Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Colorado residents, Durango or Salida?

Wow, I don't know your source for this information but it completely opposite of all that I know. Just talked to a Colo Water Recourses engineer about the Arkansas drainage and she is expecting to be sued at any time for failing to supply enough for downstream owners.

Give me a shout when you are visiting, I would probably at the very least recognize her.

not to get involved in the water rights discussion, (which is very relevant also)

Durango, hands down.

Close to Purg. Not far from Wolf Creek (1.5 hrs?) Reasonable to T-Ride (2 hrs with clear roads)

small college in town, good public library, plenty of services, lots of Doctors ( they like the life style too)

Easy to get out of the snow. ( to the south and west)

Close to Farmington if you want something machined, welded, or just a good chicken-fried steak.

further from the front range.

Those small CO mountain towns have robust economies that don't need tourism money.

Yeah, I'm being sarcastically mocking.

He'll, you can't even keep all the rainwater that falls on your property in Colorado. But ole Jeff says you can just pump the water out of the river.

LOL, and they thank you (and me) for the dollars spent there, my friend.

Actually, that is not the case. We had lower priced homes, lower property taxes and a sufficient economy to raise our families without them. We lived for decades without them, can do it again. The figures are that less than 10% of local businesses derive any benefit.

Not only can you not keep it, you get taxed on it.

She grew up in Colorado Springs and moved to Grand Junction after graduating physicians assistant school. I don't know if she works at the hospital or one of the clinics. I won't make it out there this year. She will be coming back to Iowa this spring to bury her mother who passed last summer. But, there is next year. Unfortunately, neither she nor her husband fish.
kwg
I will keep you I'm mind at our next visit
kwg

You believe in global warming? You will fit right in there in CO. Good move.
Its not warming thats going to be the issue its going to be demand.

Delores area by far over the other two but I'm not moving from a fairly conservative state to a liberal [bleep] hole if I can ever avoid it. Especially not to retire.

That would depend entirely on what town we're talking about, right? Take a place like Estes Park or Grand Lake. Or even Walden. I remember when the DOW raised the prices of non-resident elk tags to be in line with other western states, lots of the mom and pop restaurants, stores, and motels were up in arms because they thought it would cut down on non-resident hunters and hurt their businesses. And I heard this directly from mom and pop themselves.

I seem to recall the DOW raising tag prices then dropping them back down a couple of years later?

The global warming concerns that I have relate to having been told that the ground water in the Cortez area isn't as good, or reliable, as it is in the area of southern CO between Durango and South Fork. The properties that are potentially of interest to us west of Hesperus don't abut a surface water source, so any irrigation would have to come from a well.

I would expect the Water and Well Commissioner for the area where the property in question is located to know what he's talking about. Who would you suggest that I should go to for that information? I never buy a property without having a competent attorney do all of the title searches and cover all of the bases.

One of the things that I don't like about most of the properties that I've looked at in the Durango area is that the mineral rights aren't owned by the surface property owner, so someone could put a gas/oil well on your property and there is nothing that you could do to prevent it.

I'm still only 68, almost 69, still more than a year away from 70. In 2025 I'll start to draw SSI and sign on to Medicare.

Happy wife, happy life. As long as we live in a rural area with hills, trees, clear running water, and somewhere close by with decent skiing, it isn't that important to me where the rural area is. If my wife finds a town and a house that makes her happy, I'm flexible. We have an inside/outside agreement, she takes care of everything inside the house and I take care of everything outside the house. She buys furniture, carpets, and contracts for anything that she wants done inside the house, while I buy vehicles and either take care of or contract for anything that needs to be done outside the house. 37 years, no serious fights, it works for us.

My global warm concern is only as it potentially relates to ground water in the Cortez, Delores, Mancos area. Having been told that ground water is often hit or miss in that area, climate change could make for more misses in that area. A house without a reliable water source is a house that will be hard to sell, no matter how attractive its other attributes might be. A reliable water source is also an important consideration if you want to have a greenhouse and a nice green lawn.

If you have questions about water resources in CO as they apply to a specific property, who would be a better person to go to for answers to ` those questions then the district water commissioner?

The Subaru that I keep garaged in Breckenridge is a 2010 Tribeca, not an Outback. I don't do bumper stickers, but it does have decals representing the 1st ID, Airborne, Ranger and guide-on reproductions for my 3 infantry company commands on the rear window and a Boston Red Sox rear plate bracket. This is the first Subaru that we've ever owned and I haven't driven it much, less than 1,000 miles and most of that was when I drove it from the dealer in St. Louis to its new home in Summit County via I-70. I'm sure that the wolves will negatively the people who can least afford it, ranchers and herders, and I'm not in favor of valuing wildlife over people and their livelihood.

So, you're concerned about global warming and scarce water supplies, and you're moving to an arid part of the country in a river basin that's over-appropriated, where the federal government has mandated cuts in water usage but the states can't agree on how to do that.

Which one of these things doesn't belong in the picture?

Water is an issue Durango west and your information on well drilling is appropriately “maybe.” It has always been a dry land since Noah anyway. Grew up in far west Dolores county. There are good properties and lovely homes that have a water truck parked out back…. The Mcfee dam did provide municipal and agricultural water improvements back in the 80’s but it’s still dry country.
I still have a brother there and a son in Gunnison. The comments on Gunnison are accurate. Very expensive living and darned cold. Beautiful place though and there is a privately owned Blackhawk in a hanger there.
Good luck on your search sir. Let me know if I could be helpful.
F01

CO, NH, or VT, each has its good points and its not so good points.

If we live in NH or VT, we could just buy a 4 bedroom condo in Breck that I could use when I wanted to ski on snow instead of ice. Whatever we do, the property will be owned by an LLC and we'll just rent it from the LLC so that residency is cloudy.

Things will work out one way or the other, if for no other reason than they always do.

Why do residents insist on ignoring the fact that a large number of the liberal voters in Colorado are home grown, thank you K-12 and your Collages and Universities

colorado landowner since 1986. moved here from Minnesota, then back from Arizona, then back from Idaho.

Durango is one of several texas and california and eastern entry points.
Salida is even more texas entry point...

mining history, tourism future. hunting fishing way past its prime due to crowds and hype..good for seasonal sporting...most places are worse....