Colorado Nature Photography

I am looking into purchasing a second home in Colorado, mainly for

the purpose of spending two months every summer there for nature

photography. For those familiar with Colorado: 1) where would be

the most advantageous place to locate for this purpose?; and 2) do

any of you personally know folks that would be good contact people

for this purpose? Thanks.

I haven't exactly explored the whole state, but there are a LOT of areas that would fit that requirement. If you have the money to do that kind of thing, and have two months off every summer, I'd suggest you go and spend a while touring the state, and that would mean more than the recommendations of strangers. I'd also consider some of the mountains of Wyoming, fewer people up that way.

 

As a general rule, in CO, the resort areas are expensive and crowded. The areas with good industry (Denver/Boulder/Fort Collins, etc) are crowded. The mountains tend to be more rugged and also have had more mining down SW. For mountain beauty, I'd consider Estes Park (very expensive) and spend my days hiking in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. For more solitude, I'd head up the Cache de la Poudre Canyon NW of Fort Collins- closer to Cameron Pass. Also consider the mountains of Wyoming- fewer people up that way. If you like deserts, try Grand Junction area.

 

One other thing to keep in mind, is where you're going. Around here, schools are out till August 18th. But, the best hiking/climbing season in CO, especially for higher mountains, is August and September. So if you're there in June and July every year, you may run into difficulties getting on top of some of the mountains some of the time.

Burlington. Definitely Burlington.

Stephen has the right idea- go spend some time there at the time of year that

interests you most. We searched for almost 5 years and found exactly the

right combo for us in the far west, roughly an hour from Moab, UT. Our

location puts us within a long day's drive of everything from Yellowstone/

Grand Tetons to Grand Canyon and from Death Valley to Nebraska. But

since we spend more time in Arches, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef, Natural

Bridges and Lake Powell we are within a few hours of those, but high enough

to mitigate the desert heat. Great living and photos where we are, but lots of

neat stuff within driving range when we want a change of scenery.

 

Email me for more details if you want.

 

Hank

Obviously you havent seen the sprawl that is ruining the Southwest?Its happening all over from sleepy towns to ski towns(telluride,st george,4 corners,big water etc..)

Its caused by people who are looking to buy a 2nd home to spend a couple of weeks a year in paradise.Duh,it wont be paradise for long if people keep building there.

I find this completely hypocritical and selfish.Spreading sprawl into beautiful country.

Why dont you save a few bucks and the beautiful landscape and rent a home for those few weeks you'll be out there?

Todd,

 

Burlington?

 

Doug and Jenny,

 

I'd agree with Hank. We also live near Mancos, Colorado, close to the La Platas and only two hours from Monument Valley or Arches.

 

Assuming you don't need to work, this is a great area to live. Not many traffic lights and fewer well paying jobs but if you're only here two months, you probably don't care.

 

Most of the mountain towns are becoming over crowded and way over priced but maybe you don't mind that.

 

Crested Butte is pretty nice but you can't get anywhere else easily.

 

Lake City used to be a great place.

 

Ridgway puts you close to many mountains including Sneffels, and to Yankee Boy Basin, Silverton, the Uncompaghre Range and Owl Creek Pass. Also, just up the road from Ridgway is Black Canyon of the Gunnison and a little further east is the Elk Range which has the Maroon Bells.

 

I don't understand the part 2 of your question. Realtors?

 

Good luck

Dave, evidently, you didn't notice that they said they planned to buy a home out there, not build a home... As for crowding, people spending 2 months a year there is better than people spending 12 months a year there.... And Doug and Jenny, don't feel bad about moving there- lots of us would if we could- and I haven't noticed the people that are already there volunteering to rotate out so someone else can move in- that's just as selfish on their part!

people staying for 2 months is a lot worse.It means they just buy an idle playhouse and end up driving up all the real estate when all the other yuppies jump on the same bandwagon and have to have a second,third and fourth home out west.The locals are all driven out cuz they cant handle the new taxes or just plain take the money and run.Then before you know it they gotta start building out the town.Property on the desolate hiway 12 between escalante and boulder is going for 500K.Vacation homes have been built along the waterpocket fold bordering notm rd and cap reef park...Well,thats whats happening in the SouthWest that i know.

