Off subject: Moving to Colorado next year

Alaskabound2016

Active Member
Oct 14, 2015
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Colorado Springs
CoHiCntry,

That's a bummer to hear man. I have heard that it can be crowded in the Springs. I have a aunt and uncle who live there who have warned me about that. They still said it is a lot better than SoCal but that it can get pretty bad.
 

Winchester

Veteran member
Mar 27, 2014
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Woodland Park, Colorado
If I was you I would avoid WP altogether and head west. Colorado is over crowded no matter where you go but especially bad on the front range. Being from California, it might not bother you though? WP has changed over the years for the worse in my opinion. Wal-Mart was the beginning of the end for what used to be a decent mountain town. We traded the rodeo for Starbucks. It's close enough to C.Springs that everyone wants to live there as an escape but then make it just like where they came from. Convenience's bring more and more people. And more and more people bring the convenience's. Andrew Womak ministries came to town too adding more people to the over crowded town. Driving in town on a summer weekend is a joke! We outgrew our parking lots a long time ago. Sorry to sound so down on it but it's reality on the front range and WP specifically.
I concur with CoHiCntry's comments on Woodland Park.
Thanks goodness Cascade, Chipita Park and Green Mountain Falls are still pretty much a "small town" atmosphere.
 

hoshour

Veteran member
If I was you I would avoid WP altogether and head west. Colorado is over crowded no matter where you go but especially bad on the front range. Being from California, it might not bother you though? WP has changed over the years for the worse in my opinion. Wal-Mart was the beginning of the end for what used to be a decent mountain town. We traded the rodeo for Starbucks. It's close enough to C.Springs that everyone wants to live there as an escape but then make it just like where they came from. Convenience's bring more and more people. And more and more people bring the convenience's. Andrew Womak ministries came to town too adding more people to the over crowded town. Driving in town on a summer weekend is a joke! We outgrew our parking lots a long time ago. Sorry to sound so down on it but it's reality on the front range and WP specifically.
Sorry to hear that. It's been a few years since I was in WP. His issue is that he's going to work there on a contract with the military in the Springs.

There's nothing west of WP until you get to Salida-Buena Vista, way too far to commute. I guess you could head down toward Canon City, but I've never been too crazy about that area. Any other ideas for him that are within commuting distance?
 

CoHiCntry

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Mar 31, 2011
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Colorado Mountains
Sorry to hear that. It's been a few years since I was in WP. His issue is that he's going to work there on a contract with the military in the Springs.

There's nothing west of WP until you get to Salida-Buena Vista, way too far to commute. I guess you could head down toward Canon City, but I've never been too crazy about that area. Any other ideas for him that are within commuting distance?
I should probably digress a little... I'm a longtime resident who has a really hard time with all the changes. It's got some good qualities, otherwise it wouldn't attract so many people. If it were me and I was moving to the area and needed access to the Springs, I would find a place right outside of town or check out Divide, Florissant or even Lake George. Really depends on far you want to be from the Springs.
 

Winchester

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Mar 27, 2014
2,525
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Woodland Park, Colorado
I should probably digress a little... I'm a longtime resident who has a really hard time with all the changes. It's got some good qualities, otherwise it wouldn't attract so many people. If it were me and I was moving to the area and needed access to the Springs, I would find a place right outside of town or check out Divide, Florissant or even Lake George. Really depends on far you want to be from the Springs.
Yeah, I was looking at some properties in Divide & Florissant just last weekend. Beautiful area. Long commute but I have friends who do it.
 

Alaskabound2016

Active Member
Oct 14, 2015
494
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Colorado Springs
Florissant is nice. But when I search the commute times from Florissant to Colorado Springs its 45 minutes to an hour. That is quite a commute even without snow on the ground. But I am definitely keeping my options open.
 

hoshour

Veteran member
The 2014 Lake George population is 531. There are 2 people per square mile. Median age is 59.2. The US median is 37.2. It's been a few years since I drove 24 west of the Springs, but I don't remember a town around Lake George. It's in a flattish bowl with a large, bare park around it for several miles in each direction.

Divide and Florissant are closer and have populations around 100 each. That is country living, for sure.

According to Google Maps the drive to downtown Colo Springs is 37 minutes from Divide, 46 from Florissant and 51 from Lake George. Since downtown is the first thing you come to from the west, add time from there to wherever you work and add extra time for traffic and for snow in the winter. Even from Divide, the closest of the three, you're probably talking two hours a day in the truck.
 

