Driggs for Retirement (Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Star: real estate, rent, homes)

[fmors]

My wife and I just got back from visiting the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. As the south entrance to Yellowstone was closed due to wildfires, we took highway 22 out of Jackson, WY over the Teton Pass and highway 33 through the Teton valley. We fell in love with the Teton Valley, especially Driggs. We currently live in the Asheville, NC area, but in 8 to 10 years would like to retire to an area with less humidity and rain. We love the outdoors and are avid hikers. We like to eat organic natural foods. Our political views are slightly left of center. We have a live and let live attitude and are respectful of others beliefs. We are planning on making several more trips to Idaho over the coming years. Based on this would Driggs be a good fit for us? Also, what other towns might be a good fit? My only concern with Driggs is that the Winters might be a little too severe.

[Mtn. States Resident]

Originally Posted by fmors

My wife and I just got back from visiting the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. As the south entrance to Yellowstone was closed due to wildfires, we took highway 22 out of Jackson, WY over the Teton Pass and highway 33 through the Teton valley. We fell in love with the Teton Valley, especially Driggs. We currently live in the Asheville, NC area, but in 8 to 10 years would like to retire to an area with less humidity and rain. We love the outdoors and are avid hikers. We like to eat organic natural foods. Our political views are slightly left of center. We have a live and let live attitude and are respectful of others beliefs. We are planning on making several more trips to Idaho over the coming years. Based on this would Driggs be a good fit for us? Also, what other towns might be a good fit? My only concern with Driggs is that the Winters might be a little too severe.

Hi fmors.

How about you searching for Driggs using the search engine in the upper right hand corner? An almost identical post was last updated on 8/26/2016. The last three threads, over the liast eight months should give you some answers. Driggs is expensive.

After you search those threads, then ask us more specific questions, especially in the Idaho Falls sub-forum.

I'm glad you were safe as you saw Yellowstone and the Tetons. Bonneville County, home of Idaho Falls, heas never had a fire the size of Henry's Creek. We don't usually get wildfires that last longer than 36-48 hrs. at the most. But this is the second driest summer in Bonneville County ever. That's just part of life in the West.

Happy reading; let us know your questions when you've reviewed the other threads

MSR

[banjomike]

Hi, fmors...
You're not the first to have done that! I've known folks who have wanted to move to Driggs after they've driven that road for 50 years now. Some made the move, others didn't, but they never forgot their first experience.

Winter here is what one makes of it. Driggs is most definitely winter country; most of the folks who move there are winter lovers, who like nothing more than getting out and playing in the snow.

For those who have never experienced a mountain winter, the only way to learn if one will love it is to spend some time doing it. I think that if you reserved a couple of week's stay and made a trip out in the dead of winter, you would learn all you need to know about it.

Most of your present reservations are just mental. "Severe" is not a fixed condition out here at all. In the minds of the people who live in Idaho, it has a different meaning than in North Carolina. I've spent time in N. Carolina in the winter, and winter there is totally and completely different than it is here, and especially so in Driggs.

MSR and I are both natives. While I speak only for myself, I learned long ago that winter is an easier season for me than summer is in many ways, and a season I look forward to, rather than dread.

It's easier to stay warm than it is to stay cool anywhere. if you get cold, all one has to do is add a layer onto what you're already wearing, but when it's 100º with 90% humidity, and you are down to bare skin and still hot, relief is much harder to find and maintain. Cold, to me, is energizing. Heat is energy sapping.

But that's me. My blood is probably thicker than yours, and I'm more tolerant to cold because it's more my natural state from a lifetime here. I've known folks who come to relish the cold after moving here, and folks who could never find tolerance for the cold, no matter how long they lived here.

Much of it is attitude, but about as much is truly physical. If a person's hands, for example, have never been numbed by the cold, naturally, when it happens, it's both a new sensation and an unpleasant one. And cold hands will stay cold until you find some way to relieve them. Learning to anticipate what will be the most troublesome things is something that only comes from experiencing them a few times.

But I can say this:
Until you have never walked out into an intensely sunny morning after a couple of days of dark days, clouds and intermittent snowfall, you will have never experienced the full glories of winter. It is a transformation of mind and spirit like no other.

