Laramie, WY

[bridgerbenson]

Anyone on here from Laramie area? Been toying with the idea of moving my family there. Any info on the community, housing, schools, work (I'm a carpenter), winters, etc would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.

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[wysongdog]

Good morning, Laramie is a great town. Ton of highly educated people due to the university. Seems to be always growing and building. The winters are brutal of course. Shopping really sucks especially you being a carpenter. No Home Depot no menards and the 2 lumber yards they have... well they are just there. Spent quite a bit of time there as my brothers went to school there.

 

[Junior_es1]

I live in Jackson hole which is 6 hours away and I went to school in Laramie. It’s not a bad place other than the fact that it’s a college town. A lot of drinking/partying. Cold winters for sure! Windy when it wants to be windy.
Those are really the downfalls.
As for schools for younger kids I’m not sure because I did the college thing and maybe that’s why I have the outlook on the place like that.
I personally would never move there again but that is because I used to be an alcoholic- sober now so things could be way different.
If your family is very outdoorsy and family
Oriented there is a lot of camping, hills. Mountains (vedauwoo) which has amazing camping.
The positive to moving to Laramie is the sooner you do it the sooner you can get your Wyoming residency and after a year you can hunt in the Mecca of America!
I know that construction And carpentry is always busy there as I worked in the construction field when I was there.
Fort Collins CO is about an hour away and Denver is maybe 2 and I love both those places so that’s something to look forward too!!
I can’t bad talk the place because of my past so you could absolutely love it and half my high school still lives there after graduating in 06’ and heading there right away so clearly they’ve landed good jobs and like it!
Good luck amigo!


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[Gunnersdad49]

I'm in Ft. Collins, about an hour south of Laramie. It's a cool little town if you aren't big on cities. I may end up there in the next 5 years or so. You are an hour away from Fort Collins or Cheyenne, and less than that to National forest for elk and deer. There is good fishing around, and antelope all over (getting tags, now that may be a bit more difficult than seeing them).

If you snowmobile, you will even appreciate the winters. Expect wind. It is Wyoming. There is always wind. That seems like no big deal, but it can drive some folks batty.

 

[Bramk]

Laramie is a neat college town but not the nicest and brutal winds through winter. As someone who lives in Wyoming I would have to highly suggest Sheridan


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[unclericco]

I lived in southern Wyoming area for 5 years. Laramie is a good town and great people but the winters are really horrendous. Not even so much the cold, but the wind with the cold makes it really suck. I’d never live in that area of Wyoming again. Sorry to be a Debbie downer

 

[Rossi]

I live in Laramie. As far as the wind and the winters are concerned, it's no worse than many of the other areas of the state. I will agree that the Sheridan area and Big Horn basin don't see quite as much wind as we do, but Casper, Rawlins, Rock Springs, Gillette are pretty windy and cold in the winter. The town itself is a great place to raise kids with good schools and opportunities through the university. If you need "culture" and city things, you'll be driving to Ft Collins and Denver a lot. If you like the outdoors, there's lots of opportunity all around Laramie. It's hard to beat summers in Laramie, IMHO. Elk and deer hunting west of town is almost all general, so once you are a resident, you can hunt every year. On second thought, it sucks here. The winters are cold and windy and everyone should stay away!

 

[KJH]

If you like snowmobiling its a great place to be in the winter... 30 minutes from great riding!

You're from western Nebraska, so you'll have the same winters or better (nicer) IMHO.

 

[SLDMTN]

Spent a chunk of time down there and had a blast. It is a college and tech school town so a lot of business caters to that during peak season. The summers are a ton of fun when the majority of kids leave, hop on the interstate and be almost anywhere in a day, take hwy 287 and you're in Ft. Collins in an hour which is a fun town as well. I found the true locals to be awesome people. We had a couple folks give us property access to hunt prairie dogs on their land with only two rules, don't shoot towards the house and don't leave until you're out of ammo. The Snowy Mountains were smaller than I'm used to but still a ton of fun.

