Anyone commute from Denver to Cheyenne? (Fort Collins, Frisco: apartment, to rent, mobile home)

[909er]

Just wondering if the high home prices are pushing people to do that?

[maciesmom]

Commuting from Denver to Cheyenne? Or Cheyenne to Denver?

Either way that is not a realistic daily commute - particularly in winter. There are closer options either way if housing costs are the issue.

[randomparent]

Cheyenne to Denver would be one hellacious commute. I could see doing it if you worked mostly at home, only heading in to the office a few times a month. Every day? That would take a special kinda crazy. Yikes!

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by 909er

Just wondering if the high home prices are pushing people to do that?

I've read every post in here for over 9 years now, never seen anyone in these forums discussing such a commute; it just is not a viable option. We've seen a few postings talk about a possible commute between Fort Collins and Cheyenne but even that is a rather rigorous idea that few people ever really do.

If one has a job in Cheyenne but lives in Denver, and it's a typical 5-day per week job, the truly viable option is to rent a room, mobile home or apartment in Cheyenne for the work week. We had that in the DC area, people rooming in-town during the week then driving "home" on Friday night and driving in to DC early on Monday morning. Some had the option of working 10 hours a day x 4 days a week which gave them 3 days at "home" per week.

The home in Denver should be easily rentable these days, allowing one to move to Cheyenne and then move back at some year in the future.

[Indigo Cardinal]

I can't imagine it'd be a good idea--I would think whatever money you'd save on housing would end up spent on gas and car maintenance, plus a lot of personal time lost (given it's about an hour and a half's drive one way). Not to mention there's been times during winter they've close I-25 at the state line, so you could end up stuck somewhere.

I have known people who've made long-ass commutes before--when I lived in Tulsa, I knew a guy who commuted from Ponca City to Tulsa (an hour and a half drive) every day for his job, however, the plan was to move to Tulsa once his son graduated from high school (his son was at the tail end of his junior year when his dad got a job in Tulsa). So this wasn't a permanent thing. There's also the fact that this was in the 1990's, when gas was a lot cheaper, and Oklahoma doesn't get as much inclement weather as Colorado/Wyoming does.

If this is something that's going to be going on for a great deal of time with no definite end in sight, I can't say I'd recommend it.

[Timmyy]

I knew somebody that commuted from Frisco to the office here in the Meridian area. I can't imagine commuting to Cheyenne on a daily basis.

[909er]

Nice. I was just wondering. Here in SoCal, 60 to 90 miles commutes ranging from 1 to 2.5 hours is somewhat common, for people wanting the cheaper housing out in Temecula or Moreno Valley. Didn't know if Denver was turning to that or not...

[SkyDog77]

Originally Posted by 909er

Nice. I was just wondering. Here in SoCal, 60 to 90 miles commutes ranging from 1 to 2.5 hours is somewhat common, for people wanting the cheaper housing out in Temecula or Moreno Valley. Didn't know if Denver was turning to that or not...

There are cheaper, closer, better places than Cheyenne.

[randomparent]

When I lived in California, I knew of nobody who did 200+ miles a day outside of salespeople who were paid for their time behind the wheel. Regular 9-5ers wouldn't touch that kind of commute no matter how cheap the housing in the Central Valley. If a budget is that tight, a much better option is finding work in Cheyenne.

[sunsprit]

Back in the late 1990's ... when we bought our ranch East of Cheyenne and a large commercial property in Cheyenne, both requiring extensive renovation/remodeling to put them into serviceable/rentable condition ... I did a lot of commuting from Hwy 52 at I-25 (quite North of Denver) to our properties in Cheyenne.

It was a difficult trip in the winter months, and I had more than several trips where the stretch of I-25 North of Ft Collins to Cheyenne was an ice skating rink and very treacherous, as evidenced by my own difficulties trying to stay on the road and passing a lot of vehicles that didn't. Back in that day, neither CO or WY would close the road unless it was truly impassable to a degree far beyond the capabilities of 4x4 with chains.

In more recent years, both CO and WY are more conserving of their 1st responder resources. They will close the road much sooner and for longer time periods rather than have to deal with all the folk who push past their abilities and the capabilities of their vehicles. It also makes the road easier to plow and to remove the wrecks without having traffic on the highway.

This is an area where the weather changes are quick and severe. With the frequent winds and strong gusts, there doesn't have to be an active snowstorm in the area to create blizzard/white-out conditions across many places in the road, and black ice formation is almost a given in the area.

Even a commute from Ft Collins to Cheyenne can be an "iffy" proposition during these conditions, and if the road is closed, you're stuck.

In more recent times, the traffic load on I-25 from Denver to Fort Collins is substantially heavier than in years past. This makes for a lot of "rush hour" type driving conditions, especially in the times of the day when the Denver-Ft Collins commuters are out in force. Even in fair weather, it's still a grind. For those of us who watched the development along this corridor, it's a staggering amount of population and build-out that has taken place along the front range, and it's still a work in progress right now with major residential and commercial development.

Bottom line is that I wouldn't advise such a commute if you need to be in Cheyenne for work on a routine workweek schedule.