Possibly making the move to Wyoming! (Basic Hunting/Living info)
- Thread starter Scoon81
- Start date
libidilatimmy
Veteran member
Industry in Lander/Riverton is Oil/gas first, Mining (uranium) is starting to pick back up, and agriculture. Between the two, Lander is the nicer town and right at the base of the mountains with ample hunting and fishing opportunities. The town of Dubois offers few decent paying jobs, but is only a little over an hour from either Riverton or Lander. Not much for work in the Star Valley area unless you get a job with Simplot at the mine. I currently reside in Cheyenne, but grew up in Riverton and worked between there and Lander for a decade. My brother lives outside Afton on the Idaho side so get a hold of me if you want to check these areas out.
2rocky
Active Member
- Sep 10, 2012
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highplainsdrifter
Very Active Member
I moved to Cheyenne from North Dakota 31 years ago. My wife and I have been very happy with the decision. Some of the smaller towns in Wyoming have better proximity to hunting, but we had to consider job opportunities for two people. We came from a medium sized town (7500 people) in North Dakota where we would have had trouble finding a new job if one of us lost the job we had. I did not like that feeling of dependence on one employer. That is a downside to small town living. So if I were you, I would focus on the bigger towns in Wyoming.
Are there some nice smaller towns around Cheyenne/Laramie that you would recommend that would be 30-45 mins commute at the most. How is the hunting for ELK/DEER in the Medicine bow area? Any towns around there that would be and solid choice for living?
Hilltop
Veteran member
See my first post on the hunting in the Laramie area. As far as "nice" small towns... I wouldn't recommend any of them. There are cool places to visit but not sure I would want to live in them. Some places to look at are Centennial, Rock River, and Woods Landing. There may be other towns near Cheyenne worth looking at but I'm not aware of them.
I want solid hunting Elk/Deer and a nice place to live that is close to jobs and hunting areas with affordable living. I prefer SE Wyoming just because it's the closest to my home state and I have some family in NE Colorado. But I'm still open to moving to other areas of Wyoming if they present a much better Hunting/living/job situation for me.
okielite
Banned
For Cheyenne the area to the west of town is nice. Up in Happy Jack rd has some nice places. The development behind Curt Gowdy state park is nice. Good job opportunities with the capital, air force base, and oilfield activity but housing is fairly expensive. Plus you have options in Ft Collins just a short drive away if you like bigger cities.
Hilltop
Veteran member
Cheyenne has much cheaper rentals than Laramie. 1/3+ of Laramie's population is college students so that drives the rental market. Wages in Laramie are also lower due to the mass of college students willing to work for a cheaper wage unless you can land a higher end job. Medicine Bow is your main deer/elk option in south east Wyoming. The elk hunting is decent and, In my opinion, the deer hunting is poor right now. I have guided and hunted this area of Wyoming for 25 years so I do know what is good and bad.
I can't offer you a solution but trying to give you honest information about the region I do know.
tim
Veteran member
First you probably need to state what is considered good hunting. The ability to kill a bull every year, or the ability to kill a monster every year. Are you wanting to hunt on your property or have your place be a 2 minute drive to public land?
good hunting is all relative, I think I have good hunting right out my door, but most people will tell you the hunting where I live sucks. No big bulls, lots of hunters etc. So if you want to hunt every year close to home, you have to move to a place that has general tags, which are not considered great hunting. if you move to a place that has limited entry tags, you will not get to hunt very much.
Personally I like the abilty to buy an elk or deer tag and hunt out my door. But that is me, I probably will never get the chance to shoot a 320 or larger bull, but the 290's and 300's are around me. I am in north Idaho.
good hunting is all relative, I think I have good hunting right out my door, but most people will tell you the hunting where I live sucks. No big bulls, lots of hunters etc. So if you want to hunt every year close to home, you have to move to a place that has general tags, which are not considered great hunting. if you move to a place that has limited entry tags, you will not get to hunt very much.
Personally I like the abilty to buy an elk or deer tag and hunt out my door. But that is me, I probably will never get the chance to shoot a 320 or larger bull, but the 290's and 300's are around me. I am in north Idaho.
Againstthewind
Very Active Member
There are some good answers on here. I just wanted to throw Casper into the mix also. It is a bigger town with lots of opportunities, especially for someone with an equipment background, kindof like what HighPlainsDrifter was saying. Glenrock might be an option for a smaller town close by with cheaper rent, but I haven't looked into what is available there. Casper is pretty centrally located to everywhere in the state, and probably has some of the better deer and antelope hunting right in the area. You are close enough that you can choose an elk area, but if you were to choose Cheyenne, and decided the hunting was better in Cody, that is a pretty good 400 mile or so trek. Its not a great time for oil and gas or coal jobs right now. Some people in Casper ride the bus to the mines south of here, but like libid. was saying uranium is picking up a little, and Casper has you close to that also. There are also some communities or ranchettes or whatever around Cheyenne that have you living out of the city, but still within commuting distance. Really I don't think there are many places in Wyoming you can go wrong if you get a job out here. Even Gillette is within a couple hours to elk hunting in three directions, and there are equipment places advertising for jobs here right now. I saw on another thread that you were looking in Lander/Riverton. That is a good option, too. The only thing I know about there is that itis pronouced: "Puh - Po Shuh" (two words) not poh poh aggie.
Guys, the info I'm getting from you all is more then I expected! Thanks a ton.
Basically it comes down to three things for me that I'm looking for.
1. Really close to good Elk and Deer hunting. As in good odds at harvesting decent animals not necessarily Trophy animals.
2. Solid employment Opportunities.
3. Nice living/Scenery that has a nice thriving community.
Basically it comes down to three things for me that I'm looking for.
1. Really close to good Elk and Deer hunting. As in good odds at harvesting decent animals not necessarily Trophy animals.
2. Solid employment Opportunities.
3. Nice living/Scenery that has a nice thriving community.
wileywapiti
New Member
mntnguide
Very Active Member
Well. .the job section in the Jackson papers are usually 4-5 pages long....the hunting within an hour in any direction is amazing, and the scenery is some of the most incredible in the lower 48....but it ain't cheap to live there! I've been there the past 5 years. .and aside from insane costs of living and tons of tourists. ..it's a pretty unreal place
laxwyo
Very Active Member
I would never suggest anyone live close to Jackson Hole unless you are well off or live like a ski bum. Since you're single you might be able to find some recently divorced sugar momma
2rocky
Active Member
- Sep 10, 2012
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very true
swan valley is beautifull and not far, driggs and the Teton valley but that's getting way pricey too. alpine Wyoming is pretty awesome.
Againstthewind
Very Active Member
That is true. Both can be tourist destination and retired people snow bird places like Colorado Cowboy was saying, so sometimes the housing is pretty expensive. Sheridan has some good paying jobs also, but sometimes its hard to break into those jobs because they are popular places to live. Musket Man was saying Buffalo, and I agree. Its not far from Sheridan, and the housing might be cheaper, but I don't know if the job situation is any better. Finding a rental can be tough also. There aren't many available it seems like. Good luck with the search, you will find someplace cool. Sometimes the older trailer parks have some cheaper places that aren't advertised if you make a trip out and aren't too picky. There are a lot of transient workers in this area, so there are year round RV parks also if that is an option to start out with. Its not the best I guess.
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