# Best parts of Colorado to live



## Carlos Danger (Aug 5, 2015)

If one were relocating to Colorado and could live in any part of the state, what would be the best part of the state to move to, and why? 

Taking into account proximity to hospitals (for employment opportunities), weather, access to the outdoors, traffic, being reasonably close to one of the cities (though not necessarily commuting distance, just close enough to go to a game or something on the weekends)......just general lifestyle? 

What other parts of the west offer an environment and lifestyle similar to Colorado, and how do those places compare to most of Colorado in terms of cost of living, employment, etc?

@chaz90
@Summit
@Tigger
@COmedic17


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## chaz90 (Aug 5, 2015)

I absolutely loved living in Fort Collins. It's a college town with a well educated and outdoorsy population, but it's not as liberal as Boulder. Colorado State University is a great school and really adds a lot to the character of the town (though I may be biased as an alumni). 
There are more local breweries than I can name, and the whole town really embraces the outdoor, beer, and bicycles kind of atmosphere. 

I always found it big enough to find something to do locally (~140k people) but Denver was only about an hour away if I wanted to go watch the Avs or Broncos play or go to a bigger concert at Red Rocks or something. While mentioning that, Fort Collins does have a pretty cool local music scene and get a fair number of mid size and local acts. 

There's a lot of outdoor activities as you go farther north on Highway 287 into the Poudre Canyon and Red Feather Lakes region. There's beautiful hiking, fishing, and a lot to do on the Poudre River itself. Ski areas are mostly ~2 hours away, which is pretty comparable to most of the front range if you don't actually live in the mountains. Estes Park (the town) and Rocky Mountain National Park are about an hour drive away and one of my absolute favorite places in the world to go hiking or camping. Locally, Horsetooth Reservoir and Lory State Park have great hiking and mountain biking trails. 

As far as hospitals go, there are two major hospital systems in the area. Poudre Valley Hospital is in Fort Collins itself, which was originally part of Poudre Valley Health system and also ran Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland CO (about 15 minutes south on I-25). Both hospitals are now part of the University of Colorado Health System, which I really like. PVH is a level III trauma center and didn't have full time PCI capabilities when I lived there. They're pretty much your average community hospital of ~200ish beds and do a pretty decent job. Medical Center of the Rockies is smaller bed wise (~110 beds I think) but was built in 2007 or so. It's a Level II regional-ish trauma center handling a lot of the aeromedical trauma cases from Northern Colorado and Wyoming. Banner Health system just opened a new, smaller hospital in southern Fort Collins too to start competing with Poudre. Banner also has McKee Medical Center in Loveland (another general community hospital) and Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley. 

Feel free to message me if you have more questions. I absolutely loved living In Fort Collins and couldn't recommend it enough. Really, most of this would apply to living in Loveland too though it is much smaller if you're into that kind of thing.


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## Tigger (Aug 5, 2015)

I live in Colorado Springs and enjoy but would not stay here if it wasn't for my job. The Springs is very socially conservative, sprawled, and kind of lacking in hipness. Most of the concerts I go see are in Denver. My neighborhood is the only place I would consider living (west of I25), and I rarely venture east unless I am working downtown. On the plus side, living at the base of Pikes Peak is rad. I can go for a run on a 14er easily. I work right next it too. It's also a traffic free 2.5 hour to most ski areas, with much of that area in between being national forest. Both University of Colorado and Centura healthcare networks have significant presences here and there is a fair amount of jobs. Cost of living is very, very low. 

My goal is to eventually move to a ski town but it'll take years for me to be a viable candidate for a fulltime position there. 

I think Denver is too expensive for what it is, but it's not horrifically unreasonable. Expect almost double the housing prices from Colorado Springs though. Boulder is also outrageous, but you get what you pay for.


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## Carlos Danger (Aug 5, 2015)

Great info, guys, exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!


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## Summit (Aug 5, 2015)

There is so much that is relative...

What is a hospital to you?
A level IV/V ER?
A level III trauma critical access hospital with a helibase?
A level II regional trauma center?
An urban level II or level I trauma + academic hospital?
Trauma Center Map: http://batchgeo.com/map/fa61cd6f2af19bde02c742b6d6484a68

What is a "City"?
Breckenridge with 5K?
Durango with 20K?
Grand Junction with 65K?
Co Springs with 450K?
Or do you mean Denver?

What is good weather?
Snow is awesome because you love skiing and 6 months of winter is sweet, hate the heat, and don't want to have an airconditioner, and will drive a few hours if you crave warm weather in April or October?
Or you need 4x3 month seasons?

