Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Hello,
My family and I are considering purchasing a house on Sunshine Canyon. However, we have several questions and concerns as we currently live in a very urban area and this would be a completely different life style. Our biggest concern is the drive up the canyon in the winter time. Is it often dangerous? or only a couple days out of the year? Are fires are huge concern? Are there any troubles with delivered propane? Can you get cable, high speed internet, cell phone reception? Can you always get water? We absolutely love the scenery and the land, but before we make the investment we wanted to get the opinion of some of the locals who deal with these issues first hand. If you have any other comments regarding Sunshine Canyon, we would love to hear them.
Thank you for your help,
Rick
p.s. The house is located about 6 miles up the canyon from boulder.
I personally don't know what it's like to live there, but I have heard comments from realtors that a lot of people buy there in the Summer and then realise how horrendous it is commuting up and down the canyon in the Winter and try to sell after just one year. That may be an exaggeration and I'm sure lots of people love living up there, but just thought I'd mention it. Certainly some of those hairpin turns are pretty steep! I think the road gets ploughed pretty quickly and almost everyone has satellite dishes of various sizes.
Hello,
My family and I are considering purchasing a house on Sunshine Canyon. However, we have several questions and concerns as we currently live in a very urban area and this would be a completely different life style. Our biggest concern is the drive up the canyon in the winter time. Is it often dangerous? or only a couple days out of the year? Are fires are huge concern? Are there any troubles with delivered propane? Can you get cable, high speed internet, cell phone reception? Can you always get water? We absolutely love the scenery and the land, but before we make the investment we wanted to get the opinion of some of the locals who deal with these issues first hand. If you have any other comments regarding Sunshine Canyon, we would love to hear them.
Thank you for your help,
Rick
p.s. The house is located about 6 miles up the canyon from boulder.
I have a relative who lives west up a Canyon from Boulder, about 6 miles. In addition, I know several people over the years who have lived in these canyons.
The Answer is YES, YES, YES
It is often dangerous to drive in the Winter. You will certainly need a
4-wheel, more expensive vehicle and that will not get protect you from all hazards. You will need to have a plow attachment to clear your access road from the main road or hire an expensive service.
Fires are a big concern. You will need to clear brush and trees around your property, to have a safe area. Your fire insurance on your house will be much more. Response time for fire and rescue will be longer and sometimes impossible.
There are always problems in delivery anything up these canyons. You should expect the cost for all deliveries to be more.
Cable and High Speed Internet is available if an overhead cable and/or telephone lines can be extended to your property. It is impossible to bury all lines, so overhead transmission will suffer the hazards of weather and wind.
Cell reception is a problem with disappearing signals, on and off, up and down the canyon. Many areas in the canyons will not receive signals.
Water is a severe problem. You should have any wells checked for availability and flow--and the supply may not be continuous. Drilling a well will be expensive. Many properties have external large tanks to accumulate water because many wells are slow to fill. Wells are deep, have electric pumps to bring water up, electricity will fail at times.
Water delivery is required for many properties and is expensive. You are paying more for delivery, not so much for the water.
Wells have a problem with being polluted by cesspools and septic systems that are inadequately drained and maintained by your neighbors. That sounds real delicious. Of, course there is no sewer systems. Wells must be tested, periodically, for purity for these pollutions and natural toxic substances.
Any sort of emergency response will take time and transport to medical facilities for trauma is longer and if "time is the critical issue" then you will expire.
There are always problems with burglary, you will need an alarm system--another expense. Of course, this will add to your hazard insurance.
Many people in these canyons believe that the whole area belongs to them and let their dogs roam. They form packs and can become dangerous. I have found out, myself, and it is very frightening.
Of course, any travel will require more gas back and forth. If you have teenage children and they will drive--think about how they will handle these canyon roads--we all know how slow and careful they will drive. Not to worry, they may just want a motorcycle.
Or think of this. My relative has a young teenage son, cannot drive yet, and he hates living there because he gets to recreate all the time with his parents. He cannot walk down to the corner store or to his friends house; his after school activities are limitied; he is bored. So the answer to this problem is that they got a second home, condo, in Boulder near the school, so that he can have more social interaction and stay in Boulder, when he has a need.---talk about expense. But he still wants a motorcycle to go up and down the canyon when he gets older.
Oh, yea, no cell phone coverage, roaming dogs (more problems than the occassional shy lion or bear); strange, odd, dangerous people living and roaming these mountains, weather hazards--did I mention it is dark, very dark--again no cell phone coverage, little police coverage. For me, this type of living would require carrying and knowing how to use firearms and keeping a firearm ready at home.
