expect weeks on end where high temps don't go above 32/freezing with the occasional stretch where highs are in the 0 to minus 10 range (and loves dipping to the -30 and -40 temps). This might sound bad, but all buildings are heated and you're just generally shuffling from building to car to building in those temps. Cars can be kept warm(ish) by parking in a garage and using an engine block heater.
As for the SE, that's be mostly east of I25 and south (actually well south) of the NE/SD boarder. It's really a quite small areas of the state and there's not much reason to live down there. The area next to South Dakota is actually very nice, it buts up to and shares the Black Hills for which SD is well known (Newcastle, WY). Very generally speaking, the southern half of WY is more high plains and desert, less mountains. The northern half is more mountains, but still has a fair share of both high plains and desert. It's sorta more a diagonal from the SW corner to the NE corner for the less rugged section, vs N/S.
So, I'd suggest your plan of attack be to pick out at least 5 towns that meet your broad criteria (size, medical, location) and then drive out to visit them for a few days each. You can look up housing prices online, use Google maps to virtually drive through the towns, call/email the local Chamber of Commerce for new resident info packets, etc...
I'm heavily biased in this recommendation because it was where I was born and raised, but look into Lander. It's one of the most moderate places in the state (temps/weather/wind), big enough to have a hospital, senior center, and even assisted living apartments, 2 groceries stores, several Excellent places to eat out, and a very active shooting club (you didn't mention if you liked to shoot, but it sorta seemed like you might be interested). It's a smaller community and "rush hour" is when there are more than 3 cars at a stoplight. A commute "across town" takes maybe 5 minutes. Housing prices are middle of the road for Wyoming ($200~250k for a modest single family home).
Boy, do I sympathize with your wanting to get out of SFO. We spent a year there and couldn't wait to leave.
Much of Wyoming is sunny and several thousand feet closer to the source than California. Most of us actually kinda' like it. The coolest part of the state in the summer is the northwest (think Jackson or the Tetons), but that's a bit pricier. And a bit more crowded. I drove through Lander once - it looked like a nice little town.
Cheyenne and Laramie are windy. Casper is kinda' crowded (by our standards). The Basin, which is in between the Big Horn Mountains and Yellowstone in the north part of the state, is the least crowded and most reasonably priced, but their weather is slightly harsher than it is on the eastern side of the Big Horns.
East of the Big Horns is Sheridan, Buffalo, Big Horn and a collection of even smaller towns. Sheridan has 17,000 people, or about the population of one residential block in SFO. Pretty good hospital, good restaurants, four grocery stores (if you count the 24-hour super-Walmart) and most of the professional services you can think of. Most people from Buffalo come up about once a week to visit and shop - 25 miles. Big Horn (population 869) doesn't even have a stop light. (You have to work hard to find all six stop signs...) But then, either does Ranchester, Dayton or Story, all of which have populations in the middle hundreds. All are within 15 to 30 minutes of Sheridan.
The lee (east) side of the Big Horns is considered Wyoming's 'banana belt' because the weather is tempered by the mountains. It got up to 104 this year (once) and we had a two week spell of 90s in later August, but that was unusual. Now it's back to normal - mid-70s. Most houses today are built with AC. I've never turned mine on.
I've found that housing is just a touch pricier in Sheridan than other nearby places. New houses are all going into neighborhood developments, complete with HOAs. Most native Wyoming-ites hate HOAs. To build your own, you have to start with land, and most of that is being sold in one or two acre chunks, which means maintenance. Outlying towns are a bit less expensive.
Gun laws here are... wait a minute. Do we even have gun laws here? Assuming you are not felon, you can own and carry just about anything short of a Sherman tank. Waiting period to buy a gun is as long as it takes the gun shop clerk to call the instant-check people in DC. Saw a sign yesterday at the local liquor store - they are raffling off a revolver end of this month. (Think about that - a liquor store giving away a gun... In any other state, that gun would be used to rob said liquor store...)
Which brings me to our crime rate. If you aren't involved in the drug trade, you probably aren't involved in our crime rate. The cops here are the most under-employed people I've ever met. Five mphs over the limit will buy you a speeding ticket and your very own name in the paper.
No one would even THINK about trying to tell you when you could or could not have a fire in your fireplace. We do have outdoor burn restrictions from about May 1 to the end of September (it varies every year depending on rainfall), but that is to prevent wildfires.
And the rest of those crazy Kalifornia laws - leave em' at the border. (Heck, I know a guy who wants to take the only Starbucks in the county, tie a rope around it and tow it back to the west coast with his four-wheeler!) This is a live-and-let-live state.
Hope that helps; congratulations on your retirement, and welcome to Wyoming!
