Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Red Lodge, MT? The wife is on Zillow....

It IS pretty funny lecturing a Minnesotan about winter!

Minnesota winters are generally worse than Montana in that they're humid, cold, and gray.

MT winters are longer... ie, a couple months longer. But unless you're in the far Western part of the state, the Bitteroot to the Flathead, they're sunnier.

I'll take dry cold and sun with a longer winter over anything in MN.

As to Red Lodge, while nice to visit, there's no way I'd want to live there.

Sis lives and works in Whitefish and seems to like that area having moved from WI. then MN. Kind of pricey real estate there, but Columbia Falls looks okay just east of Whitefish. Kalispell is just south with a bigger population, good medical, airport. Flying into there is big bucks during the tourist season because of Glacier Park, but Amtrak is cheaper and stops in Whitefish on the way to Seattle.

This past winter was my first in MT and a record one for the part of MT I live in. Most mild winter I have seen in 25 years, but Upper MI has MN beat in the winter severity index by a fair bit.

I'd recommend a visit in late February or early March, to any town you are thinking about moving to in MT.

See it when the snow is black, and the ice is heaped up and 5" thick.

And the sky is gray.

July and December don't give you the whole picture of Montana. And September/October is a scam to sell houses.

Sycamore

Ben, the UP, like upstate NY, is sort of its own thing... but I will say, winters here in the mountains of SW Montana are still longer... but regardless, I wouldn’t trade them for a UP winter!

I noticed bozeman was about a month behind us weather wise. I put in for a job where buy I would live in the bozeman area, but am not sure how I feel about the climate.
BTW the UP has had low temps in the 30's already and last week it was in the 60's for highs.

http://www.city-data.com/city/Red-Lodge-Montana.html

Expensive,...but 95% Caucasian. In this age of forced diversity in America,..any place that can manage to remain 95% Caucasian is going to cost a premium to live there.

Thanks for all the comments. A number of options are in the mix.

Hahahaha.

This past winter's snowfall in South central Mt.was record breaking . We had 111" here in Columbus, Billings had 106" & I know of nobody that suffered because of it. I know Red Lodge's normal snowfall is 145" yearly, but I also know that I made many trips to Red Lodge this winter for grandkid's plays, concerts, sporting events and just to visit, and I have never even thought of missing an event because of weather. My route is 50 miles of river valley's and a quite long winding road from Roscoe to Red Lodge. Snow is not a problem in rural Montana, but watch out for I-90. The highways are solid ice more times than not. Still, hundreds of people drive to Billings (40 mi.) to work and visa versa every day.
I would however, not live in Red Lodge because the majority of the population is a bunch of libs. If you are a doctor or lawyer or very wealthy and know it, that's the place to live! The town is an old mining town and is made up of many nationalities. Just read a phone book from there!
By the way, Red Lodge has a new clinic and hospital and a very capable ambulance emt. service. Look up Billings Clinic.
New High School/ Middle School also.
I don't ski, but Red Lodge Mt. is well known for it's short lift lines and powder.
Like I said, I would never live there but not for any of the reasons some of you are stating!
Also my part of Montana has sunshine most of the winter unlike Western Mt.
There, I'm done,
Ken
Oh, if you like to barhop, you can hit more bars than you can handle on two sides of the street/highway in two or three blocks. Once many years ago, a friend and I had a beer in each of the 17 bars in one night!😁