OMG so true. I was looking there this fall when I visited in Oct and Nov. Prices on homes seemed 250 to 350 per sqft. Crazy high. Very little inventory.
Retire in Wyoming?
- Thread starter BigHornRam
- Start date
OMG so true. I was looking there this fall when I visited in Oct and Nov. Prices on homes seemed 250 to 350 per sqft. Crazy high. Very little inventory.
Bumping this back up. Give me the good/bad/ugly about the Riverton area. We've stayed there and it seemed nice but often times staying for a short period of time doesn't reveal everything. I know it's close to the reservation and stuff but would like people's opinion on the general area.
dan.kirkpatrick
Well-known member
Im thinkin the s w corner might not be too bad,, maybe,,,,if you want cheap,and windy,rawlins is your place,,thats gotta be about the windyest place ive ever been through several times.
HandgunHunter
Well-known member
I moved to Newcastle Wy for a reason.
The most mild weather in Wyoming, stable economy, big horn sheep and all the other critters within a few miles.
The most mild weather in Wyoming, stable economy, big horn sheep and all the other critters within a few miles.
thusby
Well-known member
I have a feeling that when I retire in 20 years, "they" will have already gotten there and ruined it for me.
I retired early in life to wyoming so i can enjoy it but now the state is full...lol. best decision i have ever made for finances and family, my daughter will grow up in a way better environments than my previos duty stations! Great weather, amazing hunting and fishing is kind of nice also.
Wife and I have been in WY for a bit over a year (yeah, resident hunting/fishing!). It's pre-retirement, but I work from home so jobs weren't an issue for us. We came from southern NH, we visited here twice, both times October and fell in love with the area. Now that we are here and been through a full weather cycle and settled, we have noticed a few things that may be of interest to others coming here:
- Weather is more than temperature! We watched the weather via the internet for 2 years before moving here. Our impression was "roughly the same as southern NH, a bit more mild in summer and winter based on temperature." We were right. Going by thermometer, it's more mild by a couple degrees, "hot" in summer is 85-95 rather than 90-100. "Cold" in winter rarely gets down to 0. HOWEVER there is more to it. On the POSITIVE: We live at about 5000 feet (as opposed to about 1000 in NH), so NO HUMIDITY! Neighbors complain about humidity here and we laugh, and ask when the last time they worked up a good sweat while sleeping! Even in HOT days, nights are cool and comfortable, the heat is not humid. BAD: Winter, not really that bad. It's no colder than NH, but the wind is more, or more likely ALWAYS THERE. It can be small, like 10-15, but it's always there and commonly windy enough that it's downright uncomfortable to be outside.
- snow. Keeping in mind we have only 1 winter, but the snow here is a joke. We got drifts, but other than that it was rare to have more than 6 inches of snow in the yard or to shovel. It went away fast. It DOES shutdown the highways, but that's usually the wind and ice more than just snowed.
- everything is spread out! Leave our town, you are into "nothing" land, nearest next town, where things like Home Depot, Walmart, is 40 miles, then again, it's at 80MPH so 30 minutes.
- Strange things, as opposed to where we came from:
- shutdown highways! What the heck?? Never experienced that, I don't mean for hours, I mean for days! Complicates winter travel and has to be considered before making any long drives in the winter.
- "Good" restaurants. All relative, but we can't find a "nice" restaraunt for something like an anniversary dinner. We can EASILY find good food (especially beef!), but a nice "dress up" for a quiet romantic anniversary dinner? Haven't found one in several cities.
- On the lighter/great side: neighbors! We moved into this neighborhood in late October, so didn't meet to many people before the winter hit. Two different neighbors, whom we had NOT met, randomly showed up in our driveway with ATVs to plow snow because I hadn't gotten time to go shovel it yet! NICE PEOPLE.
- We do MUCH more shopping on line, limited shopping options, haven't even seen a mall!
Things that are AWESOME:
- outdoor activity! We live at the foot of the Bighorns, we can be hiking on TONS of trails, all different lengths in under 30 minutes, some as close as 5 minutes. Hunting for deer, antelope, elk, out my door. Fishing for trout out my door. Actually given the lack of snow in our yard, twice over the winter we went from sun and no show to snowshoeing in 3+ feet of snow in under 30 minutes (wonders of gaining altitude). AFter spending my life hunting in NH, where seeing 3 deer a year was a
good year. My wife and I totalled, 4 antelope and 3 deer, ate tags on elk, but honestly we messed that up. After years of trying in NH, wife shot her first deer with a bow and went from "watching squirels" in NH to seeing 8 deer her first evening in a tree stand and tagging 2 antelope, all before throwing out her back and not hunting the last 4 weeks of deer! Fishing, we've caught more fish this spring than in our life in NH.
