Moving to Wyoming or Montana (Cheyenne, Casper: subsidized, living in, costs)

[angelsouls444]

Hi guys! I'm currently a writer living in New York City, and I'm feeling the pull to relocate to Wyoming or Montana. Would a city slicker be accepted there? How about someone who is winter sports inept? (lol) Mostly I just want nature, beautiful scenery and wonderful, down to earth people to be around. I'd prefer to live in a town that is not such a long drive from an international airport if at all possible. Can anyone suggest towns that would be worth looking into? Thank you all so much for you time and suggestions!

[WyoNewk]

You sound like my late wife. She was a writer, born in Brooklyn and lived most of her life just across the bridge in NJ. She loved the west, the blue skies, the mountains, the wildlife -- all of it. She got along great with people, especially me. Winter sports were not her forte either, nor any other sports. She did walk fast, however. She was constantly walking into self-opening doors. Apparently they're adjusted for a slower pace of life in the west.

Do you want an international airport, or a major airport? If it's a major airport you want, with direct flights to NYC, etc, Denver and Salt Lake City would be the closest. Casper, Rapid City, SD and Billings, MT also have a few direct flights to some major cities, but I doubt to NYC -- not sure. Some of the larger towns have commuter service to Denver or Salt Lake. Gillette, where I live, has at least a couple direct flights daily to Denver and one to SLC. I'm pretty sure Sheridan has direct flights to Denver.

There's one thing you should know about these commuter flights, however. They're heavily subsidized by state and local governments, so should that funding be pulled, the flights would likely cease to exist. Also, most of these commuter flights are smaller turbo props. There are currently discussions to switch to jet service here, and probably in other towns as well, but that's a couple years away.

[volosong]

Originally Posted by WyoNewk

...There's one thing you should know about these commuter flights, however. They're heavily subsidized by state and local governments, so should that funding be pulled, the flights would likely cease to exist. Also, most of these commuter flights are smaller turbo props. There are currently discussions to switch to jet service here, and probably in other towns as well, but that's a couple years away.

This is a real danger. The town I live in at the moment, (not in WY or MT), went through this. United lost its subsidy and they pulled out. Now there are no flights out of our area.

[sunsprit]

The Essential Air Service subsidy in Wyoming right now is very much at risk. Great Lakes is the local operator and has fallen below the threshold of passenger enplanements to qualify for continued funding. Wyoming is now taking up the slack in revenues, but that's not guaranteed to continue. For much of Wyoming, public transportation between vast distances is effectively non-existent.

Great Lakes blames the lack of pilots available causing cancelled flights due to the recent increase to 1500 logged hours to fly passengers for hire, although they were having serious difficulties maintaining the minimum number of enplanements prior to that point. With a reputation for cancelled flights and high cost per segment, many folk simply don't depend upon GL as a viable air travel resource. Even the Cheyenne-DIA leg is not something you can count on and it's not uncommon for GL to put passengers on a bus rather than fly them to DIA. The problem, of course, is if you have a connecting flight in Denver, you may be late for it.

At this time, if reasonable access to an Int'l airport is a deal-breaker for you, you'll need to locate close to one of the major airports of the region. That's DIA or SLC, which means SE or SW Wyoming along the I-80 or I-25 corridors.

[Mandalorian]

Jackson, WY is certainly worth mentioning. The airport isn't international, but you can fly to most major cities in the US. It's the biggest airport in WY.

Skiing is great there and the town is fantastic.

[sunsprit]

Sorry, Mandalorian ... but Jackson Hole Airport is significantly smaller in based aircraft and daily flight operations than either Casper or Cheyenne, although it is served by Frontier, Delta, and United Airlines. Most of the daily flights are to Denver or Salt Lake City, but there is service to Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles.

However, the airfares to the major cities that have service to Jackson are substantially more expensive than the fares from DIA or SLC.

IF International air carrier service access is important to the OP, then the two airports near Wyoming that offer such service are still DIA or SLC. When you're looking at several hundred dollar round trip airfares from KJAC to those airports to connect for a flight, the additional costs can be prohibitive, and the scheduling may not necessarily be convenient to the flights; ie, one may have a lot of waiting time from the flight from Jackson to Denver before the next flight leg boards.

PS: the OP already posted that they're "winter sports inept" and went on to describe their other interests. One certainly pays a premium price to be in Jackson and if you're not into skiing/winter sports, it's a heck of a premium to pay to be there in the winter for features that can be replicated for far less money in other locales around Wyoming.