Todd has an excellent point. Housing and land in Burlington are most likely quite affordable. With just a fraction of the money saved on housing, one could buy an 8-foot stepladder and a telephoto lens and would then be able to photograph two-thirds of the state without leaving home.

 

If I didn't have to commute to work every day, I'd consider moving to Burlington myself. Colorado Springs (where I live now) is a nice town, but no matter where you are in the Springs the view is blocked by Pikes Peak. This is true of many towns in Colorado, especially the more popular ones - those pesky mountains block the view. Burlington doesn't have this problem, and should be worthy of serious consideration.

Most advantageous for who, you or us Coloradans?

 

Burlington sounds good to me, or possibly Branson (yes, there's a Branson, CO).

 

A mutally agreeable location could be Aspen. We could keep all you vacation home in Colorado types centralized and you would reap many benifts, among them being the use of the line "I summer in Aspen;" a second being able to roll out of your own bed to get in line to burn a roll on the Maroon Belles at sunrise; and lastly, you'd save yourself the shame of being in the Untouchables class of vacation homeowners in Colorado (anyone whose second (third, fourth...etc.) house is not in/near Vail/Aspen).

My apologies, I checked your profile to see if I was possibly mistaken about my reccomendations, and I think I was.

 

You'd fit in much better in northern Colorado Springs.

The time is rapidly approaching when we in the United States will need to address the unrestricted sprawl across the country. If we don't we may wake up one morning and realize that the high rise hotel just on the border of the grand canyon detracts from the view. This from someone who would like to retire to Colorado sometime in the next 10+ years.

Doug and Jenny, et al, (fancy latin meaning something fancy)

 

A much more insidious problem occurring here is that the U.S. Forest Service is trading forest land to the wealthy for worthless land back east. The Alta Lakes road south of Telluride is currently being carved into mountain parcels with more and more, "No Trespassing" signs sprouting each year. If you want land in Colorado, buy now.

 

Ralph Lauren, who owns a huge parcel on the north of Sneffels between East and West Dallas Creeks, wants the roads leading to camping areas beyond his property closed to any access at all.

 

Dolores County was considering a ritzy golf development on the West Fork and has tentatively stopped it for lack of water, for now.

 

The limiting factor is and always will be, "WATER"

 

The morons on the front range are beginning to realise that every new home cannot have a sprawling sodded lawn sucking up acre-feet of water. We only average 10" of rain a year.

 

Back to the Dolores River Valley. You can currently drive from Cortez to Telluride with no traffic lights, a distance of 71 miles. A beautiful meandering route along the Dolores River drainage through Rico, an old mining town, and up over Lizard Head Pass. You also pas Sheep Mountain, Trout Lake, which sits below a range of peaks and then past Wilson Peak to the west, a fourteener. It still is basically un-discovered by the developers because of limited air access. One can only hope it stays that way a while longer.

 

Why do you want to jump all over someone who has a dream? Isn't excelling at landscape photography also a dream of everyone here?

Aren't landscape photographs sold to magazines to influence people to come here?

 

Besides, it's gonna happen anyway. Don't worrry. Be Hoppy! Mon!<div></div>

...one persons dream is another persons nightmare(permanent).Yes,telluride,aspen,vail are classic examples of this vacation home absurdity.Why would somebody not rent a house for those few months or stay in a motel or RV?

Individual decisions do make a significant environmental impact in regards to vacation home purchases.

Well, I did not intend to stir up quite such a ruckus! But I can understand the reaction. I do feel constrained to add a bit more info.

