Best possible place for me to move? (Craig, Trinidad: ski resort, rental)

[shawzey22]

Hello, I am 21 years old from NY and will be graduating from training school soon and will be looking for a place where I can lay my roots. I am looking for a place with many outdoor activities. I mostly love hunting, camping, hiking, fishing, and snowmobiling/four wheeling. I would love to be close to the mountains, but in an area where there are still farm fields and good places to hunt. I mostly would be hunting whitetail deer, but it would be nice to come across other things once in awhile like moose or elk. I plan on buying a big chunk of land for hunting but also where I will eventually be building a house down the road. Does anyone have any good places that I can look into?

[livethedream3]

I know you posted this in the Colorado forum, but have you considered Wisconsin? Your hobbies (hunting, camping, fishing, and snowmobiling/four wheeling) are deeply rooted in the culture of this state and just scream Wisconsin to me. The NBA team is even the "Bucks." No mountains though.

Just thought I'd throw it out there in case you never thought of the Midwest. As for Colorado, I'll let someone with more CO hunting experience comment. Might be good to also understand what type of work you plan to do.

[NW Crow]

Read up on CO hunting regulations. I don't know much about them but am under impression being the landowner gives you no relief from state regulations, though I guess you can restrict access.

A "big chunk" of land could mean 40 acres (I think that is 1/4 mile by 1/4 mile) or 400 (a bit more than 3/4ths of mile by 3/4 mile) or 4000 (about 2.5 miles by 2.5 miles). Unless you get a super piece of land, odds are you'll hunt a lot on public land. Super hunting private land stands a good chance of being pricey and/or deficient in access to water, utilities, paved roads or even winter passable access roads.


Even 40 acres is out of reach for most in many parts of state, even financed. If you are serious about getting 40 plus acres I'd look 50 or 100 miles from a real city or ski resort. Maybe 20 plus miles west of Trinidad or Walsenburg, 20 plus miles west of Craig or Meeker, out on southern plains or in Conejos or Costilla County. Maybe 15 plus miles outside Westcliffe, Dove Creek, Saguache, Kremmling or Walden. Getting a good wage job nearby is the first challenge, then get a down payment, then find the right land / right deal with careful consideration about your water needs.

[TCHP]

Wow, tall order.

White Tail populations tend to all be east of I-25 in the plains part of the state. While there are some big ones out there, their population is not huge. Mule deer on the other hand, we have plenty of. Moose will be mostly in the north central areas of the mountains. Elk will be most easily found in the mountains. So basically zero chance of owning land that will have all three.

Living in most of these places are going to put your commute out of reach of actually being in the metro areas that have the most and best paying jobs. The largest farming areas are on the plains but there are places in the mountains that have farms too. Price of land that you envision will be pretty high and if you plan on hunting on it, will have to be pretty sizeable due to CDOW regulations for where you can fire big bore rifles during hunts. Land can run from a few hundred an acre to $50,000 an acre depending on location, so you'll really need to decide how to narrow that down. Productive farm land will tend to be on the higher end of the scale compared to the alkaline, srub brush, and rocky land that is at the lower end of the scale.

Speaking of which, you need to really dive into the hunting regulations. I have not hunted in decades so I am rusty on it, but with draws, preference points and other items, there is no guarantee you will get the tag you want, for the season you want, in the area you want. Land owners to get some preference, but not a bunch. If you anticiapte going to a counter, buying a license, and then conducting your hunt, its doesn't work that way.

Of course, all of this is moot unless you have a good job or are bringing buckets of money with you. Without the cash, nothing happens. Just so you know around 100,000 people annually are moving in to Colorado, so demand for land, housing, and jobs means you've got to hustle to score any or all of those items.

[NW Crow]

Colorado in general is one of the most expensive western states for rural land. The 12 spots I named are probably the best bets for relatively more affordable land.

One common option is to try to earn more in a city til you can afford the country and country lifestyle / wage market or retirement. Or have a second home.

Other quicker options for country living involve owning a small parcel adjacent to or near public land or renting a place on somebody else's property. There can be secondary houses, rental cabins, former ranch hand quarters, mobile homes or even just hookups for one on bigger private land parcels that could give you a lot of what you seek, til you can go the whole way to the dream setup.

If CO looks too expensive now or in future, you could perhaps also consider extreme SE and / or SW Montana, much of WY half an hour to an hour or more outside the 6-10 biggest cities and towns, northern NV, southern NM, eastern OR, etc.

[davidv]

Try Wyoming. Or Montana.

You have a much better chance at achieving your dream there.

[ohazco]

First, understand that in Western states like CO, NM, AZ, etc. there are vast amounts of public land for hunting, camping, shooting, hiking, etc. Thus the need to own land for these purposes is much less necessary. Second, and very much due to my first point, desirable private land is usually very expensive. If one is set on owning good huntable land, you are much, much better off in the Midwest, South, or Northeast where you can get tags for several deer and have a pretty decent chance of success on your own 5-10 acre woods. (Nothing wrong with that, I personally prefer it). Even if you own 10-35 acres in CO, your odds of filling a tag on that little piece of ground is very small. Most hunting here is by the square miles, not acres. I would bet the farm that even if you buy some ground, you will end up hunting public land.

[davebarnes]

An example of hunting ranch in Colorado
Maybell Hunting Ranch in Maybell, Colorado

[shawzey22]

Thanks for the input. I still have a lot of research to do, but figured I could get a lot of good info on here. I guess it really doesn't matter what state as long as I can do a lot of the things I want. I have just always loved Colorado since I was a little kid!! Anything is better then New York State taxes and many more haha.