Are you contemplating relocating to Colorado and questioning the wisdom and value of such a decision?
Colorado, known for its stunning natural beauty, offers a myriad of outdoor opportunities from snow-covered peaks to vast grasslands. Whether you enjoy skiing, hiking, or other outdoor activities, Colorado has something for everyone.
However, moving to a Colorado mountain town may not be without its challenges. Setting realistic expectations is key to fully enjoying the picturesque mountain lifestyle Colorado has to offer.
If you require assistance with your move to a Colorado mountain town, contact us at Just Living Realty. We handle all logistics, from the relocation process to home purchase.
Considering a move to Eagle County, the prime destination in Colorado?
Prepare for a unique aspect of living here – no home deliveries. Regardless of property ownership, residents are provided with a PO box instead of local mail delivery services.
While this may seem insignificant, the inconvenience of retrieving mail from the post office regularly can become tedious. Additionally, be mindful that certain buildings may not be serviced by courier software, leading to potential return of packages. Ensure your new residence supports home delivery to avoid mail mishaps.
Furthermore, limited parking spaces in Colorado’s mountain towns can be a challenge due to geographical constraints or underdeveloped road infrastructure. Expect scarcity of parking spots, especially during peak tourist seasons or events, with paid parking becoming the norm.
Be aware that living in a mountain town in Colorado comes at a premium. Higher costs across the board, from daily essentials to dining out, are common. Gas prices may also vary significantly between mountain towns and plains, attributed to the challenges of transporting goods to elevated terrains.
Real estate prices reflect the limited availability in mountain towns, leading to higher property costs. Businesses incur higher operational expenses, translating to increased prices for consumers. This trend is observed even in the best city to move to in the Colorado mountains.
If you need guidance on relocating to Colorado, reach out to our experts at Just Livin Realty.
Another thing that should be on your expectation list to avoid disappointment later is fewer amenities. Even though it is more expensive to bring goods up to the mountain towns, do not think that all amenities will be available to you when you are moving to a Colorado mountain town. Some amenities do not exist or even if they do at a three-hour mile away, it is just not worth the effort going there. For example, Walmart is not there in the 650-resident town of Silverton, it is an hour’s drive away at Durango or Montrose. You will get all the basics of living in all the Colorado mountain towns but if you want something special, you must plan a road journey to get it.
Another thing that you might find annoying after moving to Colorado mountain town is the influx of tourists all year around. It is not only the skiing season that draws tourists from all over the world, rather it is a yearlong phenomenon. People come to the mountains in spring and autumn to see the changing hues of the mountains and in summer for camping, hiking, and rafting. You will not get a moment’s solitude when relocating to a mountain town in Colorado.
One of the major things I’ve noticed during the peak of ski season, for an example, is the people that don’t live here year round, they just don’t basically know some of the rules of, let’s say, the roundabout driving traffic. You hear a lot more car honking. People seem to be a little bit more elevated in their aggression levels. Whether it’s the excitement of getting to the mountain on a pow day or not preparing properly for the major snowstorms that we have, it just seems that sometimes the tourists bring a little bit extra angst to the overall feel of what a local truly feels like living here. Some of the other issues with the tourism comes general overcrowding. Whether it’s trying to get a reservation at a popular restaurants, the traffic, as I already mentioned, planning ahead and keeping calm to the complaints that arise are going to be a reality when you live here.
Overcrowded trails. In general, crowding of many Colorado’s mountain communities isn’t restricted to the town itself. Expect outdoor recreational activities and other attractions in the area to be crowded too. While some people head to mountain towns for the mountain experience, many people simply use the town as a convenient spot to lay their head while exploring their surrounding areas. Get to the trailhead sooner than later and always have a backup plan, and be ready in case the trailhead parking lot is full.
That’s definitely true. That’s a fantastic tip that Spencer gave us. A major trailhead, let’s say, at a fourteener, what you can do most of the time is one of the local peaks that are next to that fourteener, let’s say a thirteener. That will have far less foot traffic, as an example, and it’s just as challenging, and literally it’s 1,000 feet different. So if you have too much crowding on one trail, oftentimes there’s going to be trails, many trails, around that same geographic area that you could take advantage of as well.
Travel issues. Living in Colorado mountain towns, there’s often only a few ways in or out of the area. A lot of times the mountain towns are in valleys. Of course, the valley is surrounded by huge mountain peaks, so oftentimes there’s one road in and one road out. So for instance, here in Eagle County, you have I-70 that basically runs you from the east of Denver all the way through Glenwood Canyon, which is a little bit further from where I am now. And a couple years back, there was a massive rainstorm, a flood happened. It took out the I-70 road, so that was closed down. Not only that, but there was wildfires that shut down the road. Depending on the time of year, you might be landlocked. That example I just gave us was during summertime. So you could take some of these surrounding side roads or BLM roads, dirt roads to get to where you needed to go, but that obviously causes a longer travel day.
In addition to the travel issues, your phone’s GPS may not work as well as you would hope a lot of times. So I currently have AT&T service. I had Xfinity service. Right where I’m at, right here in my office, Xfinity would give me no bars, where AT&T I have full bars the entire way from Vail all the way to Glenwood Springs. If you’re traveling, you’re not good with maps or you don’t know where you’re going, you may want to plan ahead in regard to that because sometimes your phone’s GPS may not work.