Alternatives to Santa Fe?

[COcheesehead]

my sister retired in Arvada - I go there a few times a year to visit. LOTS of traffic and crime. Nice golf courses too - BIL and I ski Loveland usually around when Bogus is closed for the year.

They live on a dog track muni off wadsworth. I like indian tree and hyland hills

Northwest Denver is not the garden spot in the metro area. It wouldn't be my choice to live there

 

[Hermit]

One town in Colorado not mentioned, but might fit is Canon City. It is a small town atmosphere but within easy distance of Colorado Springs for major medical. It has become somewhat of a retirement destination in the last several years. They do some nice events in the summer, but not a major art location to my knowledge.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Northwest Denver is not the garden spot in the metro area. It wouldn't be my choice to live there

sister helicoptered there in 2003 from OKC when my nephew got the football scholly to mines

compared to OKC pretty much anything is a garden spot, even Houston

 

[Teacher Terry]

I also now live in the West and have been to many of the places mentioned. Reno does not get very many inversions but is probably too big for you. Carson City is a short drive away. Truckee is expensive and gets a ton of snow. Both Reno and Carson have a mild 4 seasons. Summer is not that hot and no humidity makes a huge difference. Northern CA is also nice. I love Placerville but I think real estate is fairly expensive there. The real estate in northern NV has been going up due to a shortage of both houses and apartments. They are building again though. I have lived in the Midwest and EAst Coast and the West is my favorite.

 

[GravitySucks]

Salida, CO or Buena Vista, CO are nice too.

Shhhhhh!

 

[MRG]

Shhhhhh!

The whole state is full! Try Texas.

 

[hesperus]

The whole state is full! Try Texas.

+1 lol, we all want to close the door once we're in

 

[braumeister]

my musts:

• western state
• in the mountains with true four seasons, including snow (yes!) and without a hot humid summer
• well-educated retiree community, very active in outdoor activities
• lots happening in the arts
• colleges and universities locally
• culturally and historically interesting
• within a reasonable drive of a major airport (ABQ).

I don't like large cities

Some really great suggestions in this thread.
If I were you, I would build a list of cities from these suggestions and plan to spend a week in each city on the list. Then do it again six months later (the list will probably be a little shorter by then). Three months later, do it a third time and make a decision.

 

[woodguy00]

Boise

+1

 

[MRG]

+1 lol, we all want to close the door once we're in

There's room in Missouri.
Nice ski places and it's low COL.

 

[zinger1457]

Salida, CO or Buena Vista, CO are nice too.

I guess I need to pay closer attention, I've driven thru Buena Vista many times on my way to Vail and Beaver Creek and the only reason I ever stop there was to gas up, didn't see much else of interest. It's a real small town isn't it?

 

[COcheesehead]

I guess I need to pay closer attention, I've driven thru Buena Vista many times on my way to Vail and Beaver Creek and the only reason I ever stop there was to gas up, didn't see much else of interest. It's a real small town isn't it?

It's a place to pee.

 

[Souschef]

Ventura County CA

Take a look here-great weather, you can ski in the AM and surf in the PM

 

[bssc]

I guess I need to pay closer attention, I've driven thru Buena Vista many times on my way to Vail and Beaver Creek and the only reason I ever stop there was to gas up, didn't see much else of interest. It's a real small town isn't it?

It depends on how small you want. Buena Vista is much smaller but is closer to skiin.

 

[BarbWire]

OP here .. Thanks to all for this discussion (sorry for my late reply -- I am currently in Singapore ....)

Colorado -- even the "Denver area" thanks to COcheesehead's description -- is sounding like it is well worth further exploration. Before I write off Denver as just another crowded city, I should look at some of the outlying areas which may fit the bill.

Boise: 20 years ago it resembled Austin in the 80s: university town, state govt, small town vibe ... And now it seems like just another big city with crowding and pollution. Sigh. But Austin is even worse!

Please everyone: keep on thinking and posting!

Oh yeah: one more thing -- Buena Vista has great bugers at the yellow burger place on the river ....

 

[kevink]

Salida in particular is a town of 5000 that has better arts and culture than many small cities/large towns of up to, say, 50,000. Much more going on for example than Cañon City (pop. 15,000) just an hour down valley, or Silver City NM (pop. ~12,000). Salida has made Outside Magazine's "dream town" multiple times and if you're into biking, x-country skiing, hiking or rafting it's easy to see why. It does get just as cold as Santa Fe in the winters but there's lots of sun. Long way from the airport though and housing isn't cheap.