Slugz

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Oct 12, 2014
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Casper, Wyoming
If I was you I would avoid WP altogether and head west. Colorado is over crowded no matter where you go but especially bad on the front range. Being from California, it might not bother you though? WP has changed over the years for the worse in my opinion. Wal-Mart was the beginning of the end for what used to be a decent mountain town. We traded the rodeo for Starbucks. It's close enough to C.Springs that everyone wants to live there as an escape but then make it just like where they came from. Convenience's bring more and more people. And more and more people bring the convenience's. Andrew Womak ministries came to town too adding more people to the over crowded town. Driving in town on a summer weekend is a joke! We outgrew our parking lots a long time ago. Sorry to sound so down on it but it's reality on the front range and WP specifically.
That's anywhere you have demand. Call it urban creep...whatever you want. Its gonna happen anywhere there is good airport access, half decent jobs and a relatively stable economy. Just depends what is a priority in your life at the time. For us 10 years ago it was the kids, small rural life, plot of land big enough to keep neighbors at distance, being able to shoot on my property ( archery/short range), access to a longer range area to shoot and a good school. Hence living out of town.
 
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CoHiCntry

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Mar 31, 2011
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Colorado Mountains
The 2014 Lake George population is 531. There are 2 people per square mile. Median age is 59.2. The US median is 37.2. It's been a few years since I drove 24 west of the Springs, but I don't remember a town around Lake George. It's in a flattish bowl with a large, bare park around it for several miles in each direction.

Divide and Florissant are closer and have populations around 100 each. That is country living, for sure.

According to Google Maps the drive to downtown Colo Springs is 37 minutes from Divide, 46 from Florissant and 51 from Lake George. Since downtown is the first thing you come to from the west, add time from there to wherever you work and add extra time for traffic and for snow in the winter. Even from Divide, the closest of the three, you're probably talking two hours a day in the truck.
Very few people actually live in the town's of Divide or Florrisant. Most live in housing developments outside of town. There might only be 100 actual residents in the town of Divide but probably closer to 10K who call Divide home. It's a very spread out area. All are in Teller county, which has a population of about 25K people. For reference, WP has about 7K residents so the remaining areas around Divide, Florrisant and Cripple Creek has the remaining 18K people living there. Lake George is in Park county.
 

CoHiCntry

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Mar 31, 2011
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Colorado Mountains
That's anywhere you have demand. Call it urban creep...whatever you want. Its gonna happen anywhere there is good airport access, half decent jobs and a relatively stable economy. Just depends what is a priority in your life at the time. For us 10 years ago it was the kids, small rural life, plot of land big enough to keep neighbors at distance, being able to shoot on my property ( archery/short range), access to a longer range area to shoot and a good school. Hence living out of town.
Your right. Everywhere has grown and continues to do so. Not much you can do about it. It's hard to watch but there's no way to stop it and can't blame folks for wanting to live here. In comparison to other places... this place is great! When I have more time I'll give the OP the reasons I love where I live which out weigh the bad. If I was retired and moving to Colorado, I wouldn't even consider the front range. I'd head to the western slope. Jobs are hard to come by over there though. To be fair, most my family lives in Montrose and it's turned into just as much of a zoo as around here! I was just around Crested Butte and Gunnison last week, no shortage of people there either. Mostly Texas plates. Winters coming and things will settle down. They always do...
 

Alaskabound2016

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Oct 14, 2015
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Colorado Springs
Thanks for all the responses and information guys! You have been a big help. Divide might be out of the question.. I've researched areas there and the closest schools were 10-20 miles away! My wife and I are definitely planning kids soon and would like to have schools much closer. Which was why Woodland Park seemed nice. Mountain, small town feel that's safe with nearby schools. Man, I didn't think all of this would be so hard. It's pretty stressful thinking about moving and finding a job and all of that. But it'll be worth it. Can't take California anymore
 

CoHiCntry

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Mar 31, 2011
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Colorado Mountains
Thanks for all the responses and information guys! You have been a big help. Divide might be out of the question.. I've researched areas there and the closest schools were 10-20 miles away! My wife and I are definitely planning kids soon and would like to have schools much closer. Which was why Woodland Park seemed nice. Mountain, small town feel that's safe with nearby schools. Man, I didn't think all of this would be so hard. It's pretty stressful thinking about moving and finding a job and all of that. But it'll be worth it. Can't take California anymore
There's an elementary school in Divide now. If your kids go to public school, they will go to WP for high school. WP is about 10 minutes from Divide. Depends how far you lived outside of Divide on how far the school's are from your house.

I went to WP high school. My oldest daughter went all the way through WP public school until we pulled her out her freshman year of high school. She home schooled for a year which didn't work since she was used to public school and kind of a teenage terd. She did her last two years of high school at CSCS (Colorado Springs Christian School) in the Springs.

My youngest daughter is in 4th grade now and has never been to public school. She has been home schooled from the beginning. Something I wish I'd done with my older daughter. Lots of kids in the mountains are home schooled now. It's really gotten popular.
 

hoshour

Veteran member
I agree with CoHiCntry on home schooling. It is especially important during the early years. Public elementary schools are one of the most dangerous places you can send a child.

