Haha well first I need to organize my emergency escape equipment, my mom probably won't want me to move. But like I said before I also want to save up a bit of money in case anything happens But no snow sounds fine with me, the dogs love it but I hate the cold..

Officially stalking this thread, since my dream is to move to Colorado too.

I thought I would revive this old thread because I am beyond confused and have no idea how people move! Obviously this state is huge, and I cannot figure out how to narrow down areas on where to look for jobs! I am a business administration major with a concentration in marketing so I can do a lot with that and don't necessarily need to a certain place for a very specific job which makes it even more difficult! I re-read this thread and I looked into a lot of those places such as Golden, Boulder, and other areas around Denver, and then in the mountains around Glenwood Springs, and Bassalt (my cousin lives there) or Breckenridge (but that is VERY expensive) and its just confusing me especially because I have yet to go to Colorado. I know a trip will be inevitable before we move in January (crappy time to go, I know), but I want to wait until December to visit, have a list of places and narrow my job search down that way so I can schedule interviews while I'm out there and then look at places to live, and basically just come back here and pack up with the dogs and go. I want a larger town to small city, with hiking, biking, walking trails close and it has to be a safe place to live with dog related things such as doggy daycare. I thought Boulder would of been perfect but the more I look online, people say its just full of weirdo's who are way to opinionated on certain life styles for example if you aren't like a vegan, or don't smoke pot. Now I'm sure this isn't the case every where in Boulder and thats just a big stereotype, but it did make me nervous and brought me back to having no idea where I want to be. So my question is for all the residents there or people who have visited, if you could live any where in Colorado, where would it be and why? And what would be the best places, for the things that I want. I wasn't sure if there would be other suggestions where Megan said she would most likely be working from home, and I don't think that would be an option for me, even though I would love to.

My experience is just from visiting, so take it with a grain of salt. I am also coming from a currently very liberal town and prefer that.

Anyways, Boulder is VERY liberal, so if you're coming from somewhere even semi-conservative, it may be a bit much. But that almost doesn't matter because it is also very expensive, so it may not even be an option you want to consider. Colorado Springs is known to be more conservative and family friendly, though I didn't visit there.  My favorite city was Fort Collins. I think it had just the right amount of liberal "weirdness" without being overpowering. I also really liked the downtown and proximity to recreation (Horsetooth Resevoir) and the fact that cost of living is lower. However, it isn't really within commuting distance to Denver (about an hour without traffic), so that could limit your job search. Just my:twocents:

Also, even though Boulder is supposed to be very dog friendly, I didn't really experience that. You can't even walk your dog down the main pedestrian shopping district (Pearl St.). I saw dogs everywhere in Ft. Collins.

I looked into Fort Collins as well, and for some reason everyone was saying the crime rate was really jumping, which I thought was weird because I had only ever heard such great things about that area! I think I'm just going a little to crazy with the internet research and obviously not everything that people say is true, so its nice to know that you found it a great place to visit! I am also use to liberal places coming from Maine, so that's not a problem. I would actually most likely prefer that.

And that was another thing about Boulder that turned me off, it wasn't very dog friendly anymore as they have been banned from a lot of places. Where I live now isn't super dog friendly, and although it wouldn't be a huge deal breaker if I couldn't take them a lot of places, I would prefer to move to a place that is a little more open to them!

I grew up there and lived in Loveland, Ft. Collins, Boulder, Winter Park, well Fraser actually (ski town), and north Denver. Don't believe everything you hear about Boulder. Are there weirdos there? For sure! Pot smokers? Um, yeah, but I've never smoked pot in my life and I had a lot of fun living there. But it's also a college town too. About the closest you can get to the mountains without actually living in the mountains, and it has its own thing. I don't know how I would feel living there now with more life experience, but honestly its an amusing place, and there is no place like it. There are some extremely wealthy people with huge homes there as well, and the dichotomy of hippie/yuppie/college kids makes for entertainment. I had a house right at the base of the foothills and could walk out my door to tons of hiking trails. It was amazing! Not sure I would want to live there now, but only because I liked Denver so much.

I love Boulder, but I would say overall, my favorite place I lived was north Denver. I loved our neighborhood, but now when I go back it doesn't feel the same. I guess living here changed my perspective. Denver is great though, decent public transit, close to the mountains, but lots of good stuff going on in the city to do too. There are days that both my hubby and I think about going back, we call them "Denver Days." It feels like everything is about an hour away, but people are friendly and it doesn't feel like a huge city.