Well, living in the mountains is nice but expensive. The occassional lion is my friend because it loves to munch on roaming dogs. However, I think there are other places to
Livecontent
We have lots of friends up Sunshine, and we lived 17 miles up Boulder Canyon in Nederland (in Boulder county also) for six years. None of what you mentioned ever bothered them--or us--because, luckily, we are cut out for mountain living. Not everyone is. The only thing that made us choose Nederland over Sunshine, Sugarloaf, Lefthand, or Four Mile Canyons is that canyon living is hard on people who need a lot of sunlight. In the winter, the sun sets at about 3:00 in the narrower canyons, which would make me crazy. (At 6 miles up, it may not be as much of an issue.) The other thing that does bother me is that the canyon neighborhoods have no town, which means that if you run out of milk, you're schlepping yourself down the mountain to Boulder to buy more, possibly in bad weather. We knew we wanted to live near a town with at least a few of the simpler amenities nearby (store, video store, restaurant, clinic for emergencies, gas station).
I actually liked that there was no cell phone reception there, but was glad that there was Dish TV and broadband Internet service. It depends on what bothers you and what doesn't. The roads get plowed, and if you're adept at winter driving, you will probably only have four or five days of really hard driving a year. The problem can be the driveway. There were times when we couldn't use ours during heavy snowfall and subzero temps because of the pitch, and that was quite a pain.
If you know what your priorities are in advance, you'll be a lot better off. A hundred different people will give you a hundred different stories of what life is like there. You'll have your own story. Will you have to adjust? Of course. Will you want to adjust? There's no telling.
Last edited by Candycandy; 04-16-2008 at 12:52 PM..
YIKES! If I'd read livecontent's post before I moved to the mountains I never would have. Are you familiar with Sunshine Canyon at all? Because it is not like the other canyons out of Boulder (Lefthand, Four Mile, Boulder Canyon.) It's not canyon-like, meaning it is not dark all the time!
Things are really NOT that bad, NY Rick.
I don't live in Sunshine Canyon, but I am familiar with the area. We looked at homes there before we moved to Nederland. It has evolved into an affluent foothills "subdivision" of Boulder. These days there are quite a few homes well into the millions of dollars there. It is NOT the boonies.
Are you working with a realtor? A realtor can answer your questions about cable, internet, etc. With the prices of homes up Sunshine I cannot imagine that high speed internet is not available. There is no cable where I live but we have excellent high speed internet (wireless).
Fires are always a concern when you live in a forested area. If it is a newer home the property has most likely been mitigated. If it is not, you will want to look into having it done.
If it is a newer home you will probably not have issues with your well. (The homes built in the 70s have shallow wells that are running dry.) I have read about properties up Sunshine that have sprinkler systems and swimming pools. It doesn't seem like a big problem, but again, a realtor can fill you in.
Wildlife: there are mountain lions, bears, fox, deer and probably elk. You will need to learn how to coexist with these wonderful creatures.
Driving can sometimes be a challenge. But I have always found that the mountain roads are much better maintained than Boulder streets in the winter! They are plowed regularly. Especially if you are on a school bus route, which I am pretty sure Sunshine Canyon is.
I hope that someone who actually lives or has lived up Sunshine will chime in and tell you their experience.
Just for grins I went on Google Earth and took a road trip up Sunshine Canyon. Since it has been at least 3 years since I've driven it, I wanted to be sure I wasn't giving incorrect info. For those who don't know, Mapleton Avenue west out of Boulder is Sunshine Canyon. You can see very clearly that it is a sunny road, not like Boulder Canyon with steep rock "walls" on either side. Compared to where I live, the drive is a piece of cake!
No offense to livecontent but he probably has not spent much time with his family member who lived 6 mi up the canyon. By the sounds of it, his family member probably lived up Magnolia Rd which is treacherous and nothing like Sunshine Canyon. Don't get me wrong - you will need to have a 4WD/AWD vehicle to get around safely (that goes for anywhere in or near the mountains). I have a number of friends that live up Sunshine Canyon (I personally lived up there for a year before moving further up the mountain) and the drive there is very reasonable. None of my friends own snow plows which is rarely an issue. My 1986 Toyota Tacoma and my wife's Subaru wagon have never had any issues getting to/from any of their homes. Neither of us have studded tires on our vehicles.