Not sure if this is still the case but they only sold 3.2 beer when I was there, go to Ft. Collins if you want good beer. When you're headed down there watch out for the CO cops, they like to hang out right on the border and catch folks trying to rip down to FC for the night. They love writing speeding tickets...

 

[Runningwater]

I see you say you are from the Sandhills! So Laramie will be cooler/colder for a longer, extended season, and windier more often, but not drastically so from where you are at. Depending on what part of the Sandhills you are from (I'm originally from Gordon and my wife is from Rushville), Laramie will seem like a pretty big town, and you are close to Ft. Collins for a much bigger selection (plus I'd think a great place for carpentry work - that place is booming right now) - and really only about 2 hours from Denver and its major airport. I've been in CO for over 20 years now, but before that spent 5 years in WY - and managed to draw both a moose and a sheep tag during that time (same year actually). Not sure what housing and cost of living costs are there. Good luck!

 

[LostArra]

Spent a chunk of time down there and had a blast. It is a college and tech school town so a lot of business caters to that during peak season. The summers are a ton of fun when the majority of kids leave, hop on the interstate and be almost anywhere in a day, take hwy 287 and you're in Ft. Collins in an hour which is a fun town as well. I found the true locals to be awesome people. We had a couple folks give us property access to hunt prairie dogs on their land with only two rules, don't shoot towards the house and don't leave until you're out of ammo. The Snowy Mountains were smaller than I'm used to but still a ton of fun.

Not sure if this is still the case but they only sold 3.2 beer when I was there, go to Ft. Collins if you want good beer. When you're headed down there watch out for the CO cops, they like to hang out right on the border and catch folks trying to rip down to FC for the night. They love writing speeding tickets...

How things change! When I was in school in Laramie (early 70's) the 3.2 bars/beer was in Ft Collins and legal age for those bars was 18.
US 287 was curvy and narrow so the drunk speeders coming home ended up in the ditch or worse with a deer or pronghorn thru the windshield.

 

[bridgerbenson]

Thanks for the responses! Sounds like exactly the place I want to be. Really the only reason we're considering it is my desire to get out west for the mountains and easier access to elk hunting. Luckily my wife is on board. With a very successful carpentry business and a hell of a start into the rental property game, I just need to muster up the cajones to drop it all and start over....all in the name of elk hunting! Lol. Decisions decisions. Thanks again.

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[cnelk]

I go to Laramie to get away from N Colorado

And those Wyoming troopers like to write tickets too just south of Laradise on 287

 

[Junior_es1]

Good ol laradise!


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[HookUp]

I think you are better off learning multiple states to hunt elk than moving to Wyoming. Just my opinion but learning the states and units all the while seeing new country is a lot better than moving to state that is a Popsicle 5 months out of the year.

 

[Rossi]

If the goal is to elk hunt more, then moving to Wyoming makes a lot of sense. Living in state, you can hunt every year and learn the units more easily (time wise and financially speaking). Plenty of new country to explore in Wyoming. But if you would rather pay higher non-resident fees and spend more money for travel to spend less time in the mountains in different states, to each their own.

 

[bridgerbenson]

Its a popsicle 5-6 months already where I live! . I've actually never hunted Wyoming, but figure Laramie makes the most sense because it's still relatively close to home, less taxes, can get a Wyoming elk tag every year, and still a short drive to go hunt the OTC Colorado units I'm used to as well.
From what I see on realestate sites, housing is high there. Are there opportunities to get run down fixer uppers?

I think you are better off learning multiple states to hunt elk than moving to Wyoming. Just my opinion but learning the states and units all the while seeing new country is a lot better than moving to state that is a Popsicle 5 months out of the year.

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[Runningwater]

If living in/near mountains isn't a requirement and if your willing to look at smaller towns, there are much cheaper places to live in WY than Laramie. Torrington for instance, would be closer to home (on the NE border) and much cheaper. Its decent sized (from a WY perspective) and has a community college so its still got some amenities - compared to say a Chugwater!

 

[woody6899]

Look past the butt crack of Wyoming(I80 corridor) there are a lot of great mountain towns desperate for carpenters. Dubois comes to mind. It’s super small but you are in the heart of elk country.


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