Something else I forgot to mention about NM that is really worth knowing since you plan to travel extensively: NM is legendarily hard-core about jury duty responsibilities and won't accept travel/being out of town as an excuse. If you do decide to be NM based and also plan on traveling for ~six months a year as you stated you seriously need to skip voter registration.

 

[Big_Hitter]

Boise: 20 years ago it resembled Austin in the 80s: university town, state govt, small town vibe ... And now it seems like just another big city with crowding and pollution. Sigh. But Austin is even worse!

Please everyone: keep on thinking and posting!

Boise is nothing like Austin, well except for all the californicators that have moved here. My FIL lived in Austin 20 years so we used to visit quite often. I was just there a few months ago. Can't stand that town now.

Austin has much worse traffic, crime and sprawl; ever tried going out to dinner in Austin? good luck finding a parking spot. also, ever go down 6th street? carry lots of ones or some change - every tweaked out bum in texas lives there

 

[COcheesehead]

If you are going to check out Denver, the 'burbs to look at are:
Littleton
Lone Tree
Highlands Ranch
Castle Pines or Castle Pines North
Maybe even Golden

All of these are on the perimeter and on the nicer south side of town. Most have light rail access which makes getting into the city a breeze. We take the train into town for dining or a ballgame. All of these can offer nice mountain or open space views and access. If you need anymore info, let me know.

 

[timo2]

If you are going to check out Denver, the 'burbs to look at are:
Littleton
Lone Tree
Highlands Ranch
Castle Pines or Castle Pines North
Maybe even Golden

All of these are on the perimeter and on the nicer south side of town. Most have light rail access which makes getting into the city a breeze. We take the train into town for dining or a ballgame. All of these can offer nice mountain or open space views and access. If you need anymore info, let me know.

Having just left Golden after 25 years, my view is the south side of the Denver area is where all the traffic and people congestion is the worst. Golden used to be seperate, but it has now been sucked up into the metro area. But it is still better than the bland suburban areas, which after finishing with south of Denver has now invaded north of Golden. There are even new subdivisions next to the Rocky Flats nuclear area, because most of the good spot are all built out.

 

[COcheesehead]

Having just left Golden after 25 years, my view is the south side of the Denver area is where all the traffic and people congestion is the worst. Golden used to be seperate, but it has now been sucked up into the metro area. But it is still better than the bland suburban areas, which after finishing with south of Denver has now invaded north of Golden. There are even new subdivisions next to the Rocky Flats nuclear area, because most of the good spot are all built out.

Not our experience, but levels of congestion are relative. I guess if there are other cars on the road to some that's congestion.

 

[Big_Hitter]

whatever you do - don't play fossil trace in golden unless you want to watch horrible swings in front of you for about 6 hours

downtown golden is awesome tho - love the buffalo rose and the guy that looks like ray wylie hubbard that plays there all the time

 

[timo2]

Not our experience, but levels of congestion are relative. I guess if there are other cars on the road to some that's congestion.

Absolutely. And I do realize people have to live somewhere, so I'm not an anti-growth person.

 

[Hermit]

Evergreen, Pine, Castle Rock, Franktown, Conifer, Parker. Those are all toward the southern half and somewhat outside the Denver area. There are fairly heavily treed places to the southeast and mountain towns to the west. There are more toward the northern half. If you don't have to commute, getting around in Denver isn't too bad. Just stay off the roads during rush hours. If you are retired, excursions into the city should be rare and for things like entertainment, medical, etc.

 

[ABQ2015]

Evergreen, Pine, Castle Rock, Franktown, Conifer, Parker. Those are all toward the southern half and somewhat outside the Denver area. There are fairly heavily treed places to the southeast and mountain towns to the west. There are more toward the northern half. If you don't have to commute, getting around in Denver isn't too bad. Just stay off the roads during rush hours. If you are retired, excursions into the city should be rare and for things like entertainment, medical, etc.

A member of my other forum retired in Bend, OR after living for many years in Conifer and has some stories to tell. The average snowfall is 136 inches a year.

 

[braumeister]

Evergreen, Pine, Castle Rock, Franktown, Conifer, Parker.

Surprised you left out Hartsel, "the heart of Colorado".