Fires are always a concern here in Colorado and precautions should always be taken to prevent them. Livecontent is correct by telling you that "..you will need to clear brush and trees around your property, to have a safe area" That is a given anywhere in the mountains. Where I live is just as susceptible to fires and I have never paid high premiums for insurance on my house. There is also a fire station located up Sunshine Canyon. The guys there are very involved with the community (and throw great BBQs!).
Both cable and high-speed internet (Comcast and Qwest) are available depending how far up the canyon you purchase a house. If you are building a home, utilities, phone and cable are all buried underground these days "so overhead transmission will suffer the hazards of weather and wind" is not an issue. Even if you purchase an existing home with aerial 'drops,' it is extremely rare weather will affect them in any way.
Cell reception is spotty. If it is important to you - you will want to take your cell phone with you when looking at homes. AT&T is by far the best service once you start going up into the mountains. However - there is service in many areas of Sunshine Canyon.
Well water is going to be your only option unless you have it trucked in. Make sure to buy a home with a good well (lack of heavy metals, good pump rates, etc.) - Any decent water testing company can determine that with tests. If needed, Eldorado Springs Water provides excellent water at a very reasonable price - and they deliver at very reasonable rates too.
"There are always problems with burglary, you will need an alarm system" - WOW I better jump on that...in the 13 years I have lived in this area the keys to my house have always hung on the coat rack inside my front door. I have never once locked the doors to my house - I have never even heard of anyone having a problem with burglary...yes, I do realize that it is possible.
I find it kinda ironic that someone is telling you that SUNSHINE CANYON is a "dark, very dark" place. The canyon is named Sunshine Canyon for obvious reasons.
Mountain living is not for everyone. You will have to get used to little things most people take for granted which have been mentioned above. IMO, living up here can actually be much easier than living than living down the mountian. My suggestion is to spend some time in the mountains (not Boulder/Longmont) before you commit to something that may not be suitable for you. Good luck!
I love Sunshine Canyon, and the drive wouldn't faze me in the slightest. However, I'm a native, and while to me, Sunshine Canyon is just a relaxing mountain drive, it might be very different to a flatlander driving in the snow.
6 miles is pretty close in. If you run out of milk it won't be a nightmare to get back to town.
As another native NY-er that recently moved to Boulder, I would certainly visit Sunshine Canyon and view some properties before making a decision. We just took our first drive up there this past weekend and it is absolutely gorgeous. BUT, I would not want to drive up there in the snow. No matter what part of NY state you're from (I've lived all over NY state) you will not find roads like that and I have to admit that I was nervous. If that's the type of life you're after, it's certainly a lovely place but the terrain is very different from anything you'll find in New York. That said, it is really close to Boulder (town) and it's not a very far drive, but seems like it would be rough in the snow. 4WD is a must I would think.
For those very familiar with Sunshine Canyon, my husband and I were discussing thunderstorms on the way back down. Down in Boulder we see the lightening striking the mountains when a storm is rolling in. Are there lightening rods up there or what?
I notice that livecontent lives in Arvada - a souless subdivision of Denver with a starbucks/blockbuster video on every corner. If that's what you're into, mountain living is probably not your speed.
I've lived in various parts of the Boulder mountains - Nederland, 4-mile, jamestown, and yes, sunshine canyon and, while it may not be for everyone, it is not the expensive hell, cut off from the civilized world and attacked daily by packs of viscious pet dogs, described by livecontent. I've never owned a 4WD vehicle and have never slid off the road or gotten stuck. All of the major canyons, including sunshine are school bus routes and thus plowed early and well maintained throughout the winter - an AWD car such as a subaru with a good set of snow tires is sufficient and gets better gas mileage than an SUV. 6 miles up is going to be about a 12 minute drive from Boulder.
Internet and cable are available; cell phone reception depends on your carrier but ATT and verizon are good up there. Mountain properties do use well water, but once your well is in - and sufficiently deep to ensure consistent flow and quality - availabilty is not limited and is free (other than electrical cost of pumping). Fire mitigation is important, but the cost/effort is minimal - it's in the category of normal home maintenance.
The notion that you need a security system to protect against burglary is ludicrous - although maybe you should install one to protect yourself from those crazy domesticated dog attacks or the strange, odd, dangerous people raoming around in the dark, dark canyon fantacy world that livecontent lives in...in Arvada. Please.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Of, course there is no sewer systems. Wells must be tested, periodically, for purity for these pollutions and natural toxic substances.
Not to worry, they may just want a motorcycle.
