aspenbugle
Well-Known Member
You asked about pros/cons of in/out of town, river valley, blm etc...
Like many, I spent quite a few years closer to a city, just for work purposes. You can get on edges, maybe 5 acres, but still a ton of people and limiting for hunting/shooting without driving. Yuk.
I finally got the chance to move back out to the country. Bought a chunk of acreage with a river on one edge of it and tens of thousands of acres of BLM and NF directly behind. Paradise. You can never go wrong with water and backing to public land.
I don't really see the point of living in town, even a small one, if you are into hunting, shooting and the outdoors. Best if you can do that from your back door. The bigger question for you will be how close do you need to what size town?
Most people would like to have at least a small town with some hardware, groceries and restaurants to get a few things within 20-25 min. Up to you and wife. If you have to drive 45 minutes, just to get a little milk, the wife may not like that (?), unless she's used to it.
The other question is what kind of big town/city do you need, and how close? Places like Durango, and Grand Junction in Western CO are decent sized, with about all you'd need, but they aren't cities. If you/wife want an actual city occasionally for whatever purpose, you need to factor that in. There are no cities close in W. CO. You'd have to be willing to drive 4-6 hours to Denver. If you don't need that, great. If you do, you may want to look for locations closer. Best way to lose the blessing of the wife is to go too remote too quick...kind of need to ease into those things sometimes when you're used to a big city close. Renting the first year isn't a bad idea. Also, towns, at least in CO, vary widely personality-wise (ski town, ranch town, etc.). You probably won't love them all - but that's a topic for another post.
Like many, I spent quite a few years closer to a city, just for work purposes. You can get on edges, maybe 5 acres, but still a ton of people and limiting for hunting/shooting without driving. Yuk.
I finally got the chance to move back out to the country. Bought a chunk of acreage with a river on one edge of it and tens of thousands of acres of BLM and NF directly behind. Paradise. You can never go wrong with water and backing to public land.
I don't really see the point of living in town, even a small one, if you are into hunting, shooting and the outdoors. Best if you can do that from your back door. The bigger question for you will be how close do you need to what size town?
Most people would like to have at least a small town with some hardware, groceries and restaurants to get a few things within 20-25 min. Up to you and wife. If you have to drive 45 minutes, just to get a little milk, the wife may not like that (?), unless she's used to it.
The other question is what kind of big town/city do you need, and how close? Places like Durango, and Grand Junction in Western CO are decent sized, with about all you'd need, but they aren't cities. If you/wife want an actual city occasionally for whatever purpose, you need to factor that in. There are no cities close in W. CO. You'd have to be willing to drive 4-6 hours to Denver. If you don't need that, great. If you do, you may want to look for locations closer. Best way to lose the blessing of the wife is to go too remote too quick...kind of need to ease into those things sometimes when you're used to a big city close. Renting the first year isn't a bad idea. Also, towns, at least in CO, vary widely personality-wise (ski town, ranch town, etc.). You probably won't love them all - but that's a topic for another post.
