and South Dakota.
Anybody live in these regions??
Tell me about overall costs of living, recreation, housing, jobs, etc.
Lived in Colorado all my life, except for 5yrs of living in the desert; after traveling over 900 miles this last weekend, I've discovered (though I've known for a while), Colorado just isn't what it used to be.
Cost of living is getting higher all the time; campgrounds are a joke - overcrowded with weeds and people, not maintained at all; lakes are few and far between, have known that for years, but Colorado refuses to store water, and build more damns/lakes, so waterskiing has become almost non-existent. Lakes you can get your boat on, are so overcrowded, or they've limited your camping to more then 1/8-1/4 mile away from the water line, which absolutely requires you to take your boat out nightly....A real chore for a 4,000 boat if you only want to take one vehicle, which requires you to put down the camper (pop-up), and relevel it when you return an hour later.
Aside from this, our I-70 corridor and other major highways are just so overly crowded with traffic jambs, that you spend more time in dead-locks trying to go somewhere for a weekend, that it's just insane; not too mention a nightmare for daily commutes as well.
Colorado was never meant/designed to be more then a one-horse town; it's a beautiful state/region that our own people of the state have just ruined the true beauty of. Rest areas are even disgraceful.
I visited several camping sights/explorations along the Yampa River/Steamboat/Rifle/Bond and McCoy where all areas we toured this last weekend; I'm absolutely in love with the Steamboat lake region; but the numerous stops along routes 131 & 40 in particular just had me being disgusted with our own state. Weeds of all kinds are way out of control; the amount of trees infested with the beetle bug are sickening; some rest areas, and even lakes, don't allow your dogs on-site - and for what reason?? We as people have done FAR more damage then any dog could ever hope too, AND what harm does it cause...g_d forbid if the dog carts it's leg on a weed
Excuse the rant - I'm just horrified and deeply saddened from once having been a child spending just about every weekend spring-fall in our Colorado's mountains, fishing, 4-wheeling in the back of my parents Chevy, camping, you name it, we did it. But we ALWAYS cleaned up after ourselves; I'm appalled at all the trash, tire treads, etc spread throughout our region.
It's just disgraceful! And I hope DEARLY that our state starts doing something about these beetle bugs, or we're not going to have ANY trees left in 5-10yrs....IT'S BAD!!
I will upload some pictures tonight of horrible, horrible infested areas.
Came back from South Dakota and Alaska this summer; I'm disgusted in our state in comparisons to these two states who beautifully maintain recreational facilities/sites, rest areas are CLEAN, weed free. The lakes are actually pleasant and not over-taken by weeds/debris; and, they actually allow DOGS, go figure....