Boy, do I sympathize with your wanting to get out of SFO. We spent a year there and couldn't wait to leave.
Much of Wyoming is sunny and several thousand feet closer to the source than California. Most of us actually kinda' like it. The coolest part of the state in the summer is the northwest (think Jackson or the Tetons), but that's a bit pricier. And a bit more crowded. I drove through Lander once - it looked like a nice little town.
Cheyenne and Laramie are windy. Casper is kinda' crowded (by our standards). The Basin, which is in between the Big Horn Mountains and Yellowstone in the north part of the state, is the least crowded and most reasonably priced, but their weather is slightly harsher than it is on the eastern side of the Big Horns.
East of the Big Horns is Sheridan, Buffalo, Big Horn and a collection of even smaller towns. Sheridan has 17,000 people, or about the population of one residential block in SFO. Pretty good hospital, good restaurants, four grocery stores (if you count the 24-hour super-Walmart) and most of the professional services you can think of. Most people from Buffalo come up about once a week to visit and shop - 25 miles. Big Horn (population 869) doesn't even have a stop light. (You have to work hard to find all six stop signs...) But then, either does Ranchester, Dayton or Story, all of which have populations in the middle hundreds. All are within 15 to 30 minutes of Sheridan.
The lee (east) side of the Big Horns is considered Wyoming's 'banana belt' because the weather is tempered by the mountains. It got up to 104 this year (once) and we had a two week spell of 90s in later August, but that was unusual. Now it's back to normal - mid-70s. Most houses today are built with AC. I've never turned mine on.
I've found that housing is just a touch pricier in Sheridan than other nearby places. New houses are all going into neighborhood developments, complete with HOAs. Most native Wyoming-ites hate HOAs. To build your own, you have to start with land, and most of that is being sold in one or two acre chunks, which means maintenance. Outlying towns are a bit less expensive.
Gun laws here are... wait a minute. Do we even have gun laws here? Assuming you are not felon, you can own and carry just about anything short of a Sherman tank. Waiting period to buy a gun is as long as it takes the gun shop clerk to call the instant-check people in DC. Saw a sign yesterday at the local liquor store - they are raffling off a revolver end of this month. (Think about that - a liquor store giving away a gun... In any other state, that gun would be used to rob said liquor store...)
Which brings me to our crime rate. If you aren't involved in the drug trade, you probably aren't involved in our crime rate. The cops here are the most under-employed people I've ever met. Five mphs over the limit will buy you a speeding ticket and your very own name in the paper.
No one would even THINK about trying to tell you when you could or could not have a fire in your fireplace. We do have outdoor burn restrictions from about May 1 to the end of September (it varies every year depending on rainfall), but that is to prevent wildfires.
And the rest of those crazy Kalifornia laws - leave em' at the border. (Heck, I know a guy who wants to take the only Starbucks in the county, tie a rope around it and tow it back to the west coast with his four-wheeler!) This is a live-and-let-live state.
Hope that helps; congratulations on your retirement, and welcome to Wyoming!
R-3.
mANY thanks for that info. The only part I didn't like is the police have nothing better to do but go after motorists. I have that problem here with tinted windows to keep my car clear and not having a front plate on my car. I don't know if that is a requirement in Wyoming both front and rear plate. Also I don't know if the tint law for the passenger and driver windows are as strict as CA. I just don't want to live in a police state or place that has too much government to make life harder and more complicated.
How is Sheridian in Storey County (close to Montana?) and how aobut Virginia City? Are those areas rural or are they tract homes? I am looking for low density and no traffic.
Is it really necessary to have a 4 wheel drive truck or all wheel drive car because of the snow?
Sheridan (in Sheridan Co.) isn't rural by our standards, but likely is by yours. If that makes sense.
I really like front wheel drive up here. And when my work started requiring me to travel to remote areas, I upgraded to a 4WD 1/2 ton truck. Almost as much for the wildlife and livestock I might come across as I travel (haven't collided with anything yet) as for the roads.
But when I traveled maintained roads, I had a small FWD car and did fine.
I only know of Virginia City in Nevada. Oh, I see a tiny place in MT, too.
Plates for your car here are front and back - and they are the only source of revenue for the state. There is no state income tax, a 5% sales tax and local real estate taxes. The trick to saving $$$ on vehicle taxes is to drive a six year-old car. It will be taxed at the lowest rate.
Unless you have limo tint all the way around, I don't think you're going to have too much trouble here. Keep in mind, this is a live and let live state. Cops don't bother you unless you flaunt the law in front of them.