1. We live in the Chicago area and we have a passion for landscape photography -- talk about a bad fit!

2. I am not a wealthy "yuppie," but a modestly compensated professor who has the opportunity (with children now out of the picture) to pack up a few books and computer and work for a couple of months every summer outside the Chicago area. Renting is very expensive for that length of time. I could never afford it because I would be getting no return from my money. Only by redoing my existing mortgage to invest in another property, with the hope that my eventual return would be similar to what I now anticipate would the move be feasible.

3. I am very sensitive to the environmental issues many of you raise; if fact I am just now working on a paper arguing that the New Testament (contrary to some), rightly interpreted, evidences a strong concern for the environment. My hope therefore would be to buy an existing modest residence within a town -- I quite agree that the proliferation of developments outside of existing built-up areas is ecologically unsound. What I was therefore really getting at in my question was not "What pricey country-club development should I look at?" but "Where would be a good existing town to locate convenient to a variety of photographic opportunities?"

4. Someone raised the option of an exchange -- any one interested in the joys of Chicago living in June and July?

5. Thanks for the suggestion about Burlington: I actually looked it up on the map! No doubt it has a beauty of its own (and one of my students waxes eloquent about eastern Colorado); but perhaps too much like the prairies of northern Illinois!

Thanks for all of you for taking the time to respond!

It sounds to me like your first priority should be a location where the potential for return on investment is good. I think those areas may be the same ones that have scenic locations. If you're only there 2 months in the summer, you may want to be reasonably close to a ski area to attract winter tenants. But I'm not a realtor, investment banker, or land speculator, so what do I know?

 

What I've found in the 2.5 years that I've lived here (yes, I know, I'm opening myself up to attack since I wasn't born here) is that there are lots of beautiful places to practice nature photography. No matter where you end up, you'll probably explore close to home for a little while then begin traveling farther afield to explore new areas. Currently, my photo gear includes a tent, sleeping bag, and 4-wheel drive vehicle. Day trips and paved roads are nice, but overnight along a Forest Service road is more fun and often more scenic. And once in a while I manage to get a decent photo.

 

I'm guessing that anywhere in or near the mountains will fit the bill for nature photography. Like Burlington.

 

(All of my Burlington comments are very tongue-in-cheek. Only a moron would believe that you can photograph two-thirds of the state from an 8-foot stepladder. It's common knowledge that a 10-footer is required for that.)

Doug,

 

What are they teaching you in Chicago? It's the Old Testament that deals with the environment. Don't you remember God parting the Red Sea? Or turning Sodom and Gommorha into salt? How about Elijah making it stop raining for three years?

 

The New Testament deals with the good news of Jesus Christ, not the environment. Read it again. Maybe you missed that part.

As you might have guessed many of us Coloradoans are a little sensitive to growth issues. As a matter of fact many of them forget that they came from somewhere else (or that the Indians were here first). Fact is that we are going to have people moving here from other areas and in our voting choices have routinely turned down initiatives to grow smartly. Our problem isn't growth as much as urban sprawl and McMansions.

 

If you are looking for only a couple of months a year, I'd suggest considering a condo or time share along I-70. This would be a good investment and solve any maintenance issues in the "off season". It would also put you into good photo country. Alternately, there are plenty of "summer homes" scattered in the little moutain towns like Lake City and around Estes Park. If you choose to do this, you could do us a favor by giving something back to the states environment. With a little research you might run across some areas that really need a little boost to the economy. Say, Saguache or Walsenburg, which are in pretty areas of the state, but suffering from unemployment.

 

Probably the next generation will see us become much more like California and that makes me sad.

Hey, I bet I know why Ralph Lauren wants to prohibit camping near his place: if the fools who buy his faux outdoor gear actually use it outdoors, they'll die. Not good advertising. Not advocating this, of course, but if he was dressed out and skinned, do you think a polo player would wear it?

Doug and Jenny , let me follow up by saying I would rather have you own some property in Colo. than, say, Susan Sarandon OR Rush Limbaugh. And let me repeat I am NOT advocating skinning Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfinger, those Nautica people, and their ilk. If anyone did I would scold them severely and shake my finger at them