- We have a golf course in town, it's NEVER crowded! They think it is, but it isn't. We have NEVER had to wait for multiple groups before teeing off. Just call 1/2 hour before we want to play, and walk onto the tee.
- People are awesome. Some of the nicest people we've ever run into
- Traffic. There isn't any!
Few down sides:
- Getting anywhere via a flight is a pain. We have to puddle hop to Denver, then we can get where we want. Given there are very limited flights in/out of Denver to Casper/Gillette/Sheridan, it can get "interesting" during bad weather and delays (spent 2 nights in Denver unexpectedly last winter)
- Limited shopping (if you care)
- Family. This one hurts way more than we expected. We essentially left all family and friends. Missing our kids is harder than we thought. On them too.
We had a discussion recently, after visiting our first grandchild. It's a balance, do we love being here more than we hate not seeing our kids and first grandson? Answer for now is "yes, we're staying".
- Weather is more than temperature! We watched the weather via the internet for 2 years before moving here. Our impression was "roughly the same as southern NH, a bit more mild in summer and winter based on temperature." We were right. Going by thermometer, it's more mild by a couple degrees, "hot" in summer is 85-95 rather than 90-100. "Cold" in winter rarely gets down to 0. HOWEVER there is more to it. On the POSITIVE: We live at about 5000 feet (as opposed to about 1000 in NH), so NO HUMIDITY! Neighbors complain about humidity here and we laugh, and ask when the last time they worked up a good sweat while sleeping! Even in HOT days, nights are cool and comfortable, the heat is not humid. BAD: Winter, not really that bad. It's no colder than NH, but the wind is more, or more likely ALWAYS THERE. It can be small, like 10-15, but it's always there and commonly windy enough that it's downright uncomfortable to be outside.
- snow. Keeping in mind we have only 1 winter, but the snow here is a joke. We got drifts, but other than that it was rare to have more than 6 inches of snow in the yard or to shovel. It went away fast. It DOES shutdown the highways, but that's usually the wind and ice more than just snowed.
- everything is spread out! Leave our town, you are into "nothing" land, nearest next town, where things like Home Depot, Walmart, is 40 miles, then again, it's at 80MPH so 30 minutes.
- Strange things, as opposed to where we came from:
- shutdown highways! What the heck?? Never experienced that, I don't mean for hours, I mean for days! Complicates winter travel and has to be considered before making any long drives in the winter.
- "Good" restaurants. All relative, but we can't find a "nice" restaraunt for something like an anniversary dinner. We can EASILY find good food (especially beef!), but a nice "dress up" for a quiet romantic anniversary dinner? Haven't found one in several cities.
- On the lighter/great side: neighbors! We moved into this neighborhood in late October, so didn't meet to many people before the winter hit. Two different neighbors, whom we had NOT met, randomly showed up in our driveway with ATVs to plow snow because I hadn't gotten time to go shovel it yet! NICE PEOPLE.
- We do MUCH more shopping on line, limited shopping options, haven't even seen a mall!
Things that are AWESOME:
- outdoor activity! We live at the foot of the Bighorns, we can be hiking on TONS of trails, all different lengths in under 30 minutes, some as close as 5 minutes. Hunting for deer, antelope, elk, out my door. Fishing for trout out my door. Actually given the lack of snow in our yard, twice over the winter we went from sun and no show to snowshoeing in 3+ feet of snow in under 30 minutes (wonders of gaining altitude). AFter spending my life hunting in NH, where seeing 3 deer a year was a
good year. My wife and I totalled, 4 antelope and 3 deer, ate tags on elk, but honestly we messed that up. After years of trying in NH, wife shot her first deer with a bow and went from "watching squirels" in NH to seeing 8 deer her first evening in a tree stand and tagging 2 antelope, all before throwing out her back and not hunting the last 4 weeks of deer! Fishing, we've caught more fish this spring than in our life in NH.
- We have a golf course in town, it's NEVER crowded! They think it is, but it isn't. We have NEVER had to wait for multiple groups before teeing off. Just call 1/2 hour before we want to play, and walk onto the tee.
- People are awesome. Some of the nicest people we've ever run into
- Traffic. There isn't any!
Few down sides:
- Getting anywhere via a flight is a pain. We have to puddle hop to Denver, then we can get where we want. Given there are very limited flights in/out of Denver to Casper/Gillette/Sheridan, it can get "interesting" during bad weather and delays (spent 2 nights in Denver unexpectedly last winter)
- Limited shopping (if you care)
- Family. This one hurts way more than we expected. We essentially left all family and friends. Missing our kids is harder than we thought. On them too.
We had a discussion recently, after visiting our first grandchild. It's a balance, do we love being here more than we hate not seeing our kids and first grandson? Answer for now is "yes, we're staying".
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