Let's talk about Colorado

Boulder = San Francisco without the ocean.

Fun thread. I looked at it because I was considering a second home in Colorado, but now I'm interested in Wyoming !

Fun thread.I was considering a second home in Colorado

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Silver Bullet,wait!
One of my bests friend's parents have a home in Silverthorne about 100 miles west of Denver on I-40.
The best locale in Colorado.
You are minutes from ski resort's A-Mountain and Breckinridge and within easy range of Vail,Aspen and Steamboat Springs.
Even if skiing is not on your A list there's Denver,Rocky Mountain Nat.Park,Colorado Springs(the Air Force Academy),Pikes Peak,Gunnison,Pueblo,too,too many great places to cover.
I've been lucky enough to be invited there 3 times.Check it out.
It's too far for .cheese. but may be right for you.
Here is the complex Timber Ridge:

http://www.myresortnetwork.com/pictures-photos/Timber-Ridge/Silverthorne/Colorado/
http://activerain.com/blogsview/402544/Timber-Ridge-Silverthorne

Almost all are 2/2 with about 1000 square feet.Great views.Gun friendly!

U Denver Law I'm more or less guaranteed entry to.

I don't know where I'm going to end up. I just know where I'm not going to go. Unless T30, I'm not going to any school in a far far left wing state. If nothing else the taxes would kill me.

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Then .cheese.,as another poster suggested, just live in a suburb of Denver ,where your firearms are not considered evil and attend U.of Denver.
All the benifits,no negatives.

You have to worry more about getting arrested for smoking in Boulder than you do with your EBR. Boulder would be unlivable if it weren't for the fact that it is a beautiful city. If it weren't for the uber-liberal nature and ungodly cost of housing in Boulder, it would probably be my favorite city in CO.

I personally lived in downtown Denver for awhile, and I enjoyed it. There was always stuff to do, I enjoyed the urban atmosphere, lots of girls to look at, and despite notions of non-stop violence and boomboxes, it was quiet and peaceful at night.

In any event, as mentioned before Denver itself is pretty small, and the surrounding areas aren't as restrictive.

how are the laws in Boulder?

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I live in Longmont - about 20 minutes from Boulder, an hour from downtown Denver. I've lived in this area for 25 years. While it's probably the most liberal town in Colorado, I'm not aware of any restrictive gun laws in Boulder. There's even a small but friendly gun shop there (GunSport), one block from Boulder High School. I wonder how many Boulderites know that?

The main issue with Boulder is housing prices. Median home price is $350-400K. A one bedroom apartment near the university goes for about $800/month.

For retirement, I'd suggest Ft. Collins. A small college town like Boulder, but much less expensive.

cheese, I would highly recommend either Denver or Boulder. As others have said, just go to one of the suburbs. There are plenty of gun friendly cities outside of the two cities proper, and when most people consider the cities, they are really talking about the whole metro area.

I think the Denver "metro area" is like 1.5 million people but Denver itself has around 500,000 give or take. I live in Aurora, about 12 mins from downtown Denver on city streets. It doesn't feel that big, and "high traffic" in the metro area is usually 55 on the freeway. I've been stationed here (well deployed now but when I'm home) for 4 years now, and I really like it other than what the roads do to new cars in the winter. I LOVE the gun laws here for the most part. I bought my first gun here, shot my first handgun here, bought the other 6 firearms I own here, and got my "expert" weapons qual here as well! This is a very gun friendly state for the most part. The people are pretty friendly and buying a home here is a breeze with the poor housing market. Boulder I have less experience with but it is beautiful. Northern Colorado in general is nice, and even more gun friendly than the Denver Metro area, IMO. I own a condo in Ft. Collins and I love that city. You couldn't do wrong there. I love that Colorado has so much rustic appeal, open space, and alot of outdoorsy things to do, and yet has all the conviences of city life close by with a lot of really attractive and intelligent people. You said you like beer too... Ft. Collins is the microbrew capital of the world. There's lots of great breweries here starting with New Belgium in downtown Ft. Collins. The liquor stores I frequent here tend to have at least 200 types of beer, including many of the belgians that I have a harder time finding in California. There's also an "Old Chicago" almost everywhere as well and they have over 100 beers, many of them imports.

I'm originally from Orange County, CA, and went to USC and lived all over most of Southern California. While I miss my family, friends, and the ocean, I love Colorado and would be happy retiring here. The winters generally aren't much here either... even with the snowy reputation, Denver gets 300 days of sun a year.

Yep, that's South Park.

I live in Parker, CO, and work in downtown Denver. I like it here, it's the least humid place I've ever been (I hate humidity), there's an average of 315 days of sunshine per year. Tons to do, lots of nightlife, very active music scene, etc. I'm sure I'd like it a lot more if I were single.

You said you like beer too... Ft. Collins is the microbrew capital of the world.