If you are thinking you want a small town or more of a mountain town vibe check out Silverthorne. I'm not sure why exactly, but I totally fell in love with this place when we went to Glenwood a few years ago, I think it was the dudes (yes, dudes, when you move to CO, you will understand) in the coffee shop we stopped at asking me 20 questions, and starting an in depth converstaion about jeeps and skiing while making my espresso. They also offered me some homemade venison stew that one of their dads had made lol. I had a jeep cherokee with the license plate 'wpskier' at the time. Its not far from Vail Resort, so there could be jobs there, but its just a cute little mountain town in an absolutely gorgeous area, outlet mall too, which is a plus. Glenwood Springs is also nice, its on the western slope and not far from Aspen (which I'm assuming would have marketing type jobs).

Anyway, I'd say visit Boulder, Denver proper (our neighborhood was called The Highlands, not to be confused with Highlands Ranch), and then if you want to look at mountain towns or other small towns you can pretty much just pick one and they are all the same. Another thing to consider is that southern CO, telluride, crested butte are also gorgeous and not necessarily the first things that come to mind when people think of planning a trip there. I'd say start looking for jobs now and that can give you an idea of which areas you might be able to move to and then you can concentrate your visit to those areas, I think that will probably limit your search more than anything else. Keep in mind too moving in Colorado is not that expensive. Here on the east coast I would want to have $5-$10k saved up before I felt comfortable moving to a new apartment, but there all you really need is a security deposit, generally there aren't broker fees or other crazy expenses when you move. You just rent a new place and pack up your crap, so don't worry if you can't find the exactly perfect town/area when you first go, its pretty easy to be mobile there.

I'm jealous, I get a little pang when I think about moving 'home.'

I would add too that I would never want to live in Colorado Springs, it feels isolated to me, and on a good day its about 2 hours from Denver. When it snows? Forget it, you're not going anywhere. Castle Rock? Meh, its just halfway between Denver and Co Springs. Plus, I'm moderate leaning slightly left politically and Co Springs feels like its full of mega churches and uber conservative. I prefer to be in a more diverse area.

Wow, thanks for all the information! I will look at those areas. Silverthorne has also been up for discussion because it gives my boyfriend everything that he wants, well is still a good mixture of what I want too. If I were moving alone my list would be some what different, because I think at some point I do want to try city life and would want to most likely live in Denver, but my boyfriend needs to be close to skiing and hates city life so we have to compromise .

Yeahhhhh, Colorado Springs was never really up for discussion after the things I read in the beginning. It was quickly crossed off!

That is a very good point about once I'm there, it will be easier to move if I find other areas during our travels that I would prefer. I have been looking for some jobs now, its just tough because I'm not there and a lot of people don't want to look at someone from Maine, I've been finding. And its not like I'm not qualified for things, I've been doing a sales job for over a year now in a company that I got promoted in, and I went to a decent school, and had a good internship so my resume doesn't look terrible, and its still very challenging which is to be expected. but none the less scary, if your trying to move. If my boyfriend wasn't waiting for his Christmas bonus at work, I would fly out there within the next month and really get things rolling but I think that will really have to wait until November to early December.

My wife and I moved to Colorado a year ago from Cleveland. We have been living in Littleton right on the Lakewood border. We chose that area because it is relatively close to my office and still close to the foothills and easy access into the mountains. After being here a year we are in the process of closing on a house in Pine. I work in Denver and its a bit of a drive but worth it to us to be out of the city a bit. The best thing you can do is get out here and spend some time in different areas and find the one that will best fit your needs and likes. We knew shortly after being here that somewhere out on 285 is where we wanted to be. Im sure once your out here you will find the area you like best.

Well, if you find a job you think you could land, in an area you're interested in I would say start the process. At the worst, you could rent a room for a month or two, or sublet, until your boyfriend is ready to move. It's probably smart of him to wait for the bonus though. Or you could negotiate your start date in your interview.

*Edit - in terms of the job hunt, I would do follow up calls after you submit your resume. I've noticed people on the east coast seem annoyed by that, but every time I did that back home it was well received.

wpskier222 wrote:

*Edit - in terms of the job hunt, I would do follow up calls after you submit your resume. I've noticed people on the east coast seem annoyed by that, but every time I did that back home it was well received.

I always do this, and for some reason I feel like I'm a terrible person for following up because its considered "annoying", must be the east coast guilt in me then, but thats good to know that its more accepted in Colorado!  

Then maybe I will head out there sooner rather than later and look around, if I can make it happen. It makes me sad though to leave my babies here! I do trust my boyfriend with them, so I know they are safe but they most likely will be confined to the house since he doesn't walk them, which makes me feel bad. Plus I think I've spent under 5 days away from Siku since we have gotten him, and never from Nikolai, so I will have a melt down most likely the night before I leave to see places.

