Blog, Relocation

Colorado Springs – Mountain Living

 Close to town or up the hills, you’re steps from nature whereever you pitch camp in the Pikes Peak region.

Dick Bratton’s rustic house in the small town of Green Mountain Falls sits hidden behind a stand of ponderosa pines. Nearby, Catamount Creek splashes boisterously on its way downhill.

Fifteen miles to the east, Karin White lives in a tri-level ranch house in Pinon Valley, a neighborhood northwest of Colorado Springs. She’s minutes from shopping and a 12-minute drive to downtown. But her small backyard adjoins a city park with trails favored
by mountain bikes as well as mule deer, bobcats, and black bears.

Twenty-five miles further east, Dan Anderson lives in a five-year-old manufactured home on 35 acres in the unincorporated community of Peyton. The wind-swept prairie stretches to the east; an unobstructed view of Pikes Peak fills the horizon to the west. From his deck, Anderson can see the rooftops of the nearest conveniences—grocery stores and gas stations—but the surrounding
landscape still has the feel of the Old West.

Locals call these areas simply “the mountains,” “the Springs,” and “out east.” While strikingly different in vegetation, elevation, and orientation to Pikes Peak, they have a common thread: easy access to the natural world. Whether residents live in the foothills or far enough away to gaze at the sprawling 14,115-footer, few describe their neighborhoods without mentioning the mountain.
“People are drawn here by the lifestyle the region offers,” says Craig Casper, transportation director for the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments, a voluntary group of 15 municipal and county governments. “Its location has a lot to do with that.”

About a half-million people call the Pikes Peak region home. They came because of the mountains, the mild weather, and the sunshine—an average of 300 sunny days a year. They came because of the promise of a mountain lifestyle combined with all the conveniences of Colorado’s second-largest city.

“I chose Green Mountain Falls because it’s quiet, laid back,” Bratton says. “I have Colorado Springs just minutes away, but
then I can escape the city in a pristine mountain environment.”

Pike National Forest wraps around Green Mountain Falls, a town of 935 in the winter and 1,400 in the summer. “There are three miles of hiking trails within the town, a beautiful lake and gazebo, and great restaurants,” Bratton says. “And then there are our neighbors, the foxes and the mountain lions.”

White chose her home for its location. The northwest part of Colorado Springs is dotted with rock outcroppings and stands of piñon and ponderosa pine. Newer neighborhoods surround her 25-year-old home, but the rugged bluff of nearby Ute Valley Park helps maintain the mountain character.

Much of the growth is to the east. Projects such as Banning Lewis Ranch, a 21,000-acre planned master community, capitalize on the city’s projected growth. Development of Banning Ranch’s first village, Northtree, began in 2006. Close to 100 homes are occupied or under construction, joining a recreation center, charter school, park space, and trails.

“We believe in carrying on the tradition of Ruth Banning and ‘Pinky’ Lewis, who in the 1920s were married, accumulated about 38,000 acres, and ran one of the best Hereford cattle ranches in the country,” says John Cassiani, the vice president of project operations. “The flavor of our development is about community and family values.” Houses are designed with front porches; interconnecting trails let residents walk to parks and other amenities.

Dan Anderson lives not far from Banning Lewis Ranch in Peyton. When he moved here from a northen Chicago suburb a year ago, Anderson knew just the kind of lifestyle he was looking for.

“We wanted to live where we wouldn’t be on top of our neighbors. We wanted someplace that was peaceful and quiet,” he says.

Anderson’s house sits down a dirt road across from several hundred acres of grazing land. “When we first moved in, we would meet pronghorn at the mailbox,” he says. Late at night, “you might hear a distant coyote, and you see a sky filled with stars all the way down to the horizon.

“It’s like you are in the middle of the universe, looking out.”

Lay of the Land

• Pikes Peak forms the western border of Colorado Springs and its neighbor Manitou Springs. Falcon, Peyton, and other unincorporated communities grow to the east.

• Past Manitou Springs, U.S. Highway 24 heads west into the mountains to the towns of Cascade, Chipita Park, and Green Mountain Falls.

• Twenty miles up this corridor, Woodland Park is built in a ponderosa pine forest at 8,437 feet. Its nickname: “The City Above the Clouds.”

• Fort Carson sprawls over more than 38,000 acres on the southern edge; the Air Force Academy covers more than 18,000 acres to the north.

 Source: hemispheresmagazine.com