Move to MT?

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

My wife and i are seriously considering a move to MT in 3-5 years once our youngest graduates HS and gets settled (college, trade, etc...). We want clean air, mountain views, and easy access to hunting. I found a few properties in our price range in the Henry and Cliff Lakes area. I saw the elk objective is very high in this area, and given the proximity to Yellowstone, I'm assuming this is grizz territory as well.

For the MT residents on here familiar with the area, are there any reasons we shouldn't consider this area of the state?

 

[rustneversleeps]

My wife and i are seriously considering a move to MT in 3-5 years once our youngest graduates HS and gets settled (college, trade, etc...). We want clean air, mountain views, and easy access to hunting. I found a few properties in our price range in the Henry and Cliff Lakes area. I saw the elk objective is very high in this area, and given the proximity to Yellowstone, I'm assuming this is grizz territory as well.

For the MT residents on here familiar with the area, are there any reasons we shouldn't consider this area of the state?

I'd say in 3-5 years it will be more like California than it already is. Place is getting trampled/ruined

 

[Norm555]

Lots of grizzlies, long cold winters, and you're pretty far from a real town (health care & shopping) in that area. You could get basic necessities in Ennis and West Yellowstone but you'd be about 2-hours from Bozeman.

 

[William Sublette]

MT is full, have you got any preference points yet?

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I'd say in 3-5 years it will be more like California than it already is. Place is getting trampled/ruined

This area specifically or are you talking about the I90 corridor specifically?

 

[MontanaPLS]

This area specifically or are you talking about the I90 corridor specifically?

The ENTIRE state is being overrun by people who watch Yellowstone/Big Sky and think that life in Montana is even remotely like those two shows.
Winter here lasts 6-7 months, solid. Sometimes longer. It is not uncommon to have 2 straight weeks (multiple times a winter) of -40°F temperatures, and that is not including wind chill. If you are not prepared for long periods of isolation and bitter cold, then you won't make it.
Housing and land prices have skyrocketed here thanks to the influx of out of staters. The median prices of houses in my area have increase almost 300% from 5 years ago.
I have seen it snow every month of the year here. I can remember watching fireworks on Independence Day while light flurries fell. I have been camping in August when you will wake up to a few inches of snow in the morning.
Forest fires consume spring, summer, and fall. We have had numerous summers where the sky looks like the LA basin in the 1980s for weeks on end.
Think long and hard on those types of conditions before you commit to Montana.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Lots of grizzlies, long cold winters, and you're pretty far from a real town (health care & shopping) in that area. You could get basic necessities in Ennis and West Yellowstone but you'd be about 2-hours from Bozeman.

Great response and thank you. We're 30 miles from a clinic/regional hospital and Walmart today and an hour from a bigger city (Des Moines). As a result, we're used to some travel for necessities and a night out.

Winters suck a$$ here too and we don't shop much other than groceries.

We're both Iowa natives and have 13 acres here we've spent the last 20 years on, and its 3 miles from the farm I manage and hunt for whitetails and pheasants. However, every year we get older, the smell of hog/cattle $hit every single day and muddy/polluted waterways gets less and less tenable. We're lucky to be able to open our windows a few days in the spring and fall if the wind is just right.

Now that the beans are out the hog confinements are racing to get their under/above ground manure tanks emptied before winter. Thousands upon thousands of gallons getting knifed in to the ground in every direction from our place. Just sick of it after dealing with it my whole life. The ag lobby in this state reigns supreme, and it doesn't matter who's in charge in the state house, hog and cattle production increases every year.

Don't get me started about the dumb a$$ wind farms that have destroyed what scenery and skyline this state used to have.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

The ENTIRE state is being overrun by people who watch Yellowstone/Big Sky and think that life in Montana is even remotely like those two shows.
Winter here lasts 6-7 months, solid. Sometimes longer. It is not uncommon to have 2 straight weeks (multiple times a winter) of -40°F temperatures, and that is not including wind chill. If you are not prepared for long periods of isolation and bitter cold, then you won't make it.
Housing and land prices have skyrocketed here thanks to the influx of out of staters. The median prices of houses in my area have increase almost 300% from 5 years ago.
I have seen it snow every month of the year here. I can remember watching fireworks on Independence Day while light flurries fell. I have been camping in August when you will wake up to a few inches of snow in the morning.
Forest fires consume spring, summer, and fall. We have had numerous summers where the sky looks like the LA basin in the 1980s for weeks on end.
Think long and hard on those types of conditions before you commit to Montana.