Five over the limit is pretty much a speeding ticket anywhere in the state. As a result, very few people speed. Virtually everywhere else in the US the tickets start at ten or more over the limit, but because Wyoming has such a small population (about 580,000), everything is magnified statistically. So they have a five mph grace spread and if you drive drunk, thou shalt incur the wrath of the criminal justice system. (But then again, we have very few cops, too...)
There is no county here called Storey. Sheridan is both a county and a town. Story is a village (town?) of about 350 permanent year-around residents and a summer population of about 875. It sits atop Story hill (4950 ft) and if you aren't careful, you will swear you are in Wisconsin. Actually, you are in southern Sheridan County - right next to the Johnson County border. It has two restaurants, one post office, one convenience store and lots of cabins. And no stoplights. More ATVs on the road than cars on any given day. Deer outnumber humans ten to one. We had dinner there last night.
The nearest town to the Montana line here is Ranchester, about 900 people on a good day. I think there are a couple new developments there, but mostly not. Never heard of Virginia City.
Also - tract homes here are not like the zero lot-line, cookie cutter projects that are ubiquitous in Kalifornia. Here you have at least a quarter acre and a house that is different than any others in the area.
Low density and no traffic describes everywhere in Wyoming - except Yellowstone from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
My recommendation is you hop a flight to Denver, rent a car and drive up I-25. Spend a week or two just driving around Wyoming. (Or hop into Salt Lake City and come in the west side - through Evanston.) Get an idea of what we look like and what looks appealing to you - then hit us with questions. Our answers will make more sense if you have a visual recollection of the environment.
And cars? I have an eleven year old, rear-wheel drive, four door sedan. My wife has an eight year old Toyota Highlander (AWD). Neither one of us have been stuck yet... Don't sweat the winters. They aren't nearly as bad as Jack London's summer in 'Frisco. After all, it was "The coldest [he'd] ever been..."
I understand your complaints and issues completely, from that perspective WY and MT would be a good fit. Anyway, as I said before, you don't need anything special for a car... not that rear wheel drive sports cars are ideal for winter travel, they are among the hardest to drive (right up there with a truck that has no weight over the rear axle). It can be done, especially with seasonal tire and a helping does of experience, but you would be best served with a different vehicle for the daily dependable. Had we not already owned our Jetta and needed to buy something, I'm sure we would have picked one of the AWD cars available and made sure it had closer to 8" of ground clearance than 4" (the min and max commonly available, with the Subaru Outback being a hugely popular choice and having 8"). Adding even an all-season Winter rated tires (Nokian WR3 being the newest generation of the tires we used) would make up for a TON of missing driver experience. Though the best option is always education, and if you have the money, then taking a structured winter driving school is the best option (Winter Driving Training Center | Bridgestone Winter Driving School).
Since you need easy access to medical (you're still going to be sitting in waiting rooms, these are medical offices we're talking about... with one patient to serve, they'd still be running 30 minutes behind), take a look at the towns here: Wyoming Hospital Association - Find a Hospital those are where the hospitals are located. If you're planning this move as your only/last, then you might want to consider assisted living options and the best association I can make with that are senior centers. Here's a map of those through the state: https://www.google.com/search?q=wyom...rlha=0&tbm=lcl to cross-reference.
About the only 3 towns I, personally, would avoid (due to size) are Cheyenne, Casper and Laramie... Sheridan being the largest I might consider. Here's a list of the towns and their populations (might come in handy with the above when searching): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...ies_in_Wyoming
Sorry to say with the weather, but you're not going to find anywhere with temps Always lower than 77. Most places in the state will be in the 80's through July and August with peaks in the 90's or 100's on rare occasion. Not too many people have AC (I certainly didn't have it growing up, and didn't know anyone else who did) as nightime temps are low (60's). Most people simply open windows overnight, maybe use fans to vent the house, then close windows and blinds through the day to keep the cool in. On the other end, expect weeks on end where high temps don't go above 32/freezing with the occasional stretch where highs are in the 0 to minus 10 range (and loves dipping to the -30 and -40 temps). This might sound bad, but all buildings are heated and you're just generally shuffling from building to car to building in those temps. Cars can be kept warm(ish) by parking in a garage and using an engine block heater.
As for the SE, that's be mostly east of I25 and south (actually well south) of the NE/SD boarder. It's really a quite small areas of the state and there's not much reason to live down there. The area next to South Dakota is actually very nice, it buts up to and shares the Black Hills for which SD is well known (Newcastle, WY). Very generally speaking, the southern half of WY is more high plains and desert, less mountains. The northern half is more mountains, but still has a fair share of both high plains and desert. It's sorta more a diagonal from the SW corner to the NE corner for the less rugged section, vs N/S.