There, training in immorality and perversion and the supremacy of feelings over reason is mandatory and pervasive, starting well before children can even recognize it or defend themselves against it. They marinate in this toxic stew 40 hours a week and are trained to come out thinking that no one knows what is right and wrong except as their own feelings dictate for them alone. Logic doesn't matter in decision-making, only feelings.

Parents are wrong about all kinds of things, especially morality and ethics, even more so if they are unconvinced that water and time is all it takes to produce all the wonders of life, especially the human body.

We teach a lot of morality in our schools but it is often not sound morality and ethics, nor does the morality of the parents matter one bit because Uncle Sam knows what’s best for your child. And if you disagree, you can be removed.

Once a child's foundation is built upon such immorality and nonsense it is well-nigh impossible to get them thinking straight. If I had it to do over again, I might possibly consider public high school, depending on the child, but not in a million years would I send my children to the school of perversion for their most formative years of education.

Do whatever you have to do - live in a matchbox, drive ancient vehicles and get a second job, but don't let them brainwash your young children. Homeschooling is infinitely better if you can swing it.

If you can’t swing home schooling, I will tell you that if any of my kids could not afford to stay home to home school but asked for money to help send their children to private school, I would do it in a heartbeat, even if I was never repaid and it meant I was never able to retire. It’s that important.
 

CoHiCntry

Veteran member
Mar 31, 2011
1,390
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Colorado Mountains
I agree with CoHiCntry on home schooling. It is especially important during the early years. Public elementary schools are one of the most dangerous places you can send a child.

There, training in immorality and perversion and the supremacy of feelings over reason is mandatory and pervasive, starting well before children can even recognize it or defend themselves against it. They marinate in this toxic stew 40 hours a week and are trained to come out thinking that no one knows what is right and wrong except as their own feelings dictate for them alone. Logic doesn't matter in decision-making, only feelings.

Parents are wrong about all kinds of things, especially morality and ethics, even more so if they are unconvinced that water and time is all it takes to produce all the wonders of life, especially the human body.

We teach a lot of morality in our schools but it is often not sound morality and ethics, nor does the morality of the parents matter one bit because Uncle Sam knows what’s best for your child. And if you disagree, you can be removed.

Once a child's foundation is built upon such immorality and nonsense it is well-nigh impossible to get them thinking straight. If I had it to do over again, I might possibly consider public high school, depending on the child, but not in a million years would I send my children to the school of perversion for their most formative years of education.

Do whatever you have to do - live in a matchbox, drive ancient vehicles and get a second job, but don't let them brainwash your young children. Homeschooling is infinitely better if you can swing it.

If you can’t swing home schooling, I will tell you that if any of my kids could not afford to stay home to home school but asked for money to help send their children to private school, I would do it in a heartbeat, even if I was never repaid and it meant I was never able to retire. It’s that important.
My feelings exactly... only wished I had figured this out earlier for my oldest daughters sake. We were a young poor family in the beginning and having my wife not work seemed impossible. It wasn't, and we should have done it knowing what I know now.
 
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Winchester

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Mar 27, 2014
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Woodland Park, Colorado
Very few people actually live in the town's of Divide or Florrisant. Most live in housing developments outside of town. There might only be 100 actual residents in the town of Divide but probably closer to 10K who call Divide home. It's a very spread out area. All are in Teller county, which has a population of about 25K people. For reference, WP has about 7K residents so the remaining areas around Divide, Florrisant and Cripple Creek has the remaining 18K people living there. Lake George is in Park county.
Yeah, CoHiCntry nailed it. There are actual a lot of people that live in the country around Florrisant and Divide. But as you have figured out, they're both a long drive from Colorado Springs.

Another place you may want to investigate is Palmer Lake (near Monument). Very nice small town right up against the Front Range on the far North side of Colorado Springs. Just a couple of minutes from I-25 so you can quickly head South into the Springs. Great schools there and more "rural" living as compared to "out in the country." You probably can't get enough land to set up a rifle range (which would be cool) but it's a nice small town and you'll be able to get to Denver in an hour for those Broncos games.
 

graybird

Active Member
Feb 22, 2011
388
119
Colorado
I've lived in the Springs area for 10 years now. We live east of the Springs in Falcon. Falcon is on the growth curve now, too. At one time it was nothing more than just a Safeway, Wendy's, Sonic and a small local bank. Now we have a Walmart, upteen banks (6-7), Jimmy John's, etc. It has really exploded with the economy coming back a few years ago.

If I were in your position with the criteria you've set, I would look at Black Forest even though it isn't in the "mountains" it gives the mountain feel with all the dark timber surrounding the community. I only live about 2 miles from the edge of the forest and actually use the local vet up there. Other options are those that have already been thrown out there, Palmer Lake, Green Mountain/Cascade area.

Good luck with your adventure!