Thinking of Places to Move to – Colorado, Utah, Oregon,…?

Vancouver BC, Portland OR and Seattle WA are probably my 3 favorite metro areas in North America, but you have to enjoy wet/grey weather and crunchy liberals if you're going to live there. I'm from VT, so the PNW is like home but with bigger mountains and less winter. In other words, it's perfect.

If you like the sunny-and-dry part of the SW, CO or UT might be a better choice. Southern UT still gets pretty darn hot in the summer though. SLC would be a very livable city if it weren't for the air quality.

As beautiful as the Sierra is, I don't think I could live in Reno or Carson City. Love Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes, but not enough to call Reno home, sorry. Unless you spend *all* your free time in the mountains, I suspect you'll get a little bored.

What about a town like Flagstaff AZ or Taos/Santa Fe in NM? (I think someone mentioned those above?)

Of course, the Appalachian South could be another option if you don't mind rain and humidity. There are some really nice towns in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, southern Virginia… For instance, if you like Portland OR, Asheville NC is similar in some respects and close to lots of good hiking. And COL is relatively low throughout the south.

I'm moving (from NY)… a big factor is to be near great hiking, so I thought it wouldn't be too chaff-y to ask for your thoughts. I want to be at elevation near mountains, in a town of at least moderate size, and I'm basically pretty much retired now (I'll be writing and hiking most of the time) so the job market isn't a factor. Good hiking in the immediate vicinity is important; and what major hiking destinations are within reasonable drive time (say, <10h).

I was thinking about Boulder at first, but it's just so crowded now – not just the streets, but the surrounding trails. I think I've now settled on either Durango or Santa Fe.

Here are some of the factors I've considered, any thoughts?

Durango seems to be a younger crowd, almost everyone here (including the tourists) is interested in outdoor pursuits of some kind. Although Durango is small (17000 people) it has a fun downtown, and a very decent selection of restaurants, stores etc. for a town of its size. Santa Fe is a bigger city, of course, with much broader cultural appeal and a wider selection of great restaurants – but that does mean it's more crowded with tourists, and seems to have a much higher proportion of older folk. But I'm not sure if I have an accurate perception of the broader community in Santa Fe, because I've mostly been exposed to the tourist areas in the center.

Both have great trail networks accessible right from downtown for dayhiking or an everyday trail run. I initially thought Durango had the edge here, but I think it's close to a tie – there's a great trail network around Santa Fe. Durango has the edge in being several hours closer to some major hiking destinations – the heart of the Colorado Rockies, Canyonlands/Zion/Escalante/GC; whereas Santa Fe has the Pecos and some interesting places that I don't know furhter south – Gila, even Big Bend. But since Durango and Santa Fe are under 4 hours apart, none of this is a huge difference. Santa Fe is only an hour from a major airport. Durango has a local airport, but is a long way from any major city.

What may be swinging it for me is the weather. Elevation & sunshine are identical, summer temperatures are similar. But Santa Fe has one-third the snowfall on average, and more moderate winter temperatures. That means the local trails are accessible for regular trail running or day-hike type use much more of the year, and I'll have fewer concerns about home maintenance etc if I'm away for several weeks at a time in winter. I haven't seen Durango in winter, but it's in a N/S valley, and I hear it's quite dark.

I'd be really grateful for any opinions.

I live in Santa fe and have spent a lot of time in Durango. Durango is just as tourist-laden as Santa fe, so that doesn't help separate them. It definitely is "younger", and has more night life. Santa Fe is a bit more sedate in terms of social life, and yes, the population is largely older, as it is a very popular place to retire. The skiing is better in Durango, but we have better hiking opportunities in the winter. One of things I love about winter here is that I can go snowshoeing up I the pecos wilderness in the morning, and sit on the patio in the warm sun sipping on a beverage in the afternoon. One consideration also is that Santa fe is only an hour away from a large-ish international airport in Albuquerque. Durango is a long way from major amenities. Also, Santa fe has a trader joe's and two whole foods if that sort of thing tickles your fancy.

Who wouldnt want to live where there are rivers of gold?!?

"… rivers of gold!?" The Animas looked like this on August 14th, 9 days after the blow out – Even so, the heavy metal levels have and will continue to decimate the bug life that the fish depend on. It's a sad loss that could have been avoided.