What is lifestyle and outdoors?
Mountaineering, kayaking, skiing, snowmobiling, biking, hiking, backpacking, hunting, fishing, 4wheeling, ice climbing?
Concerts, breweries, musicals, major league sports?

Is lifestyle/outdoors activities something you casually do when you aren't at work? Or is lifestyle a LIFEstyle and you obsessively get after it and work to support it? (This is a very important distinction)

You can see the complexities above have to be narrowed down a bit before suggesting parts of CO much less other areas of the West...


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## Carlos Danger (Aug 5, 2015)

Summit said:


> You can see the complexities above have to be narrowed down a bit before suggesting parts of CO much less other areas of the West...



Im just looking for exactly the kind of broad overview that Chaz and Tigger provided.

For instance, what part of the state do you live in? What do you like and dislike about it? If you were gonna relocate inside CO, where would you go and why would it be better than where you are?


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## TransportJockey (Aug 6, 2015)

It's been years, bit I loved living in the Lakewood area off US6. Close to the city, close to some hospitals, closish to the mountains.


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## Summit (Aug 6, 2015)

Remi said:


> If you were gonna relocate inside CO, where would you go and why would it be better than where you are?



I'd install a teleporter between Telluride and Denver... then I get to work with sick patients, good money, but live in Telluride, I don't have to commute, and also I magically inherent a house in Telluride because it is insanely expensive.

Pretty much anything West of Denver/Ft Collins/CO Springs is awesome, empty (by comparison to the front range), and beautiful. The farther West you go, the better (but stop before you hit the desert)... but farther West harder to make a living. But the metros are where the most interesting cases and highest pay are...

Oh and if you don't mind LDSers and insane liquor laws, UT is cheaper. If you really want to be away from people, WY, MT, ID,


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## COmedic17 (Aug 6, 2015)

I live in Douglas county, but (if you can afford it) Boulder county is the nicest. There's a TON to do ( rock climbing, base jumping, rafting, boating, kayaking, biking, fishing, skiing, camping, etc). There's a few smaller towns (Louisville/Lafayette) that are good for families. It's also right up to the flat irons so it's extremely pretty. Several hospitals are very close, and 2 of the hospitals have flight teams (MedEvac and LifeNet). Several are also trauma centers. It's within an hour to Denver ( 30ish mins), Golden (15ish mins) and Fort Collins (30-45 mins). There is also less crime in boulder county. And it extends into the mountains, so there's a lot of very pretty mountain neighborhoods. It's very outdoorsy but it's not to liberal is you stay out of boulder city and live in one of the neighboring towns. 


Douglas county, where I live, is nice. It's more affordable then Boulder county and still has most of the same things to do, it's just not quite as scenic. It's 30 mins from Denver, and 30 mins from Colorado Springs, so it's centrally located.


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## Tigger (Aug 6, 2015)

TransportJockey said:


> It's been years, bit I loved living in the Lakewood area off US6. Close to the city, close to some hospitals, closish to the mountains.


Lakewood is nice. Golden is also reasonably close to Denver and not exorbitant.


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## COmedic17 (Aug 6, 2015)

TransportJockey said:


> It's been years, bit I loved living in the Lakewood area off US6. Close to the city, close to some hospitals, closish to the mountains.


Lakewood also has Casa Bonita.

It's a little bit too close to Denver though ( it's pretty much a Denver suburban-ish  neighborhood)


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## khaysley (Aug 6, 2015)

I don't know about the hospitals and stuff as I was only a kid about 8 or 9 when I lived there but Parker, Colorado in Douglas county It was a really good area when I lived there. It's about 45 mins to Denver and you are still pretty close to the mountains. My family did a lot of hiking and biking when we lived there.


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## Carlos Danger (Aug 8, 2015)

Thanks for the input, guys. Keep it coming if you think of something else.

My wife and I are thinking about possibly moving out west in a couple of years. We visited CO briefly a couple times when we were younger and we loved what we saw.

I'm thinking the ideal place for us would probably be a small town with scenery and character that is far enough from the major urban areas to not be affected at all by city traffic and not have a suburban feel to it, but close enough to Denver to get there pretty easily (2 hours or so) for the airport and the occasional game or show or whatnot, and also close enough to skiing and hiking that it doesn't take a whole day to go hike a couple hour trail or do a handful of runs and then have a beer or two in the lodge. We don't mind snow at all, but I'm not necessarily wanting to have to shovel feet of it every day from Sep though May. Of course it's nice to have a couple pubs or bar & grilles with good food and a good beer selection nearby, but I'm thinking that's pretty much everywhere in CO. Being near a large urban hospital means nothing to me - that experience was important when I was a newer RN and paramedic and CRNA student, but now I hope I never have to work in a place like that again. I very much prefer the pace and atmosphere and schedule that you find in small, rural facilities.


