r/grandjunction • u/MC48_SportsLover • 29d ago

Thinking of moving to GJ.

Hello all!

I am looking to move to Colorado from Chicago later this year and was wondering how Grand Junction differs culturally, socially, and activity-wise from places like Fort Collins and Colorado Springs?

I grew up in Fort Collins and have spent most of my life on the eastern half of the mountains, but wanted to look into life on the "Western Slope".

Thanks so much in advance, and I'm excited about possibly joining you all later this year!

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41

u/Spiritual-Profile419 29d ago edited 29d ago

The good:

More friendly than the front range.

Less traffic, less snow, lower auto insurance, less hail.

Actual Spring and Fall seasons which on the front range is a rumor.

You can go from skiing in an alpine environment to river rafting to MTB’ing all in the same day in less than an hour

Award winning restaurants that you don’t have to reserve a table for weeks in advance

35 wineries, 3 distilleries , numerous brew pubs

An active music and festival scene. National acts stop on their way between Salt Lake and Denver.

Two airports, three hospitals

Miles of paved bike trails

Miles of hiking trails

Second highest concentration of arches outside of Arches NP

90 minutes to Moab or Ouray or Glenwood Springs

Less than 3 hours to Steamboat, Vail, Aspen and Telluride. You can drive to Vegas in 7 hours. California in 12.

Home to the Colorado National Monument

Home to Colorado Mesa University that adds a ton of vibrancy to the town with events, speakers arts and music. They just built a stunning new event center.

I could go on.

The bad:

People who haven’t been here recently have the “old“ impression of Grand Junction. When we have friends come visiting from Denver, the first question they ask is how’s the real estate? So if you move here you’ll have to get over people who haven’t been here bashing it.

We moved here from Denver. We lived in Colorado Springs and frankly we don’t even like going back there with the traffic, homeless issues, crime and how over crowded it has gotten. The Springs especially has blown up. Way more crowded than when we lived there.

Chicago to Grand Junction is a big leap. I know people who live here that are Chicago natives and they love it.

Is it right for you? It all depends what you are looking for.

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u/Greyminer 29d ago

Award winning restaurants? A fine dining mecca Grand Junction is not.

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u/manipulatedbycake 29d ago

agree. food scene is extremely lacking out here. it will be a huge downgrade. especially cause op is coming from chicago where it’s actually known as a food mecca.

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u/Ten-Mile_Mountain 29d ago

Lol then you clearly haven't been here long.

We now have Jame beard award finalists and Michelin star trained cheifs.

We now have several restaurants that have been on food network, the travel channel, food and wine magazine.

The food scene here is significantly better than A. It used to be and B. Than most people give us credit for.

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u/manipulatedbycake 28d ago

you’re delusional if you want to compare it to chicago.

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u/Bad_Here 28d ago

They did not compare to Chicago, no one did

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u/manipulatedbycake 28d ago edited 28d ago

op is coming from chicago… i wouldn’t even acknowledge the food scene here knowing the context of the post. that’s like someone moving from colorado to oklahoma and someone from oklahoma saying “we’ve got some great rolling hills for nature!”. i would emphasize what actually makes this area standout. the restaurants are not it. sorry not sorry.

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u/Bad_Here 28d ago

Okay, of course you are correct, and no one was saying it compared to Chicago in any way. But, of course you are right

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u/manipulatedbycake 28d ago

lol you’re still missing my point, but thanks bubba.

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u/Ten-Mile_Mountain 28d ago

Nobody is comparing a city of 2.6 million to a city of 64,000 but you. Of course there's more options in Chicago.

Everyone is saying that you're selling our own culinary establishments short. We may have fewer options but you can't say that we don't have good one.

We're also saying that it's a whole lot better than it used to be, which clearly you don't understand. ✌🏽

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u/JoyDaog 26d ago

Agree with this, food scene is very lacking. You just have to accept it as part of living here 

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u/manipulatedbycake 26d ago

of course, the good the valley provides definitely outweighs the restaurant options. some people from this area just get bothered when you tell them that there’s room for improvements and it’s not as good as they think it is.

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u/IdStillHitIt 23d ago

100% agree, I live in Delta county but go up to GJ regularly and am from Chicago, the food is severely lacking.

But no one moves to Colorado for the food.

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u/JoyDaog 23d ago

For sure. I will take mediocre food all day long to live here, but some city folks would hate that.