Frankly, given your stated criteria/situation it's hard to pick between Santa Fe or Durango. Both are well situated to hit all sorts of year-round outdoor activities with a short drive. So what I think it comes down to is: what do you want right outside your door? For me, that would be Durango. I'd want the Weminuche Wilderness right outside my door. It's not even a contest, for me! And from Durango I can still hit Utah, the Colorado Plateau, Grand Canyon, or, yes, northern New Mexico easily in the winter. It looks like Durango is sitting right in the middle of a big bowl of great places, whereas Santa Fe is on the southern edge of the bowl.

I think Durango's cost of living is less than Santa Fe's.

I grew up in Bend, and return regularly to visit family. Personally I would caution you that it is not "all that." Backpacking season – Is about 1.5 months (July 20 – Sept. 10) if you prefer real mountains and don't care to backpack in a lot of snow. Too short for me. Western OR and WA have milder climates and therefore longer seasons. Additionally, by west-coast-state standards the central Oregon Cascades are limited in their supply of what I would call truly outstanding or jaw-dropping scenery. Jefferson Park and Three Sisters Wilderness are great but are small and get old. For jaw-dropping and a lot of variety I find the High Sierra or the Washington Cascades superior. Ask the PCTers. Good trail-running town. The desert provides good trail-running in shoulder seasons and in winter, but not a lot of interesting backpacking. The coast is a 4-hour drive. Smoke. About one month of your 1.5-month mountain backpacking season will be characterized by smoke from one or five forest fires around the state. Often rising to hazardous levels. At least, it has been nasty to the point of choking for my past four August visits. (I should be smart, and visit in June – but snow-free mountain hiking and backpacking isn't really available then.) The smoky inversion is not peculiar to Bend; most years now it seems to have taken over half of the east-side forested mountain towns in CA, OR and WA. At least if you live in the western part of the state, you can travel to whichever mountain town happens to be relatively smoke-free at the time, but if you live in a place like Bend, you get to choke on it nonstop for a few weeks. Crime – Not bad in Bend itself, but there is a lot of local rural poverty and joblessness. In the 90s, when Oregon had the worst meth problem in the country, Redmond (15 miles from Bend) had the worst meth problem in Oregon. Frankly there are a lot of depressing places around Central Oregon. Very high school dropout rate still in some areas, and directionless youth. Jobs – BYOJ. Smart growth – What smart growth? Welcome to big-box stores, more than you ever imagined; the ugly new bypass; the lack of really good public transit. Cultural diversity – Forget it. Other sports – If you like skiing, you're good. (Excellent powder!) I have never enjoyed road biking in/near Bend because there are too many tourists (poor drivers) and rednecks (aggressive/anti-cyclist drivers). Not to mention winter ice, which lasts from about October through April. Mountain biking is likely much better, but again you'll be a little limited by (winter) season in comparison to the milder western OR and WA. – Elizabeth

"Jobs – BYOJ." lol Yep!! "Cultural diversity – Forget it." Not true… there are brown eyed, AND blue eyed white people there… …and red eyed

Where did J-L (not retired) and Ralph Burgess (mostly retired) end up moving to? I want to move to a nice retirement location and currently hike with people mostly from Santa Fe. I am thinking Santa Fe or down I-25 some in a north Albuquerque suburb like Bernalillo.

Also, please list your favorite research websites that give info on places to move to.

I agree with the negative comments above about Colorado. You don’t want to come here. Not even to visit.

To update this thread, there’s a lot about PCT country but last year (2021) southbound PCTers were forced to quit due to forest/park closures in California to central OR .. or switch to become “SOBO” Colorado Trail/southern CDTers.  The fire situation gets worse as last years Bobcat fire burnt some parts that had just recovered from the Station fire.   Of course backpackers are another form of tourists and it’s another thing to live in these areas.   When 3-season backpacking season ended in the Denver area, parts of the Boulder and surrounding burbs got hit with wildfire just before Christmas’21 and what would’ve been fire-dampening snow.  The damage is still being accounted for …

https://www.cpr.org/2022/05/02/most-people-who-lost-homes-in-the-marshall-fire-were-underinsured-colorado-insurance-regulators-say/

Thinking other factors need to be weighed on these where should I retire ..? threads, including nearby transport hubs to visit areas not having some sort of natural disaster (hopefully).