Mountain Towns with Slow-paced living/lifestyle ? ? ?

[jeff-fro]

Pitkin, Creede, and Silverton would all definitely be a nice place to live the slow life, but I'm afraid they are too small to have any job opportunities. Those may be more retirement options for the future, if I ever get the chance.

[jeff-fro]

Gunnison would be my choice. Some of those other have to many dang tourist. Living in a tourist hotspot really gets on ones nerves.

I think that may be where I have to weigh the options because I don't believe there will be any ski towns that aren't tourist areas as well. Hope to find something near a ski area where I can still enjoy that but not deal with the tourists, but I guess to the locals I will be a tourist as well !

[cj7zrcool]

I like Lake City or Ouray.

[unclefish]

Estes Park, CO is awesome...but way touristy in the summer.....but they have several pharmacies. I imagine alot of the others towns mentioned are the touristy as well. Castle Rock is very nice city although not in the mountains its very close.


Sante Fe, NM is very nice bigger mountain town. Also Las Vegas, NM is good sized and has several pharmacies...although the town is at the foothills...the edge of the Pecos Wilderness is not far. It ain't the prettiest town though.

[unclefish]

I think that may be where I have to weigh the options because I don't believe there will be any ski towns that aren't tourist areas as well. Hope to find something near a ski area where I can still enjoy that but not deal with the tourists, but I guess to the locals I will be a tourist as well !

Any pretty mountain town will have lots of tourists.

[Drawknife]

I lived in Montrose and Ridgeway Co in the nineties. Both great towns and close to great hunting in the San juans. I love the western slopes of Co. I'll live there again one day when the kids are grown.

[Tmag]

I think that may be where I have to weigh the options because I don't believe there will be any ski towns that aren't tourist areas as well. Hope to find something near a ski area where I can still enjoy that but not deal with the tourists, but I guess to the locals I will be a tourist as well !

Gunnison would be my choice also, has an airport that has a Texas direct schedule. Also has a hospital and some nice stores. Close enough to Crested Butte and Lake City for skiing. Hunting options every direction.

[Dr. Evil]

Pagosa Springs, CO.

[Birddogss]

Carbondale & basalt are close enough to the ski areas but they are not tourist destinations you should defiantly give it a look..

[jeff-fro]

Have you considered a little further north? I would look into Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Island Park, Idaho, Bozeman, Montana area and Dubois and Cody, Wyoming are where I would start looking.

I'm not really wanting to go much farther north than Denver. We will be needing to drive back to Texas some and anything near Yellowstone or farther north adds at least another 500 miles to the trip. But saying that, anything in Colorado will put me that much closer if I ever get to go to Yellowstone...

[Landrover]

Eagle county, co.

[Birddogss]

Dang why did you start this thread...now I want to pack up the family and move back up there!!!

[jeff-fro]

Dolores Co. Is a cool place

I spent some time in Dolores a couple months ago, neat town, nice people. Really enjoy the atmosphere there but it is probably too small to have many job opportunities. We ate a few meals there when we would go in to town to stock up before heading out to hunt again. Their local "farmers market" was great, nice to see good honest people getting together. That is the kind of setting I am looking for, just on a slightly larger scale and closer to skiing.

[Buzzbow]

Leadville, CO

[jeff-fro]

Dang why did you start this thread...now I want to pack up the family and move back up there!!!

Haha, every day I go through this in my head wondering if it will work out and what to do. Every year when I take a hunting trip to Colorado or a ski trip to New Mexico or Colorado I hate leaving and always look forward to going back.
I battle between stay close to home and family, get established with careers, and start having kids before I get too old VERSUS pick up and move to the mountains and enjoy the slower paced lifestyle for a couple years and see what happens after that. I'm thinking right now that if I can find the right location with good job options I might as well give it a try.