HighDesertSage
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Just a heads up, I would pay attention to what CO does with their OTC elk tags the next year, especially if you archery hunt.
Best State to have a Hunting Retreat as a NR
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Scott85
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If I had the money I would a buy a homestead in the middle of The Frank.
Gerald Martin
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I don’t know your financial situation or what your priorities are, but buying a recreational property and being able to maintain it and still have time and money to recreate can be a real problem. I helped build a house in the middle of the Frank Church two hours from the nearest town with facilities for a fellow who loved to backpack elk hunt the area. He probably spent close to $200,000 on the house. He hired me to go back nine years later to repaint the exterior. He has spent a total of two weeks in the house since it was built. With only a couple weeks of vacation time he has to spend at least a weekend a year on maintenance and doesn’t get much time in the woods when he does come. His wife has never been to the house since she doesn’t like to hunt or camp. It’s on a quarter acre of a steep ridge that all the trees are completely burned off of from a fire about 20 years ago. Pure folly in my opinion.
Gerald Martin
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I can get you his number if you are in the market....
Scott85
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Only if he takes monopoly money.I can get you his number if you are in the market....
lastlight
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Its funny no one ever mentions anywhere in Wyoming - at least 50 miles from Jackson Hole, is where I would consider also.
Pucky Freak
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Alaska.
Don't kid yourself that there's some remote mecca left somewhere in the lower 48 abounding with deer and elk
Don't kid yourself that there's some remote mecca left somewhere in the lower 48 abounding with deer and elk
Cause i am only person with internet in entire state....stay away to primitive and remote...lol. seriously a NR can hope to hunt bull elk about every 3 years on a general maybe every other to every 10 years for general deer tags depending on region and they aint cheap! I hunt idaho(be back in 3 weeks) and its truely great for NRs. On a side note about the 50 miles from jackson comment, G&F may be shutting their Jackson office. They have decided it is "no longer cost effective to maintain the office in the land of billionaires"
D
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Vacation homes in general are pure folly in my opinion.
$200,000 is vacationing just about anywhere you want in the world for 3 weeks a year. I wouldn’t buy a property unless I was planning on living there 4-6 months a year.
Hunting Wife
Well-known member
Yeah, don’t overlook maintenance time, particularly somewhere with brutal winters. My husband’s family has a cabin in Western Montana. Hard winters equal lots of maintenance and upkeep, moreso when things are left to sit for months. We live in state, and still spend at least half our time every time we go up there on maintenance. And that’s completely off grid and no plumbing to worry about winterizing, no wiring for rodents to chew, etc. Packrats and mice are a constant battle. No one hunts out of it anymore because it’s just extra work vs camping, and you still have to travel to get away from all the other cabins that are there now.
Don’t get me wrong...it’s nice to have a place to go and the family history there runs deep. But make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Don’t get me wrong...it’s nice to have a place to go and the family history there runs deep. But make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Marshian
Well-known member
I’m with you 100% on this. I used to fantasize about a hunting spread and the older I get, the more I like the freedom and power of pure money vs land. God willing, in my ripe old age, I leave a fair share to family in some form of easily liquidatable money (ie stocks and bonds, not real estate) and an equally fair share to straight up conservation group (Ducks unlimited, RMEF, local easement, etc for both conservation and public use). In the afterlife, I get the best of both worlds- my family having flexilibily to enjoy where they want and knowing there is no longer a lower 48 outdoorsman mecca with the additional satisfaction of helping wildlife and the public the same way as I currently enjoy the public opportunities.
Find a vacant lot and invest in a good sized wall tent instead of a cabin.
You may find a cabin on FS lands that has a long term lease, you have two follow their rules but they are out there.
Winters are brutal on cabins and everything in the mountains, snow piles up and just destroys anything not built well.
Mice and rats are a real issue as HW stated.
It pains me to say this but Rocky Mountain Timberlands takes western ranches and splits them up into ranchettes. You could buy 35 acres somewhere near the mountains and have access ti the rest of the ranch. We have a ranch like that next door to the one we manage, it is a real pain in the azz.
You may find a cabin on FS lands that has a long term lease, you have two follow their rules but they are out there.
Winters are brutal on cabins and everything in the mountains, snow piles up and just destroys anything not built well.
Mice and rats are a real issue as HW stated.
