Wife’s on the hunt for Wyoming property

Joined
Sep 4, 2016
Messages
49
Location
Monroe,wa
Wife has found some land in Recluse,WY she wants to buy for a camping/vacation property. We currently live in the bitterroot valley,MT.

Can anybody tell me any positives or negatives about the area?


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TaperPin

WKR
Joined
Jul 12, 2023
Messages
3,229
I had to refresh my memory of where that was. Unfortunately I don’t have anything constructive to add other than it’s way out there in the middle of not to much. The cool thing about being within driving distance to the Bighorns is that is much less over visited than the western part of the state - friends I grew up with on the west side plan hunting and camping trips to the Bighorns to get away from people - it’s more like western Wy was 40 years ago.

The bad part about little areas like this is you have to enjoy living out in the desolate areas where even sagebrush has a hard time growing. Even though there are houses around and what appears to be dry agricultural land, there is also some oil field stuff from the aerial views - if it’s one of those hole in the wall kind of places with half oil field folks, I’d look elsewhere - if local girls don’t feel safe jogging on the local dirt roads, there’s a reason. I had a friend who’s brother had PTSD and enjoyed living and working in these type of remote semi oilfield areas - I rode along as we visited the brother and we spent the day with him. The back stories of the 50 or so various characters that inhabited his patch of moonscape were interesting to say the least.

Other similar areas are populated with old families on old properties and are great people - my old as dirt aunt used to teach in a one room school in an out the way spot like this. In the old days there were more people, especially young people. Now, few kids grow up dreaming of staying and having a family in a place like this, but some do. There are a lot of old homesteads on a little creek in the middle of nowhere that are awesome - the little bit of extra moisture brings 10x as many animals and I can see the attraction.

All the straight lines in this aerial view immediately made me think of small oil fields.
CCE8F211-4BE6-49B0-A814-40BBA0AEBEB6.jpeg
 

manitou1

WKR
Joined
Mar 29, 2017
Messages
1,933
Location
Wyoming
I had to refresh my memory of where that was. Unfortunately I don’t have anything constructive to add other than it’s way out there in the middle of not to much. The cool thing about being within driving distance to the Bighorns is that is much less over visited than the western part of the state - friends I grew up with on the west side plan hunting and camping trips to the Bighorns to get away from people - it’s more like western Wy was 40 years ago.

The bad part about little areas like this is you have to enjoy living out in the desolate areas where even sagebrush has a hard time growing. Even though there are houses around and what appears to be dry agricultural land, there is also some oil field stuff from the aerial views - if it’s one of those hole in the wall kind of places with half oil field folks, I’d look elsewhere - if local girls don’t feel safe jogging on the local dirt roads, there’s a reason. I had a friend who’s brother had PTSD and enjoyed living and working in these type of remote semi oilfield areas - I rode along as we visited the brother and we spent the day with him. The back stories of the 50 or so various characters that inhabited his patch of moonscape were interesting to say the least.

Other similar areas are populated with old families on old properties and are great people - my old as dirt aunt used to teach in a one room school in an out the way spot like this. In the old days there were more people, especially young people. Now, few kids grow up dreaming of staying and having a family in a place like this, but some do. There are a lot of old homesteads on a little creek in the middle of nowhere that are awesome - the little bit of extra moisture brings 10x as many animals and I can see the attraction.

All the straight lines in this aerial view immediately made me think of small oil fields.
View attachment 721155
Wow, I live in the foothills of the Bigjorns and they have become a zoo!
Must be reaaly bad on the West side now.

We can't even find a campground opening most of the time.
When we go off grid (in an off road camper), chances are you are looking at twenty other campers from your location.

Hunting season isn't any better.

Now that we have lodges renting atvs/sxs there is no peace.
 

TaperPin

WKR
Joined
Jul 12, 2023
Messages
3,229
Wow, I live in the foothills of the Bigjorns and they have become a zoo!
Must be reaaly bad on the West side now.

We can't even find a campground opening most of the time.
When we go off grid (in an off road camper), chances are you are looking at twenty other campers from your location.

Hunting season isn't any better.

