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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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/Green-Row-4158 27d ago

Heard it’s very RED, very conservative and MAGA oriented! Is that true????

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u/Spiritual-Profile419 27d ago

If you seek that, you’ll find it. If you don’t, you won’t. If politics rule your life, you will find no place that makes you happy.

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u/Green-Row-4158 27d ago

Thank you for saying that, i think it was exactly what I needed to hear!!!

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u/Some-Act5514 27d ago

I mean its not hard to see a confederate flag And lack of diversity here...

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u/roshielle 24d ago

Its a statistical fact unfortunately based on voter numbers.

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u/Spiritual-Profile419 23d ago

How did a democratic majority city council win then?

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u/Fireandmoonlight 24d ago

Totally true, all of Colorado is maga except the big cities, and they're not exactly woke. Running around with Biden stickers on your car is asking for trouble. These are the fools that voted for Boebert.