So, I'd suggest your plan of attack be to pick out at least 5 towns that meet your broad criteria (size, medical, location) and then drive out to visit them for a few days each. You can look up housing prices online, use Google maps to virtually drive through the towns, call/email the local Chamber of Commerce for new resident info packets, etc...
I'm heavily biased in this recommendation because it was where I was born and raised, but look into Lander. It's one of the most moderate places in the state (temps/weather/wind), big enough to have a hospital, senior center, and even assisted living apartments, 2 groceries stores, several Excellent places to eat out, and a very active shooting club (you didn't mention if you liked to shoot, but it sorta seemed like you might be interested). It's a smaller community and "rush hour" is when there are more than 3 cars at a stoplight. A commute "across town" takes maybe 5 minutes. Housing prices are middle of the road for Wyoming ($200~250k for a modest single family home).
Cheers, and good luck with the hunt
Thanks for the great info as it warrants a visit to see how it is there. I do shoot firearms and as you probably already know California (the State of Chaos) is very anti-gun and also very anti-automobile which used to be a symbol of freedom and mobility here in America. Extreme environmentalists is what I call them have changed all of that here. The smog tests we have to test our cars every two years which can become very expensive if your car doesn't pass or if they change the stipulations to make it more difficult to pass since they want to get rid of old cars here and push electric hybrid cars onto us.
You should see the kind of firearms that are California approved and then some companies won't do business with California because of that. Just like a lot of businesses are leaving California because this is not a business friendly state. It's a greedy state looking to get your $$$$. Anyway too many negatives and I wont bore you further because it goes on and on. Thanks.
Plates for your car here are front and back - and they are the only source of revenue for the state. There is no state income tax, a 5% sales tax and local real estate taxes. The trick to saving $$$ on vehicle taxes is to drive a six year-old car. It will be taxed at the lowest rate.
Unless you have limo tint all the way around, I don't think you're going to have too much trouble here. Keep in mind, this is a live and let live state. Cops don't bother you unless you flaunt the law in front of them.
Five over the limit is pretty much a speeding ticket anywhere in the state. As a result, very few people speed. Virtually everywhere else in the US the tickets start at ten or more over the limit, but because Wyoming has such a small population (about 580,000), everything is magnified statistically. So they have a five mph grace spread and if you drive drunk, thou shalt incur the wrath of the criminal justice system. (But then again, we have very few cops, too...)
There is no county here called Storey. Sheridan is both a county and a town. Story is a village (town?) of about 350 permanent year-around residents and a summer population of about 875. It sits atop Story hill (4950 ft) and if you aren't careful, you will swear you are in Wisconsin. Actually, you are in southern Sheridan County - right next to the Johnson County border. It has two restaurants, one post office, one convenience store and lots of cabins. And no stoplights. More ATVs on the road than cars on any given day. Deer outnumber humans ten to one. We had dinner there last night.
The nearest town to the Montana line here is Ranchester, about 900 people on a good day. I think there are a couple new developments there, but mostly not. Never heard of Virginia City.
Also - tract homes here are not like the zero lot-line, cookie cutter projects that are ubiquitous in Kalifornia. Here you have at least a quarter acre and a house that is different than any others in the area.
Low density and no traffic describes everywhere in Wyoming - except Yellowstone from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
My recommendation is you hop a flight to Denver, rent a car and drive up I-25. Spend a week or two just driving around Wyoming. (Or hop into Salt Lake City and come in the west side - through Evanston.) Get an idea of what we look like and what looks appealing to you - then hit us with questions. Our answers will make more sense if you have a visual recollection of the environment.
And cars? I have an eleven year old, rear-wheel drive, four door sedan. My wife has an eight year old Toyota Highlander (AWD). Neither one of us have been stuck yet... Don't sweat the winters. They aren't nearly as bad as Jack London's summer in 'Frisco. After all, it was "The coldest [he'd] ever been..."
Yes Wyoming is known for its low density population with Alaska being #1 in this area making Wyoming the 2nd for lowest density population which to me is a good thing coming from here..
Is it in Wyoming or Montana that has very very high registration fees for automobiles?
Currently for cars now I have a 2005 corvette and a 1988 Mustang GT. Which I believe are not known to be the vehicles of choice in this kind of environment correct me if I am wong on this.
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I remember visiting CA in '91 while in high school and being asked if we had roads, rode horses to school, still had the pony express. 
if you put the wrong items in containers. Just too many fines and restrictions and I am tired of it. Court fees keep going up for those who get parking tickets or any type of vehicle equipment or moving violation regarding driving a vehicle. We are talking in the hundreds of dollars and it goes up every year here. We are being nickel and dime to death.
