Moving near Rawlins (Casper, Laramie, Jackson: rentals, motel, home)

[docow34]

I need some help here please. My husband works right outside of Rawlins. We will be joining him in June after our eldest daughter graduates. Right now, we're trying to decide where we will go..I will have a junior and a sophomore daughter so the high school is important, as well as the environment for my kiddos. I don't mind small towns, grew up in one, but I'm not sure if Rawlins is where we want to be for the next few years simply because I don't know enough about it. He's willing to commute a little, so Rawlins and the surrounding area are all open to us. Any and all information about Rawlins and surrounding town would be most appreciated. Websites, personal stories, anything and everything...thanks so much and Merry Christmas!

[RockyMtnr]

I would suggest that you check out the small town of Saratoga - can't help you with links but just enter "Saratoga WY" in your browser. Plenty of folks will probably help you out after me that know the area better - but having been thru and spending some time in Rawlins over the years, check Saratoga. Spent some time there too - liked it much better.

[MHT]

My advice would be to visit and to talk to each school in the surrounding area. If you are not able to, maybe your husband could. Towns are unique so it depends on what you are looking for.

[Munshine]

This is a website that you could go to in order to see the communities which are in Carbon County, the same county that Rawlins is in. http://www.wyomingcarboncounty.com/

The names/pages for the towns are located in the boxes you’ll see on the page this link takes you to, except for one that it’s lacking, the Town of Sinclair, (town located nearest Rawlins, also).

Speaking only for the schools located in Hanna; We have been very happy with the schools, the teachers, and the environment of the schools. We have a son in the 6 the sixth grade, (at the elementary school), and an 8th grader, (at the Jr/Sr High School). For either child’s class size, (and which seems to be about the same for all the classes/grade levels), the number of students per class is 12 to 14 students. This is a setting, (or circumstance), that is quite pleasing to us, and both our kids really like the teachers and students who attend here.

[Munshine]

Thought I’d throw this in too;

At this website, (City-Data), and this link; http://www.city-data.com/city/Wyoming3.html, you can obtain quite a bit of info about the towns near Rawlins, also. I noticed the Town of Elk Mountain is lacking from what’s listed there, but you can find information for Hanna and Medicine Bow.

Information about Saratoga can be found at this website, also, and with this link; http://www.city-data.com/city/Wyoming2.html

[lamebear]

Yeppers, there is good paying jobs here in Carbon Co., but the problem is the people who own the businesses, and rent places know that to, and adjust their prices accordingly. The City Market (Kroger), in Rawlins has the best grocery prices in the area, but their rentals are outrageous, Saratoga will skin you alive in both grocery and rental prices, stay away from Valley Foods in Saratoga, its grocery prices are double, and triple of anywhere else, so's the rent! Closest Wal Mart is in Laramie, and that is a 200+ miles round trip! Also, in the winter time you can be stranded for days at a time in Saratoga, Rawlins, or just about anywhere else for that matter because they close the roads, and it's either get a motel room or "hole up" in your vehicle, and you don't want to do that because it can get 40 degrees below zero, with 60 mph winds here! I have experienced 80 mph winds here where I live for up to 3 days at a time in the winter, took them 10 days to get over here and plow the drifts, which up past my windows on my trailer. I have 4wd truck, and I will say you ain't goin' anywhere in 6-9 foot snow drifts!
At least half if not more of the workers out here haul their butts back to where they came from, before winter hits out here, and they most likely leave with just a few more bucks than they came with! Cops will watch you like hawks out here to, you have to change your tags within 30 days (get ready to lay out hundreds), but you've got a year to change your DL.
There is nothing cheap out here in Wyoming, and the weather will kill you, and the bears, wolves, and coyotes will eat your remains, and none of your folks back home will ever know what became of you!
How do I know all of this you ask?, I came out here 4 years ago, like an idiot. Please consider my advice, and stay away from WY..