I appreciate what you're saying, and I've never watched either program you're talking about.

My brothers and I used to ski in CO every spring, I traveled CO, WY, and MT extensively when I was a younger man for work. Most recently I went on my first elk hunt in the Bob and the wilderness and remoteness gets in your blood I swear.

I've been working from home for 6 years now and can work anywhere I can get connected to the internet.

Ideally, once hunting season is over we will be able to snow bird it somewhere warmer in from Jan.-April. Gotta be back in time for spring bear...

 

[wind gypsy]

The ENTIRE state is being overrun by people who watch Yellowstone/Big Sky and think that life in Montana is even remotely like those two shows.

How disappointed are they when they find out Ted's hands at the flying D ranch don't get branded or run around killing their enemies and dumping bodies at the "train station"? Must suck to find out that the hwy patrol officers aren't running an international human trafficking ring and the eastern MT ranchers dont pay the bills by storing thousands of barrels of toxic waste in their fields.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

eastern MT ranchers dont pay the bills by storing thousands of barrels of toxic waste in their fields.

Hell, that's not even illegal here... If 10,000 gallons of hog manure spills out of a storage tank on top of the ground its a investigated as a "spill". When they disc it a few inches into the ground it's applauded as "fertilizer".

 

[William Sublette]

The other problem with transplants, is the country destroys marriages.

Guys love out west, women just tell their guys they love it, till they can't take it anymore.

Then they run off with a guy wearing a manbun.

 

[FLATHEAD]

I dont live up there but have visited the area a couple times.
Once was at a Rodeo in Jackson Hole in June,,,,and there was
one heck of a blizzard.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

The other problem with transplants, is the country destroys marriages.

Guys love out west, women just tell their guys they love it, till they can't take it anymore.

Then they run off with a guy wearing a manbun.

LOL!!! We just celebrated 20 years on the 20th. Neither of us like being around people much and as long as we’re reasonably close (60-90 mins) to a movie theater, Walmart, and Sam’s Club, we’d be good.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Montana is a great place to VISIT.............

 

[3forks]

To the OP, the area you’re considering is not like a winter you have probably experienced in Iowa. The amount of snow, cold, and length of the winter is not something you should underestimate.

Also, the weather in Montana is something that takes its toll on people. I’ve personally seen dozens of people/families move to the state and leave after a winter or two. You can talk yourself into anything, but also don’t underestimate what being cooped up for 8 months of the year will do. Cabin fever and seasonal affective disorder will most definitely set in. Some people will try to deal with the short amount of daylight, grey skies, wind, and the amount of snow by heading to bar or drinking. This may not be something you’ll do, but the amount of depressed drunks you’ll have to deal with will amaze you.

Anyway, here‘s a couple of pics that should give you an idea of the amount of snow you’ll be dealing with.

 

[Olympics777]

The other problem with transplants, is the country destroys marriages.

Guys love out west, women just tell their guys they love it, till they can't take it anymore.

Then they run off with a guy wearing a manbun.

Is there a story here

 

[downthepipe]

Do it. You’ll love it.

 

[wind gypsy]

To the OP, the area you’re considering is not like a winter you have probably experienced in Iowa. The amount of snow, cold, and length of the winter is not something you should underestimate.

Also, the weather in Montana is something that takes its toll on people. I’ve personally seen dozens of people/families move to the state and leave after a winter or two. You can talk yourself into anything, but also don’t underestimate what being cooped up for 8 months of the year will do. Cabin fever and seasonal affective disorder will most definitely set in. Some people will try to deal with the short amount of daylight, grey skies, wind, and the amount of snow by heading to bar or drinking. This may not be something you’ll do, but the amount of depressed drunks you’ll have to deal with will amaze you.

Anyway, here‘s a couple of pics that should give you an idea of the amount of snow you’ll be dealing with.

View attachment 341458
View attachment 341459
View attachment 341460

So much gnar you could never shred it all. Heaven.

 

[bobr1]

If you have to ask people if you should move somewhere that you have never been then you probably shouldn’t move. At least visit the area and decide for yourself. And yes residents are tired of people moving here, especially right now, covid has seriously ****** the state with all the transplants in the last year and half. And yes I’m a grumpy asshole, only because I’m watching my local community die because the businesses can’t get workers and the locals are moving away because they can’t afford to live here anymore.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

There is no cold winters in the west anymore. The great climate migration has began and soon there will be beach front property for sale with land owner elk tags.