Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Possible relocation to Colorado in the near future...

Thank you to all who have contributed to this thread so far. This is the kind of great information that'll help me out. I'm taking a road trip to Colorado, and maybe Northern Arizona, next month. I intend to do some serious looking in Colorado in particular.

Just stating facts. Mesa county is the meth capital of Colorado. It is a desert town sitting right on a major interstate. Most of the jobs there are in the oil and gas fields. It is has been said that once the price of meth is higher than the price of natural gas, everyone jumps ship. I seem to recall that happening around Junction the last couple of years...

To the OP. I lived in Junction for a year and a half. My wife and I were looking to relocate and we also checked out Flagstaff. I really love that town, but the prices and terrain were so similar to CO that I figured I ought to just stay in CO. Contact me when you come to CO, maybe we can meet up.

I hunted the Utah Book Cliffs for mulies one year and we supplied up in Grand Junction. It literally felt like a giant hairdryer on high heat blowing on us. Great guitar shop in that town though.

Hunted Flagstaff for elk one year, unit 7E, just north of town. That's really a nice town, but there aint much water around for fishing and such.

Dogcatcher, now is the time to lay your cards on the table. Please state your source and post a link to it. If it is credible it will stand.

Denver too bad welcome to New Californification.

On the reference to Trinidad being the sex change capitol of the world. It is my understanding it is. The hospital ,Mt San Rafael was a Catholic hospital originally and when I was in it in 1953 with arthritis it was. It is my understanding it changed to a public hospital because of that. More of a coincidence the foremost doctor for these operations was a Dr Stanley Biber who at the time I was there was a company Doctor for one of the mining companies. I found him to be amost competant Doctor who was not adverse to trying new procedures and drugs as he Used ACTH and Cortisone to treat my arthritis along with DiaThermy. Successfully ,I might add. And Green Valley is a retirement community and I am retired but i actually came here to work for the Primary Builder ,Fairfield Communities and decided to stay as it really is a nice community to live in.

I lived in Trinidad in the late '70's while pursuing my gunsmithing education at Trinidad State Junior College. Hunting opportunities abound within a 30 min. drive from town. Great town, close to the NRA Whittington Center just outside Raton, NM. I have also hunted the area around Glenwood Springs, it is another area you might consider.

DENVER - Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Pat Sullivan's arrest over accusations he was trading methamphetamines for sex with a man prompted 9NEWS to question the status of our nation's war on the drug.

According to the Colorado Meth Project, the majority of U.S. counties say meth is their most serious drug problem. The project has some statistics on their website that help put the problem in perspective.

The U.S. Justice Department says the supply of meth in the U.S. is at its highest level in five years because of the Mexican cartels' supply.

- Colorado ranks seventh in the country for total number of meth users who are 12 and older.
- 76 percent of all Colorado meth users began using it before they were 25.
- 43 percent started at age 17 or younger.

The Colorado Meth Project says it is making a dent in these numbers. The group's public service announcements, billboards and web outreach is educating the public.

"Eighty-eight percent of teens in Colorado see a dramatic risk in trying meth as a result of viewing our adds so, there is a positive effect to the campaign itself," Jonathan Judge, project manager for the Colorado Meth Project, said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration says it's seized more than 41 kilograms of meth in Colorado this fiscal year. Most of it was taken in Grand Junction and Colorado Springs.

The DEA says this is generally not a street corner drug, like marijuana or heroin.

For more information on the Colorado Meth Project, visit http://www.colorado.methproject.org/.

Everybody concedes that New York City is the financial capital of the world, Los Angeles the entertainment capital, and Tokyo its sushi capital.


But where is the methamphetamine capital of the world? American newspapers can't seem to agree. Submit the search terms "methamphetamine capital of the world" or "meth capital of the world" into Nexis, and it spits back almost 70 citations between 1983 and 2005, with many writers and sources disputing the capital's precise GPS coordinates.


In 1983, the Associated Press started the quarrel by quoting a Philadelphia policeman who said, "Philadelphia has the dubious distinction of being the meth capital of the world." In 1987, 1989, and 1993, Los Angeles Times news stories cited law enforcement officials to bestow the distinction on San Diego. In 1989,the Washington Post generalized its location to all of Southern California. The Riverside Press Enterprise seized bragging rights for the southwest portion of Riverside County, Calif., in 1993.