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## chaz90 (Aug 8, 2015)

Hmm. That description of what you're looking for narrows it down a lot. The problem there is most of the small towns with scenery/character come hand in hand with large amounts of snow in the winter and increased traffic during ski season. There are some cool places on the western slope similar to what you're describing, but at that point you're a long hike from Denver. I'm really not familiar with the areas on the western slope either, so perhaps Summit can help you out there. 

Estes Park, as mentioned before, certainly has scenery and character in spades. It has Estes Park Medical Center in town, and there are other hospitals within commuting distance of 45 minutes or so if you wanted to do that. It's right outside the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, which is really great, but comes with vastly increased traffic and crowds during the summer and much of the fall. 

Grand County is great too. It's on the other side of the national park and has a scattering of very small communities that may be what you're looking for. Distance to Denver is manageable, but again snowfall is pretty significant. There are at least two small critical access hospitals in this area offering employment. 

Check out the Salida area. There's some really nice skiing there at Monarch that is off the beaten path of the I-70 corridor. It's certainly more rural and you won't feel crowded out or surrounded by tourists. I forget the name of the hospital in that area, but I know one exists. The problem there is that the distance to Denver is ~2.5 hours, and much longer in bad weather.


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## Summit (Aug 8, 2015)

Chaffee County would be my first thought for you (Buena Vista / Salida)... maybe Lake County
Higher cost options: outside Estes Park, western Eagle County, or west Boulder County

Depends on if you need to be in a small town or are cool with a rural setting.

These options could give you a less than 1 hour commute to a facility that might use CRNAs and less than 3 hours to DEN (in optimal conditions)


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## Summit (Aug 8, 2015)

chaz90 said:


> I forget the name of the hospital in that area, but I know one exists. The problem there is that the distance to Denver is ~2.5 hours, and much longer in bad weather.



Heart of the Rockies. They use CRNAs. SMH in Frisco does too. I decided he said 3 hours instead of about 2 hours because otherwise he cannot find the other things he is looking for. 2 hours or less distance to Denver means major traffic and "suburbanization" of the mountain communities within that distance because of tourism, day trippers, and huge numbers of second homeowners.


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## Carlos Danger (Aug 8, 2015)

Excellent info guys. Thanks!


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## COmedic17 (Aug 8, 2015)

I'll name some smaller towns close to the mountains with awesome scenery that are reasonably close to Denver ( so on the front range). Then maybe you can research each town and see if any of those are what you are looking for . 



Louisville ( Boulder county )
Lafayette ( Boulder county ) 
Golden ( Jefferson County ) 
Castle Rock ( Douglas County )
Elizabeth ( Douglas County )
Franktown ( Douglas County ) 


All of those have scenery, are all very close to outdoor activities, have minimal traffic, and are all with an hour and a half or so from Denver. They are all also smaller "family" towns.


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## COmedic17 (Aug 8, 2015)

And here's some pics of each ( just for an idea) 

Louisville- 







Lafayette- 







Golden-


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## Summit (Aug 8, 2015)

^That is a nice list of front range suburbs, COmedic. Little suburbs/exerbs on the plains... all part of the front range suburban sprawl. None of those offer the CO mountain life, and are 2-3 hours from any ski lift or 14er (except Pikes).

Except Golden, but that is Denver. It isn't downtown, but it is just where the metro area runs into the edge of the foothills. It is closer to the mountains (and the I-70 mountain traffic disaster). Also very expensive these days... but if I had to live in the front range, I'd live there.


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## COmedic17 (Aug 8, 2015)

Castle Rock - 







Elizabeth - 








Franktown-


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## COmedic17 (Aug 8, 2015)

Summit said:


> ^That is a nice list of front range suburbs, COmedic. Little suburbs/exerbs on the plains... all part of the front range suburban sprawl. None of those offer the CO mountain life, and are 2-3 hours from any ski lift or 14er.
> 
> Except Golden, but that is Denver. It isn't downtown, but it is just where the metro runs into the edge of the foothills. It is closer to the mountains (and the I-70 mountain traffic disaster). Also very expensive these days...





Louisville and Lafayette are with half an hour from Eldora ski resort. An hour to Loveland ski resort. 
It takes me 45minutes to maybe an hour to get from castle rock to copper mountain, Loveland, Breckenridge etc. none of these areas would take anywhere near 2-3 hours to get to a ski resort. 

