Yeah its tough right now. On one hand I appreciate people who move here because we tend to be like-minded with regard to lifestyle and appreciation for the outdoors, but on the other hand too many people crowds out our beautiful places. I'm constantly picking up trash and dealing with rude people who come to the mountains apparently just to crap all over everything we value. And the retort is always the same: 'If you don't like it you can move.' That sh*t makes my blood boil.
Haven't been down there in 10 years except two quick trips to buy 4Runners. Honestly I don't think you could pay me enough to live there.
People in cities are a lot like rats in a cage. When the crowding gets bad enough they start to eat each other.
Whereabouts are you in the high country? I think the Front Range crowding has an unfortunate ripple effect, and as people get fed up with the crowds they seek less crowded locales. That in turn begins to crowd the previously less crowded place, and the cycle continues. However, at least in terms of suburban sprawl, there is luckily a nice geological barrier to subdivision development called the Rockies. There are just some places they can't build homes, try as they might.
I definitely agree with you about the rats in a cage. That's really how it feels sometimes. When I go seek solitude in the mountains, and I find it, I feel very recharged when I come back down. I'm starting to think that feeling of recharge should just be how every day is, and that it's how every day used to be.
i bought my 4runner in Denver last year, and came back through there a few months ago. i didnt think it was bad at all, and i really enjoyed my time there. the city i live in has 150,000 more people in the city, but 1m less in the metro area.
traffic can get pretty bad here sometimes, especially when there is a festival going on. we have 5 major interstates and highways intersecting downtown and it turns into a nightmare.
Living here and watching this happen for the past 6 years paints a different picture for me than if I were to be a visitor. When you can run into traffic at every, and all, possible hours of the day that isn't caused by an accident or construction and is just because the roads aren't big enough to accommodate everyone, it starts to wear on you When the mountains are no longer the place to get away from it all and you end up sitting in traffic jams in the high country, and it forces you to keep going further to get away, it starts to wear on you. When you're no longer being waved at on backroads, and instead are looked at like a total freak when you give the polite backroads wave, it starts to wear on you. When the cost of living is so astronomical and $75k a year doesn't feel like enough to buy a starter home, and the cost of housing is just expensive because it can be not because it deserves to be, it wears on you.
The problem is, I don't blame these people for wanting to come here. I was one of them. However, Wyoming and Idaho look more appealing with each shitty driver tailgating me even though I'm going 10-15 over and actually passing in the passing lane.
Maybe it's also not being helped by being in my early 30s. Early onset grumps.
/rant