Perhaps as a result of some trade-deficit confusion, the Los Angeles Times called both Japan and California the meth capital in 1995 stories. The Press Enterprise widened its definition to all of Riverside and neighboring San Bernardino counties in 1996. The Kansas City Star moved the capital closer to the geographic center of the nation when it described Jackson County, Mo., as the meth capital in a story. Alt-newspaper New Times Los Angeles yanked it back to Riverside County in 1997. Contesting the designation that year was Florida's Lakeland Ledger, which put it in Polk County, Fla.

It's not like these areas coveted the title. In 1998, Assistant District Attorney Don Inskeep promised that new law-enforcement resources "will allow us to say that the county of Riverside will no longer tolerate being the meth capital of the world."

In 2000, challengers for the name sprang up across the country as the Chattanooga Free Times, the Tulsa World, the Springfield (Missouri) News-Leader, the Daily Town Talk of Alexandria, La., and the Fresno Bee all placed the capital in their readership areas. The Press Enterprise kept insisting on bragging rights for Riverside, disregarding the assistant D.A, and the Los Angeles Times crowned California's Central Valley.

In 2001, the Cox News service quoted a source who put it in Mesa County, Colo.'s Grand Valley. The Spokane Spokesman-Review touted North Idaho that year; the Daily News of Los Angeles named Southern California; the AP tagged both Lane County, Ore., and the Fresno area as meth capitals, and the Statesman Journal of Salem, Ore.,gave the honor back to the Californicators.

In 2002, the Los Angeles Times (twice) called the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Berdo the capital. The Palm Springs Desert Sun seconded that. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch quoted an unnamed addict who said Jefferson County, Mo., was the meth capital, and a commentary in the Lakeland Ledger attempted to win the handle back for that area.

The Kansas City Star and the Los Angeles Times must have put the phrase on a hot key in 2003, repeatedly claiming Jackson County and Riverside County, respectively, as the capital.

Probing the show-biz angle, Variety declared the entire California desert as capital in 2004. A district attorney in Athens, Tenn., waved off the label that year for his jurisdiction. "We hear we are the meth capital of the world, and while statistics are useful tools, I'm not entirely sure this (title) is justified," Jerry Estes told the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

After its 22-year-long tour of these United States, the capital finally returned home to where it had began. On June 8, 2005, the Philadelphia Daily News published a story about a major meth dealer in which it asserted that Philadelphia "has been called the 'methamphetamine capital of the world.' "

Dogcatcher is the smartest person I know...but if I were you...Park county...even with the commute....just sayin

Grand Junction may be that way but not all the towns around it. Check out Cedaredge, Hotchkiss, Gunnison (very cold winters there though). Do your own research and come by for a visit. You be the judge. You will be the one moving, make sure it is an area you will like.

I wish I could add a couple more Californicators to western Colorado.
My wife is bonded to her mother, but I'm working on it big time.
I'm prolly not up to the same outdoor and socio-political standards as the natives, but I'm willing to learn.

Y'all would be welcome additions! You seriously considering a move here one day?

Doesn't Cedaredge have a sweet gun shop? Red something?

I'd love to Drum.
My wife's 80 yr old mom lives on the property with us and I think I'm going to have a very tough time convincing her to move, at least while her mom is still alive.
I'd like to take her on a road trip there in the fall when the qualies are ablaze.
Maybe this September or October.

Biggest gun store in the state is in Colorado Springs. About 20,000 square feet of this. Thousands of guns...

Yeah, its huge. Was just there about 2 weeks ago. LOTS of stuff....Co Springs is a very neat town. Lots of things to do there.

This has been a great informative post. Wife and I are very seriously contemplating leaving Mid-MO and relocating to CO in a couple of years. She loves Ft Collins, but we will also give the GJ and surrounding area a good look.

Only gun shop in Cedaredge I have ever been aware of is Leisure time sports. It is not like it is a real big town so I wouldn't think that i have been missing something, but I will have to check it out.

I would tell you Colorado has better hunting and fishing, but Colorado native would stone me.

AZ, where you have to draw for hunts, water is limited is where you need to go.