If he lives in someplace like Dillon in summit, he's going to get that snow to shovel that he's trying to avoid. 

Golden is also nothing like Denver. I drive through golden regularly and it has a very smaller suburban / mountain town feel to it.


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## chaz90 (Aug 8, 2015)

It takes you 45 minutes to get from Castle Rock to Breck? Do you own a helicopter?

I really like a lot of the front range, but it doesn't sound like that's what Remi is looking for in regards to small town/out of the suburban sprawl.


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## Summit (Aug 8, 2015)

COmedic17 said:


> Louisville and Lafayette are with half an hour from Eldora ski resort.


 I guess I forgot that mountain existed. But, really, not even driving Code 3 on dry + empty roads. You literally would have to drive double the speed limit the entire way.



> It takes me 45minutes to maybe an hour to get from castle rock to copper mountain


You are so full crap it it is funny. Maybe if you had a Bugati Veyron and a closed course on dry roads... but you'd have to slow on the curves. It is over 100 miles from CR to Copper. You would literally have to average 145mph the entire way (speed limit is 55-65mph).

Look, any front ranger has to really consider driving in suboptimal conditions. There are so many people on I-70 at all hours, and so much construction, that even in non-peak hours, an _aggressive _driver is doing good to average the speed limit the whole way, and at peak travel times, you can double or triple the optimal travel times. Throw snow in there in the winter, and even with great snow tires and AWD, the moronic drivers double or triple the optimal travel times. It is a fact of front range life.



> Golden is also nothing like Denver. I drive through golden regularly and it has a very smaller suburban / mountain town feel to it.


It is a college town that turned into a suburb as the expanse of Denver flooded right up to and around it 20+ years ago. It is a suburb surrounded by other suburbs on 3 sides, and the foothills to the west. It is not a mountain town. It is culturally dominated by the Coors Brewery and Colorado School of Mines. You wouldn't call Golden a mountain town if you lived both places. College town maybe... but it is just one of the nicest Denver suburbs.

And there is a reason that the recs that chaz and I gave were for places in the 6500-8000ft or "bannan belt" areas. Clearly Remi wouldn't like Dillon.


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## COmedic17 (Aug 8, 2015)

Eh maybe not breck. Looked it up and realized that's one of the further ones. But it doesn't take long at all to get to Loveland or copper ( where we typically go). I just drive up through golden then cut through evergreen. 

Additionally, according to my GPS, from the couch I currently sit on, at my residence, I am 68 miles from copper/Frisco. That's a very far cry from  "over 100 miles away". Additionally, time to travel depends on traffic. But it has NEVER taken me "at least 2 or 3 hours" to get to summit county. Ever. Never as in not once. Additionally, I live between Sedalia/ the direct center of the town of castle rock, but I sincerely doubt that extra 10 or so miles makes THAT much of a difference.


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## COmedic17 (Aug 8, 2015)

Summit said:


> I guess I forgot that mountain existed. But, really, not even driving Code 3 on dry + empty roads. You literally would have to drive double the speed limit the entire way.
> 
> 
> .



False.



According to Google its 32.5 miles from Lafayette to eldora. 21 from boulder. A far far cry from several hours. Eldora is right by Nederland. 



And seriously? School of mines making a town some type of college town? Do you know the admission reqs for mines? Or how small it is?  It has a grand total of 5200 students, whom have an average ACT score of 31, with a 3.9 avg GPA. It's an engineering school.  Nothing close to Some some crazy party school. CU in boulder is a party college town. I have literally never ran on a student of the mines for ETOH, drugs, or any of the typical "college town" crap. 

And golden has a population of *drum roll*  19000. It's not big. It's not a mini mountain village like ward, but it's def not large.


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## Summit (Aug 8, 2015)

COmedic17 said:


> But it doesn't take long at all to get to ... copper ( where we typically go). I just drive up through golden then cut through evergreen.


I have concluded that geography is not your strong suite. You drive from  Castle Rock to Golden then "cut through evergreen"? That makes the opposite of sense.



> Additionally, according to my GPS, from the couch I currently sit on, at my residence, I am 68 miles from copper/Frisco. That's a very far cry from  "over 100 miles away".


I bet it is 68 miles from your house to Copper if you had a helicopter.

Following on the previous point that you are not good at geography, you are apparently unaware that "as the crow flies" distances are poor estimates of driving distances when mountains are involved. Why don't you ask google for driving directions?

Answer?

