Pros/Cons of buying in one of the canyons? (Boulder, 4 Mile, Coal Creek, Left Hand, etc)

[DenverGP]

I'm very jealous of all you who live in the canyons / further away from town.

This is the only major disagreement between me and my wife. I work from home and I'm mostly anti-social, could go for weeks without leaving the house (except to go to the range) so I could live very happily in a more rural/mountain area. My wife seems to need to go to albertsons/starbucks several times a day or she's going stir-crazy. For now, she wins and we live in the burbs, but I keep dreaming of being able to move away from civilization.

[Ah Pook]

You'll need to consider buying a Subaru, Jeep, old Nissan truck, or a Scout.

I'm selling 4.

[hurley842002]

I'm selling 4.

Oh geez, you shouldn't have said that, I had a 72 Scout II, and miss it dearly.

[Ah Pook]

Crashdown knows what he's talking about.

AT&T is the only game in town for cell service. Not sure if that includes CCC. I believe MRIC services CCC. Wireless internet and good reliability.

[Great-Kazoo]

What's kept us from relocating to any canyon, or higher altitude is the road system. In some areas it's (as already mentioned) 1 way in and out. That and the price people believe their "view of heaven" is worth.

[crashdown]

Crashdown knows what he's talking about.

AT&T is the only game in town for cell service. Not sure if that includes CCC. I believe MRIC services CCC. Wireless internet and good reliability.

2 towers for AT&T in CCC when I left. Used to be great having that peaceful 15 minutes of driving in the canyon before the towers went live.
I remember the first time my phone rang when I was driving the canyon, it was horrible.

[crashdown]

What's kept us from relocating to any canyon, or higher altitude is the road system. In some areas it's (as already mentioned) 1 way in and out. That and the price people believe their "view of heaven" is worth.

I had 3 ways out. Maybe not 3 all going the same direction, but 3 not including 4x4 trails.
Our daughter was born right after the big flood. We were taking dirt roads and trails at 2am to get to the hospital.
Her middle name is Canyon..... Not gonna have stories like that in town.

[Ah Pook]

What's kept us from relocating to any canyon, or higher altitude is the road system. In some areas it's (as already mentioned) 1 way in and out. That and the price people believe their "view of heaven" is worth.

I had 1 way in/out for twelve years. An open meadow was the "safe place". Been through several fire seasons with no ill effects.

[oinco]

CCC is the winner for me for many reasons, pm me- I'd be happy to give you the pros/cons we see, or come up and I'll show you around.

Crashdown is spot on with his comments, Crashdown! I miss seeing your 1911 sticker - hope you guys are settling in. My son often asks about how "his teacher from WC'ers" is doing in AK!

we have wireless broadband, it works well most days, plenty of speed except for the big storms or when lightning takes out the towers- neighbor has centurylink and wireless for redundancy.
septic system health is highly important, that can be a $40k headache, or at least a sizeable delay while a seller is waiting for someone to be available to do the work...
A "luxury" we embrace is we have basically 1.5 local restaurants to choose from, or we can drive to anything in 45mins or less.
It is more expensive living for sure, but that cost goes into quality of life vs keeping up with the Jones's...
Summers are about 12-15* cooler, same for Winter, snow loads vary greatly based on elevation/aspect. I can get 3-5" more snow than my in-laws which are less than two "blocks" away...and about a mile down the road and 300' in elevation lower can barely have a dusting?
Windy season probably drives more people back to town than the winter...understanding how loud/shaky a house can be in sustained winds is not easy when house shopping on a sunny afternoon.
Shopping for home insurance will be a challenge...first quote you get for $8k/yr+ will shake the dream a bit, but hang in there, eventually you'll find somebody that will do it for closer to $2k/yr depending. No fire hydrants and volunteer FDepts will kick you out of many carriers' matrices.
I've met some incredible people as neighbors, many like to burn powder, most have a disdain for the white noise. Good luck!

[ClangClang]

Thanks for continuing to weigh in. Every little bit of info is worth having. We found a property we like and I think we're prepared to put in an offer.