Now that we have lodges renting atvs/sxs there is no peace.
The entire Windriver Range and farther west are over run - we must be contributing to your problems to get away from ours.

We used to have fishing so good it was ridiculous, now the extra fishing pressure is more than high lakes can keep up with. Social media has shown an entire country exactly which rock to cast from and which fly to use, at every high country lake to catch fish from. Bloggers are constantly giving updates on where to camp.

Next thing you know forums will be sharing way too much hunting information. . . oh wait. . . we already do that to. :)
 

manitou1

WKR
Joined
Mar 29, 2017
Messages
1,933
Location
Wyoming
The entire Windriver Range and farther west are over run - we must be contributing to your problems to get away from ours.

We used to have fishing so good it was ridiculous, now the extra fishing pressure is more than high lakes can keep up with. Social media has shown an entire country exactly which rock to cast from and which fly to use, at every high country lake to catch fish from. Bloggers are constantly giving updates on where to camp.

Next thing you know forums will be sharing way too much hunting information. . . oh wait. . . we already do that to. :)
Exactly our problem here too.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
16,155
Location
Colorado Springs
The entire Windriver Range and farther west are over run - we must be contributing to your problems to get away from ours.

We used to have fishing so good it was ridiculous
That part of WY was a second home for us from the time I was born in '65 until I was in college in the 80's. My parents started spending a bunch of time up there in the 50's. My grandpa and dad were fanatical flyfishermen. We would normally also spend time in SW MT around Dillon fishing as well. The flyfishing on the rivers was always phenomenal in both places. But we used to complain even in the 80's when it got more crowded, and especially when everyone started floating the rivers. Luckily we always had lots of private access back then. Solitude is pretty much a thing of the past in most the places I want to be.
 

TaperPin

WKR
Joined
Jul 12, 2023
Messages
3,229
That part of WY was a second home for us from the time I was born in '65 until I was in college in the 80's. My parents started spending a bunch of time up there in the 50's. My grandpa and dad were fanatical flyfishermen. We would normally also spend time in SW MT around Dillon fishing as well. The flyfishing on the rivers was always phenomenal in both places. But we used to complain even in the 80's when it got more crowded, and especially when everyone started floating the rivers. Luckily we always had lots of private access back then. Solitude is pretty much a thing of the past in most the places I want to be.
Isn’t it funny when describing to others just how good the fishing was - to be honest I took it for granted and simply assumed other places must be similar. Many trips to a good lake resulted in most flies in the box being torn to pieces from so many bites. Lol
 

Ralphie

WKR
Joined
Feb 18, 2019
Messages
389
...and people talking about where they just moved to and how great it is or looking for great places to move to is just as bad as sharing hunting and fishing locations. Especially when doing so on a hunting site.
 

go_deep

WKR
Joined
Jan 7, 2021
Messages
1,981
The Big Horns look like an RV park in the summer, but in all seriousness, I don't know of any mountain range in Wyoming anymore that doesn't look like that. The hum of generators running all night and the roar of sxs and atv's all day, so peaceful...
 

LFC911

WKR
Joined
Jul 15, 2020
Messages
578
Location
Lenexa, KS
I am 5-7 years away from retirement and our goal is to move somewhere west, closer to the mountains. My wife is solar powered and needs sunlight and wants to be near water. KC averages 216 days of sunshine by contrast Gunnison, CO averages 270 days. I don't think she could handle the winters in WY or ID, so that's why I'm looking further south in CO and UT. We'll be making several "scouting" trips in the coming years. If anyone has any suggestions and doesn't want to blow up a spot, feel free to send a PM.
 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
Joined
Feb 27, 2012
Messages
16,155
Location
Colorado Springs
Isn’t it funny when describing to others just how good the fishing was - to be honest I took it for granted and simply assumed other places must be similar. Many trips to a good lake resulted in most flies in the box being torn to pieces from so many bites. Lol
We have always mostly been catch & release fishermen, but I have pictures from the late 60's and early 70's with large brown's heads and tails touching both ends of the newspaper top to bottom. We would leave those in town to be smoked while we went up to MT for more fishing, then pick them up on the way home. We'd come home with 50lbs of smoked trout for the freezer every fall. Good stuff.
 
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