Further information / thoughts on Grand Junction (buy, high school, colleges)

[jwiley]

A few years ago we lived in Grand Junction for about a year, and we all loved it.

The issue that forced us back across the mountains was medical. It is hard to find a pediatrician and family doctor, if you need specialists than it is even more difficult. We had 1 specialist tell us it would be a 5 months before we could even get our initial appointment. Some specialists we had to go to Denver or Salt Lake to find, which is far from easy in the middle of winter. I know they were doing everything they could to attract Doctors, but I don't know that they have found enough to fix the issues.

[COcheesehead]

It’s different for everyone, I get that, but we found a family doctor, a gynecologist for my wife and a dentist, relatively easily.

[DOUBLE H]

I go back to the early 80's with Mesa county. With me, I've run into a snag or two. My dermatologist is backed up for three weeks, my orthopedist retired. I've got two picked out, they'll be taking in new patients but not until December 15th. Mesa County is going to see more growth for a while. I look for more people who live in big cities to settle in GJ, Fruita, and possibly Montrose.

[COcheesehead]

I know someone in RE in Palisade and properties are flying off the market there too.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

I go back to the early 80's with Mesa county. With me, I've run into a snag or two. My dermatologist is backed up for three weeks, my orthopedist retired. I've got two picked out, they'll be taking in new patients but not until December 15th. Mesa County is going to see more growth for a while. I look for more people who live in big cities to settle in GJ, Fruita, and possibly Montrose.

Happy Thanksgiving to you HH. I think the work from home trend has enough staying power to make rural locations fairly popular places to live if they have good internet service and decent homes/prices.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Happy Thanksgiving to you HH. I think the work from home trend has enough staying power to make rural locations fairly popular places to live if they have good internet service and decent homes/prices.

And happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

[brightdoglover]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

And happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

HH, thank you for your care on this discussion.

[BrianGC]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

We looked at a lot of cities in our search of retirement towns. We considered many factors and to our surprise Grand Junction topped the list.
I won’t try to sell anyone on GJ because we all have our own desires, but for us it’s a home run.
Why?
It’s in Colorado,
It has milder winters than the Front Range.
Housing is less expensive and there are still spectacular view lots, some of the best in Colorado. Check out Redlands Mesa. Unique and a great value.
Less crowded.
When open, great farm to table restaurants and food stores.
A unique in Colorado wine region. 20 + wineries that have food and music. Think brew pubs, but with wine.
Within 2 hours are Moab, Telluride, Aspen, Glenwood Springs, Dinosaur NP, Arches NP, Canyonlands NP, Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP. Crested Butte, etc.
Fun towns like Paonia, Cedar Edge, the Grand Mesa, Gateway and more.

Great downtown in GJ.

People that haven’t been here in years love to knock it as an oil town. Great, keep that thought, it helps keep RE prices down, but we love it here. PM me with any questions.

I know this post is several months old, but this is exactly how we felt about the area. We visited a bunch of cities/towns over the past 6 months, and GJ was one of our favorites. All the access to amazing nature and ski areas without battling with everyone from Denver to get to/from. Plus the town itself was overall very pleasant.

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

Yes, and one doesn't have to fight the I-70 traffic from Denver to get to those places.

Big mistake we made...we hit I-70 east towards Denver on a Sunday afternoon
Pretty much sealed the deal that if we ever decide to move to Colorado, we will avoid living in the Front Range if we can.

[otowi]

Originally Posted by BrianGC

Big mistake we made...we hit I-70 east towards Denver on a Sunday afternoon
Pretty much sealed the deal that if we ever decide to move to Colorado, we will avoid living in the Front Range if we can.

FYI I-70 and northern Front Range traffic to mountains is MUCH worse than traveling from the southern Front Range via highways 24 or 50. Highway 24 is sometimes busy between the Springs and Manitou, but nothing like the I-70 nightmare.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by brightdoglover

HH, thank you for your care on this discussion.

Thanks, I appreciate it! A couple notes here---

Mesa County has taken its lumps like everyone else these past several months in regards to the virus but there have been other issues that really affected the economy.


1. Pine Gulch Fire---about 9 air miles north of the GJ airport. Over 139,000 acres burned.

2. The late April freeze. The temps took a big nosedive in late April and the peach crop took a real pounding. Some areas weren't too bad but if I would venture a guess I'll say we lost 80% of the peaches, maybe even 90%.

3. JUCO is the baseball college world series for the junior colleges in the USA. Grand Junction has hosted it since 1950 (I think). It generally goes in the last week of May going into June 2nd to 3rd. It was bad enough that it got cancelled but another league got cancelled which has nothing to do with co-vid. For reasons that a lot of people are questioning was mothballing the season for the "Rookie League" of minor league ball--Class A.

The Colorado Rockies were the parent club of the Grand Junction Rockies and part of the Pioneer league with other clubs from Great Falls to Idaho Falls to Orem along with several other clubs have all folded their tent. Needless to say, the Rookie League are comprised mostly from kids out of high school and college. It's great entertainment and affordable. They don't charge nutso prices for parking and you can buy a hot dog and a pop for $5 or so.

In the last couple days there has been some movement from the MLB owners and its commissioner regarding setting up a league where all the players come from a general pool instead of having specific clubs joined up with specific MLB clubs. Details are short right now but I'll visit this thread and try to come up with the latest developments.