It pains me to say this but Rocky Mountain Timberlands takes western ranches and splits them up into ranchettes. You could buy 35 acres somewhere near the mountains and have access ti the rest of the ranch. We have a ranch like that next door to the one we manage, it is a real pain in the azz.
D
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I kinda wonder if vacation homes are now more nostalgia and a product of a different era... or maybe just tax bracket...
My family has a lake house in the mts of CO, my grand parents purchased it in the 1950s and the family would go up there for the entire summer, my grandfather would commute back and forth to Denver during the week. Now my dad's 3 siblings and I own it jointly... no one goes up there more than a weekend or 2, the entire time your there your doing maintenance, we rent it all summer to cover costs. No one actually uses it but my aunts and uncles wont sell it because of nostalgia... it's the biggest time suck/everyone would be so much better off it we could let it go... but they have this idyllic image of 1965 when they were all in elementary school playing by the lake with mom and dad.
I would so much rather sell it, invest the proceeds and then rent out a cabin for a week during the summer and let the owners deal with cleaning and up keep so that during my vacation I could be on vacation.
My family has a lake house in the mts of CO, my grand parents purchased it in the 1950s and the family would go up there for the entire summer, my grandfather would commute back and forth to Denver during the week. Now my dad's 3 siblings and I own it jointly... no one goes up there more than a weekend or 2, the entire time your there your doing maintenance, we rent it all summer to cover costs. No one actually uses it but my aunts and uncles wont sell it because of nostalgia... it's the biggest time suck/everyone would be so much better off it we could let it go... but they have this idyllic image of 1965 when they were all in elementary school playing by the lake with mom and dad.
I would so much rather sell it, invest the proceeds and then rent out a cabin for a week during the summer and let the owners deal with cleaning and up keep so that during my vacation I could be on vacation.
antelopedundee
Well-known member
Wouldn't people buying property and closing it to hunting be a bigger travesty? Also how does one keep undesirables out once they realize that the place is oftentimes unoccupied?
Western Traveler1
Well-known member
Those places exist if one concentrates on "rural" rather than "mountain" retreat. Small towns abound in and close to the mountains where someone can have most of what he desires, hunting, fishing, camping etc. Buying on the outskirts of towns can be a reasonable alternative. Remote can also mean no access when the snow starts to fly. I will say from experience better not count on family using it on a regular basis no matter how convenient travel is. For the same reason you are talking "In the future" people get busy in their lives and have their own reasons for not showing up. We have a large family kids, grandkids etc and all enjoy the outdoors. Had a place on the lower Colorado river for over 20 years. We bought a large four bedroom home close to were we are now 18 years ago. Family had an open invitation. Glad we loved it or it would have been wasted effort. Finally we sold it and built a small place for the two of us further outside of town four years ago. We have a cabin on the property if they decide to show up but we are happy on our own. As to Montana it should be noted we usually talk about distance in time rather than miles. Well thought out property purchases are seldom a bad investment. In hindsight I'd have bought more. Zero regrets if one takes care of their own dreams...
Also easy to fit in if one only concerns themselves with what is inside their own fence line...
Vacations don't hold/appreciate in value like owning land. There is where I struggle with agreeing with this idea completely.
We both grew up with parents or grandparents owning a cabin. I know I spent every other weekend there for 10 years straight, which is in direct contrast to people saying their property only gets used once or twice a year. However, maybe we both didn't realize the amount of work that went on to maintain it, since we were kids.
I have discussed the idea with my wife and we're leaning toward wytex's suggestion on focusing on the land aspect and keeping the building/cabin part to a minimum, more likely something like a yurt. We haven't bought anything yet though so, our minds might change.
D
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It's a little different if you live close enough to a property that you can go there every other weekend. My comment was more directed at out of state properties, although a cabin 4+ hours from home might as well be out of state in some respects.
1. When you die you don't get to keep your stuff, contrary the the belief of seemingly everyone in our consumer driven society. Literally the only things that are yours in life are your experiences.
2. I value the memories I going to AK with my dad and flying over glacier bay, hanging out with him on the beach in Scotland, and scuba diving with him in Costa Rica, Cozumel, and the Maldives a heck of a more than a property replete with emotional baggage, that is a pain in the butt to monetize.
This all be said, if you are the kinda person who actually isn't going to plan trips and buying a property is a mechanism that will force you to unplug and spend time with you kids I'm all for that... my two cents would be to worry so much on proximity to awesome hunting/fishing but picking a location that will allow for family time. That can me ability to use if for other activities or travel logistics.