ABOUT 100 MILES (hint, Breck is about the same and Loveland is about 75mi)



> Additionally, time to travel depends on traffic. But it has NEVER taken me "at least 2 or 3 hours" to get to summit county. Ever. Never as in not once. Additionally, I live between Sedalia/ the direct center of the town of castle rock, but I sincerely doubt that extra 10 or so miles makes THAT much of a difference.


If you ALWAYS get to Summit in less than 2 hours from Castle Rock, you never drive during weather, or on Fridays evenings, Saturdays/Sundays during daylight, or make the drive during snowstorms, and are either new to CO or do not drive often enough for an accident to screw you over.



COmedic17 said:


> According to Google its 32.5 miles from Lafayette to eldora.


Yes and according to google it takes an hour. Not the 30 minutes you claimed. Thus my comment that you would literally have to average twice the speed limit.
CO119 is a super twisty 2 lane road!



> And seriously? School of mines making a town some type of college town? Do you know the admission reqs for mines? Or how small it is?  It has a grand total of 5200 students


Yes. Yes. Yes. and Yes.
And 5700 students... Golden is <20K so yea that makes it a college town. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it is not a mountain town.


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## Summit (Aug 8, 2015)

I really think a lot of skiers in Denver actually wished they lived in SLC, but they like beer and/or pot.

On that note, the front range housing/rental market is truly insane on account of all the people moving to CO because of the legal pot.


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## Carlos Danger (Aug 8, 2015)

Just to clarify, I'm not against snow by any means.....I actually love the snow. I grew up between Rochester and Buffalo, NY where lake effect snow kicks your a** all winter, and I really never even minded it. Just would rather not move someplace where the snow is known to be consistently excessive.

Thanks again for all the info!


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## Summit (Aug 9, 2015)

Remi said:


> Just to clarify, I'm not against snow by any means.....I actually love the snow.





Summit said:


> Chaffee County would be my first thought for you (Buena Vista / Salida)... maybe Lake County
> Higher cost options: outside Estes Park, western Eagle County, or west Boulder County



These options will mean very little shoveling of snow (only on the biggest mountain storms mean shoveling in the valley) and doesn't get too hot (80s in during the summer) and there is a good range of activities all year.

Here is Edwards, CO (7300ft Eagle County):





And this is probably as much snow as there ever is in Buena Vista (8000ft Chaffee County):





Really nowhere in CO do you have to shovel that many days, even in the highest country. It is sunny most of the time. But in the high areas of the high country, like Breckenridge, you can end up with with snow on the ground Nov-May in severe winters + long shoulder seasons, which means long ski seasons and short hiking/biking/4wheeling seasons. Locals drive to Moab or fly to Mexico in the shoulder seasons. Depends on the year. This year, there was mountain biking at 9500ft on Southern slopes in MARCH!

But this is a more normal MAY view for Summit:


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## youngblood (Aug 29, 2015)

Not sure where all these short drive times for skiing are coming from, but your looking at 2hours if your lucky to go skiing on the weekend.  I suspect this year it will get even worse with the population rise.

Townwise, Conifer sounds like a great place for you. Takes an hour to get to downtown Denver, close to the front range, small town feel, etc


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## Tigger (Aug 29, 2015)

Summit said:


> I really think a lot of skiers in Denver actually wished they lived in SLC, but they like beer and/or pot.
> 
> On that note, the front range housing/rental market is truly insane on account of all the people moving to CO because of the legal pot.


The first part I agree with wholeheartedly. The second part I think is more attributable to the small tech boom happening in Denver right now. The 21-35 crowd is more likely to move to Denver than any other major city right now aside from NYC and LA. 

Also. Castle Rock to Copper in less than 2 hours? Maybe in the summer at 3am when they aren't doing construction (never). It takes me two hours from where I sit right now (Florissant, CO, don't move here @Remi it's not much of a place) and I'm already a 45 minute head start into the mountains and don't deal with traffic ever. 

Places that I think I could survive in that are not "resort" towns: Salida (maybe Buena Vista but it is dead in the summer), Pagosa Springs (pretty darn small), Gunnison (smallish, has a college, and that might be it. Woodland Park is a pretty mountain town outside of Colorado Springs that's only a half hour but is frankly a bit too right leaning for me. Don't discount the western slope and SW Colorado either. Durango is a great town with plenty of culture, which is good since it's seven hours from Denver. I don't know much about Grand Junction but it's also pretty self sustaining. 

COMedic's list of towns are great family suburbs. If you want to be close to the majority of the jobs, that's where I'd pick if I wasn't going to just live in Denver.


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