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Good point, jayrod. That's another reason I like Fort Collins. The New Belgium Brewery makes some of the best microbrews in the country. (Try the Blue Paddle Pilsner.) And the place that makes Boulder Beer claims to be the oldest continuously operating microbrewery in America.

Boulder isn't that bad. Especially just to work/go to school there. Just live in Nederland, that's what I did when I lived out there.

OT for a moment:

Good point, jayrod. That's another reason I like Fort Collins. The New Belgium Brewery makes some of the best microbrews in the country. (Try the Blue Paddle Pilsner.) And the place that makes Boulder Beer claims to be the oldest continuously operating microbrewery in America.

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I work part time at a package liqur store up here in Cheyenne; we just got some of those New Belgium Folly 12 packs in that have 4 different flavors of their Beer. Been selling NB but had never tried them. Bought one the other day and I must say, I have been missing out on some great tasting beer.

Back on Topic:
I'd agree with the others that say you should take a look at the Fort Collins or Loveland areas. Nice towns and everything, store wise, you would need. And not too far from Denver if you needed to go there. A lot of folks from Cheyenne head down there because they have a bigger selection of name-brand stores. And from what I have heard they are pretty firearms friendly.

try Longmont

nice quiet town... except for the shooting in front of my house.... about a 10 min drive to Boulder.

Boulder is a town of VERY high prices, even higher noses and a granola culture that makes me wanna swear off trail mix. They are the snottiest, most elitist people I have ever encountered. They have the wild impression that theirs don't stink and that they have all the answers in their elitist little minds.

And heaven help you if you don't agree with their pseudo socialist experiment.....

I would go to any other school, anywhere before I would go to the indoctrination center at Boulder.

....

My apologies, not sure how I managed that one.

.cheese, one thing that I would point out is that while Denver itself is somewhat restrictive, Colorado in general is not. In fact, in a lot of ways, we seem to be one of the more gun-friendly states around. It took us awhile to get a CCW law in place, but I am not aware of any particularly active restrictions anywhere else in the state.

Cheese, I'm going to send you a PM on law school selection.

As for Colorado, my dad lives in Loveland, and my wife and I are seriously considering a move to either the front range (most likely Fort Collins area) or Laramie or Cheyenne, in Wyoming. My personal observations from many visits but never having lived there:

-Denver, IMHO, is not a bad town. But their local AWB is a problem.
-Boulder is ultra-liberal in most ways and pricey. Otherwise it's OK. A better place for someone who wants to ride a bike everywhere and, well, do liberal type stuff.
-U of Colorado is a very good school.
-Fort Collins and Loveland are nice. I like the Fort Collins downtown very well, good restaurants and stuff. Loveland is a bit boring but doesn't have any real bad traits.

Man, all the talk about Colorado makes me miss home. Only 2 months to go till I'm back, but I'm also currently living in Aurora.

Fort Collins/Loveland area is def. my favorite part of the state because it seems to have the best balance of everything. Ft. Collins is a college town that has some culture, etc., and good amenities, but isn't nearly as socialistic or cosmo as Boulder. Loveland is a nice place to live, pretty rural, but they have the huge outdoor Centerra area to fulfill just about any shopping need. I've found the people to be extremely gun friendly, encounter lots of open carry (other than myself and wife when we don't choose to conceal), as well as great areas to shoot, good ranges, a good "big chain" gun store in Sportsman's Warehouse as well as non chain places. I've got friends that invite me all the time to their property to clear out varmints, even though they don't all shoot themselves.

You are probably about an hour away from anything and everything you could want, including Denver. I've also found Colorado to be the most military friendly state I've ever been to (which is good for me). Perhaps that it has to do with the fact that Buckley, Cheyanne Mtn, Peterson, and Schriever AFB's are here, in addition to the AF Academy, Ft. Carson, and a load of defense contractors (Boeing, Northrup-Grumman, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Lockheed-Martin, etc.). However, I've lived and visited alot of military community areas and not seen the type of positive attitude that Colorado has.

It also happens to be a swing state, usually siding on the right side regarding gun issues. Only 4 million people in Colorado, but it's nice that your vote means something here, unlike my former California with its districting, etc.

Oh, one more thing. If you happen to move to the Fort Collins area and are in Larimer County, they currently have one of the most pro-gun Sheriffs in the country. You can conceal carry with permit at Colorado State University and after the Va. Tech shootings, the sheriff wrote a big editorial in the paper praising the CCW carriers on campus at CSU. He actually promotes CCW, and we found that getting my wifes permit in Larimer was a much easier and accomodating office than my own in Arapahoe County.

This might not be the most popular point of view, but if you are just going for school who cares about the gun laws? You probably cannot carry on campus anyway.

Go to the school you like (which is THE most important thing), use them for the education, and then move away.

You can afford to live wherever you want when you are done.

My favorite city is Boston, MA which is horrendously anti-2A. That doesn't keep me from going there and having a good time once in awhile and I certainly wouldn't turn down going to school there if it was the best opportunity for me.

Just my $.02.