[MRVphotog]

Originally Posted by lamebear

Yeppers, there is good paying jobs here in Carbon Co., but the problem is the people who own the businesses, and rent places know that to, and adjust their prices accordingly. The City Market (Kroger), in Rawlins has the best grocery prices in the area, but their rentals are outrageous, Saratoga will skin you alive in both grocery and rental prices, stay away from Valley Foods in Saratoga, its grocery prices are double, and triple of anywhere else, so's the rent! Closest Wal Mart is in Laramie, and that is a 200+ miles round trip! Also, in the winter time you can be stranded for days at a time in Saratoga, Rawlins, or just about anywhere else for that matter because they close the roads, and it's either get a motel room or "hole up" in your vehicle, and you don't want to do that because it can get 40 degrees below zero, with 60 mph winds here! I have experienced 80 mph winds here where I live for up to 3 days at a time in the winter, took them 10 days to get over here and plow the drifts, which up past my windows on my trailer. I have 4wd truck, and I will say you ain't goin' anywhere in 6-9 foot snow drifts!
At least half if not more of the workers out here haul their butts back to where they came from, before winter hits out here, and they most likely leave with just a few more bucks than they came with! Cops will watch you like hawks out here to, you have to change your tags within 30 days (get ready to lay out hundreds), but you've got a year to change your DL.
There is nothing cheap out here in Wyoming, and the weather will kill you, and the bears, wolves, and coyotes will eat your remains, and none of your folks back home will ever know what became of you!
How do I know all of this you ask?, I came out here 4 years ago, like an idiot. Please consider my advice, and stay away from WY..

Wolves around Rawlins........right!

[Amy Collins]

I've lived in Wyoming my entire life, and I love it here!!! Yes the weather is harsh at times in the winter. We have good ol' snow storms. But to be quite frank, it's a beautiful place to live. Rawlins wouldn't be my choice to live, I love Casper . We have excellent school systems, and the people here are wonderful. I have a child in high school, and one in middle school and both are quite happy. The job market is outstanding!!! I say if you don't have a job in Casper Wyoming, you don't wanyt to work...

[sunsprit]

Due to the severity of the winter travel in the region, I'd strongly advise you to live as close to your husband's work location as possible.

Rawlins sits in an area of some of the most changeable and strong wind weather patterns in the state, and it's very exposed. Which means that a small amount of total snowfall can and will drift up into road closing drifts, making travel very difficult. I-80 closures are common. A daily winter commute of 40 miles (each way) or so from Saratoga would get old very quickly ... and that's when the roads are passable. If you need to reliably get to work, it may be impossible for quite a few days each winter season.

While many of the small communities around the Rawlins area are close-knit friendly towns, they are problematic when it comes to goods and services. You won't do much shopping there for necessities ... if they are available, they will come at a very high price. Nor will you find land/housing cheaply available because "it's a small town" out in the sticks.

Saratoga had been "discovered" many years ago by the Eastern wealthy set as private playgrounds for hunting/fishing lodges and retreats. Proof of that situation is to head on over to the local airport and see what's on the ramp ... mostly biz jets and that's what the FBO caters to. Try flying in there with a small single engine propeller aircraft and they simply ignore you, they're so stuck up and focused on the moneyed set. I literally had to stand up on the front counter ... in front of several ramp and office workers there ... and yell if there was a fuel truck with 100LL avgas one day. They totally ignored me like I was invisible to them, even when I walked inside ... yet I watched the line crew dash outside to guide in a King Air and give it the red carpet treatment and the choreographed dance of two fuel trucks pulling up to the wings simultaneously and fuel nozzles pumping fuel at the same time; quite the performance, worthy of Jackson or Aspen for showmanship.

The town of Rawlins has a wide variety of housing available, and I'd suggest you check out the local schools there in the neighborhoods that interest you. It's a pretty good school district.

[lamebear]

So, my "Vermont" friend thinks there are no wolves here. May I ask sir, how you would know what is here since you proclaim to live in Vermont, on a dirt road no less? There are wolves here, and there are moutain lions, bears, etc., Rawlins Daily Times can provide you with pics of a mountain lion trotting down the sidewalk in Rawlins! There are wolves here, no, not in the hundreds, but they're here around Carbon Co.. Most people wouldn't say this but I will, I live out off of Jack Creek Road, which is fairly close to Rawlins, plenty of lively wildlife here, pay a visit sometime, if you dare!