Definitely will be following this thread. I've been looking for jobs in the Denver and Park City area for a couple months now. I'm being super picky, but can't wait to move to either of the areas. I've been to Park City, but never Colorado. Next summer i'm taking a road trip through Telluride, Aspen, Vail, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Fort Collins, and Denver. Any other areas I should check out to get an idea of how the living will be? Time frame will be June/July

Basically anyplace west of the Front Range. I am originally from Fort Collins and it still gets hot there. I personally love Steamboat and Grand Lake areas.

My daughter moved to Aurora in April. She's on the outskirts, in the 'burbs, where she could afford a yard for her husky. So far she likes it, but compared to the swampland that is Houston, I don't blame her for just wanting away from here.

Yeah, if we can make it happen money and job wise which is going to be a BIG stretch, because of how expensive it is and how hard jobs are to get but we are looking around Frisco, and Silverthorne like Jen suggested and we just think it would be a perfect fit as far as what we want goes! But it will be a downsize in apartment size then what we are even used to now because of the prices, but would be worth it if I could find a reliable job in any of those surrounding areas. But if not we will be looking as far west of Denver as possible to be closer to the mountains.

I live in denver off of I70 on the border of aurora. Im about 30 min from work and about 1 hr to any fun in the mountains, it works for me, our house was also super cheap. Keep in mind boulder, loveland and ft Collins just suffered a huge natural disaster with floods and its a mess. There is no real housing options there right now. I do love ft Collins but its still a haul to the main mountains so thats a drag. I would check out the golden area, it nice, right at the foothills and still close to down town. Unless you really want a mountain town, I dont think I could live in a mountain town till im retired. Let us know when any of you come to CO we love meeting other members and most of the CO people on here are close to the denver area if not in it.

jbealer wrote:

I live in denver off of I70 on the border of aurora.  Im about 30 min from work and about 1 hr to any fun in the mountains, it works for me, our house was also super cheap. Keep in mind boulder, loveland and ft Collins just suffered a huge natural disaster with floods and its a mess. There is no real housing options there right now. I do love ft Collins but its still a haul to the main mountains so thats a drag. I would check out the golden area, it nice, right at the foothills and still close to down town. Unless you really want a mountain town, I dont think I could live in a mountain town till im retired. Let us know when any of you come to CO we love meeting other members and most of the CO people on here are close to the denver area if not in it.

Yeah, I'm hoping that the mountain town could work, but I am looking into Golden as a fall back option just because I would LOVE to work at Kong, even though my boyfriend thinks I'm crazy for that. But I'm so use to small towns so it wouldn't be that much different for me in the mountains as far as stuff to do. I am from Bar Harbor Maine where in the fall winter and spring, the whole island shuts down except for like two restaurants and a grocery store, but having the national park there makes it all worth it, and that is my major pro for the mountains where I can just walk out the door and have hiking and biking and not have to drive any where. Is that your reason for not wanting to be in the mountains as far as stuff to do or do you have another reason I haven't thought of? I'm trying to plan a trip out there with my friend in the month or so to really see the different places before the move which the plan is January unless I get a job before then.

There really are so many members that live in Colorado, it will be nice for my two to have husky friends other than each other.

the mountain towns just get soooooo busy and the prices jump so much i just cant see me living in one, and the ones that are not tourist stops just lack options for things like food stores and shopping. i would LOVE a weekend place in the middle of no where to be able to hike and stuff, i could do that but i love being in denver cause i can go ANYWHERE i want. im about seeing new stuff and i would get tired of hiking the same trails over and over i would still want to drive to stuff so thats another reason, i dont have time on the weekday to get out for hikes and such so for me its all about the weekends. but everyone is diff. live where it fits you, and in CO you have many options, just saying for the most part denver and near by towns are FILLED with husky people.

Those are really good points, and thats how I started thinking before my stupid boyfriend made it all about skiing and clouded my judgement with the hiking and biking that they have! :)haha. I always said, Denver is so close to the mountains and that we would do just as well going there on the weekends if we needed to because Denver, would have daycares open for the dogs all the time if we wanted to go skiing on the weekends or something where the mountains don't for us to go to Denver on the weekends, and an hour is nothing to be in the car. We drive an hour every weekend to go take them hiking anyway so there is no difference than what we would be doing now. Plus I'm almost 24 and I really need to seriously start my career and in the moutains I don't think I could do that with the limited jobs there.

I am glad that you mentioned Golden as well because that was the other area that we were considering and kind of gives me the reassurance that we are looking at the nice places to live!