Especially here, where the air and snow are so light and dry that the tiny frozen crystals of the snowflakes dance in the air, sparkling with the light of 1000 suns with each light movement against the intense blue of a winter sky.

[fmors]

Thank you MSR and banjomike for your replies. I will continue to search and read about the small towns of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. My wife likes the cold more than I do, but I have experienced severe cold temperatures as a kid in Milwaukee, WI, but my family left Milwaukee when I was 12 and moved to Savannah, GA. Basically what we are looking for is a mountain town readily accessible to hiking, snowmobiling and cross country skiing. We are drawn to the western states because of the natural beauty, cooler summer temperatures and low humidity. Where we live now there is plenty of hiking trails, but it is hard to get away from the people and the summers are just too hot and humid.

[volosong]

Investigate Island Park and Harriman State Park.


.

[fmors]

Thanks volosong, I will. I remember driving through Island Park and seeing the signs for the State Park leaving Yellowstone on our way to Salt Lake City.. Very nice area. We really iked the town of West Yellowstone. It is very quaint.

[Mtn. States Resident]

Originally Posted by volosong

Investigate Island Park and Harriman State Park.


.

I strongly second what volosong wrote. Island Park and the Herrmann State Park are beautiful, easily accessible to YNP and the Tetons. Plus the COL is markedly cheaper than Driggs.

Trips to Rexburg to Walmart also aren't far away. Nor is Idaho Falls, the regional hub for commercial, medical and other.
Many from Idaho Falls have cabins in the Island Park area and go every weekend. Don't be fooled by the word cabins. Given the snow most homes in that area have A frame roofs, but the interiors range from rustic to elegant.

Definitely worth a closer look IMO.

MSR

[Kathy884]

I'm the poster from 8/26 that asked about Driggs as a place to retire, and I got some great information about Driggs in general. You probably already read that post, but if not here is the link:
https://www.city-data.com/forum/idaho...s-id-your.html


We love the mountains in the summer, but want bigger city amenities, more civilization, and less snow in the winter. We aren't into sking like we used to be either. My brother's long time live in girlfriend, though, has a great cabin in Driggs that they mostly use in the winter (they do a lot of skiing and snowmobiling and live in Idaho Falls). It has a big deck and die for view of the Tetons (looks like one of Ansel Adams famous Teton phots from there), and while not thinking of relocating for retirement, we love that Driggs and may approach her to see if she'd be open to letting us rent the place for a few weeks each summer. She's never rented it out, but just has it for family. But they only got out there a few times last summer.

[banjomike]

Every view along the west bench of the Tetons looks like an Ansel Adams photo.

Wyoming got the mountains, but Idaho got the best views of them.

[Dangerous Dave]

You might also check the Star Valley area of Wyoming, and south of Jackson. Driggs is a nice little place, but I don't know that I could retire there personally. I've already done the four-hours round trip to do any shopping or to keep any appointments with specialists or even a decent dentist.


I think if I were in your shoes, I would look at some "fair-sized" cities in the west and look at the outlying areas. All of the cities I listed below have very sparsely populated outlying areas and towns where you're 20 minutes away from everything you'd need for services. All have plenty of mountain views and opportunities for recreation nearby... hiking, biking, lakes and streams, etc. "Fair-sized" is in quotations because these are all fairly small cities (except for Spokane) by eastern standards.


Bozeman, MT
Missoula, MT
Kalispell/Whitefish/Big Fork MT
Rapid City, SD (although slammed with tourists all summer)
Corvallis, OR
Salem, OR
Eugene, OR
Bend, OR
Spokane WA/CdA, ID
Leavenworth, WA
Boulder, CO
Grand Junction, CO
Evergreen, CO
Glenwood Springs, CO


If you're a property owner that will be selling in Asheville, any of these areas will be lower in price for real estate. Again, Driggs is great but there are so many other awesome places out west. Rexburg and ID Falls aren't really places I would look forward to traveling to for services. I've been there, done that since I used to have to drive two hours (in good weather) to Billings, MT (not exactly a gem of a place) to get anything not available at Walmart.