14 Random Reasons Why We Love (Living In) Westcliffe, Colorado
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- Опубликовано: 28 янв 2022
- Nine of the highest peaks in the USA including some of the world’s most difficult mountains to climb, plenty of scenic ranches, abundant wildlife everywhere, the dramatic, wide-open space of the Wet Mountain Valley, breathtaking, beautiful hikes to more than 40 pristine, crystal-clear high alpine lakes and the mind-blowing show at night, when the real stars come out to play: No doubt, Westcliffe and the surrounding areas are very special, but - surprisingly - remain one of the best-kept secrets in all of Colorado!
This video by renown photographer and long-time Westcliffe resident Christoph Stopka and his wife Cathy Crelling explains what makes this region so absolute unique, by listing a number of very personal insider tips!
Enjoy!
We absolutely adore Westcliffe but please, let's keep it a secret as long as possible!
No, I'm inviting all my friends to buy up houses there at above market price
@@BlazingFaith1945 you would!
Most people can't stand the peace and quiet for very long. Their loss, our gain.
We love Westcliffe. We started visiting Westcliffe by going to Horn Creek in 1972. when it was a tiny town.
We were able to buy a small cabin in 2000 in Rosita and later bought a larger cabin in Antelope Valley on 10 acres.
Sadly we haven’t owned a second home in Westcliffe since 2008.
Awesome film work 👍! Greetings from Buena Vista Colorado. I’m going there in a couple of weeks to visit a friend and go to the Amish bakery.
We had a getaway cabin for many years in Rosita. Fond memories.
I grew up in La Veta not to far from Westcliffe and Silver Cliff. I spent some time in the Silver Dome and worked for the US Forest Service in the San Carlos Ranger District. I've spent some time in the mountains there. Music pass is a favorite of mine.
Fabulous video! You live in the most beautiful place. Thanks so much for sharing Westcliffe with us.
Thanks, Jeanne! There is plenty to share out here…😉
Stunning! Thanks for the video!
I really appreciate your appreciation and talent for capturing and sharing nature, especially our beautiful mountains and valley! Thank you!
Thank you so much for your sweet review, Debbie!
Deb, how are you?
Hi Michael! I am feeling stronger than a year ago when I was diagnosed, so I am grateful to be living! I have learned to manage my side effects pretty well. We will be checking on cancer status in a couple of weeks. That will also tell us if the chemo drug I'm on is still effective. Thank you for asking! Hope you are well. Tell your mom hello for me!
Beautiful and amazing video!! Thanks for sharing it.
Great! Thank you!
Great Photography !!
Thank you so much for the compliment! This area makes it easy to get good photos…
The Wet Mountain Valley is a major flyway for migrating birds and there are a lot of birdwatchers with their little log books taking advantage of rare bird sightings there.
Hi Russel,
Thank you for your kind response to our video! It sounds like you definitely know the area very well. And yes, we are also every day fascinated by all of the different birds in this valley.
Fantastic!!
Thank you!! Glad you like it.
I’ve been to west cliff once. It’s just a beautiful place to drive over to from Raton New Mexico. If you wanna experience different then this is the place to see. Thank you for sharing!
It really is a beautiful place!
Hi Mariela,
Thanks for watching! Yes, it is incredibly beautiful here. And putting this video together made us realize again, just how lucky we are to live here…
I visit Westcliffe often. I have property and a cabin near Gardner. Thanks for the great video!
Awesome! I was fortunate to work their temporarily. One of the few places that are designated Dark Sky Communities. Great folk there. Hotel that I stayed at had spotty wifi but friendly dogs from the owner which made my day after a long day of work.
Excellent video! We lived there from 1983 to 1986, I miss Westcliffe every day! I've been to many of those locations in the high country fishing the high mountain lake as well as Grape creek.
Well done!
Thank you for your kind words! So glad you like the video. Hope you will still be able to come back frequently and visit this beautiful area.
Hi I really liked your video. I was wondering the song was called ?
Thank you, I hope someday I can live here too.
Thanks for the video, I’m moving to westcliffe soon so this helps
Welcome to the (very beautiful) neighborhood!
If you have any questions about the area (or maybe you are looking for some fine art photography prints for your home/office?) please don’t hesitate to contact me through my website:
www.christophstopka.com
@@christophstopka4285 thank you
All those things are true! We were blessed to have lived there for a year! One thing was missing from your video. #15 the People are wonderful!
You are right - there are a lot of nice people out here! But there are many other great items, we purposely left off the list. Otherwise we would have had a very long video 😉… Thanks for watching and hopefully you will be able to visit.
Fantastic! makes me what to jump on a plane and visit!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed our little clip. Feel free to pass the link on everyone who might like the video too. And, go - get on the plane!😉
Westcliffe does have an airport South of town that will accommodate small planes.
I was trying to find something I saw in a dream once on Google maps and instead found Westcliffe. I want to visit. I don't have much money but I want to spend some time there someday. It looks like something in my dreams, a beautiful place.
I want to move out here and retire. This is beautiful. Wow.
“You call some place paradise kiss it goodbye”
Eagles
Einfach nur Wahnsinn 👍
Thank you so much!
Nice vid!!! Im looking to move there!! How do you like it!! How is it near Rosita?!!!
👍👍
Thank you so much, Neil! Glad you like our video.
Please credit the original composer of this track : Tangerine Dream - Love on a Real Train
Thats right. Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay getting it on, Ha Ha. Risky Business Baby. Love those old trains. Same ones in Chicago and NYC. From Back In The Day. When they had cane seats and real 3' fans overhead with white porcelain grab handles. Those were the days.
How long do you think it will be before the unintended consequences of "look how great it is here" results in filling up the valley and hills with roof tops?
Hi "Pivotas", I appreciate your comment. Obviously, you didn't enjoy our little (very personal) video about Westcliffe and the Wet Mountain Valley. To answer your question: I don't know how long it will be, before the valley and hills will be filling with roof tops. Actually, I sincerely hope that will NEVER happen. But keep in mind that they were doing this already BEFORE we posted our video! This is happening
Hi again, Pivotas!
I just noticed that somehow my answer got totally torn apart when I sent it yesterday. I am going to write it again later today. Sorry, no idea what happened.
It has been like that for the past 5 years or so, my aunt and uncle lived there for 25 years and where they moved away from is becoming all private communities I wouldn't be surprised if the back roads north of lake deweese became gated
Well, there goes that idea.
I guess I will stick with moving out of usa.
Beautiful place though.
The valley floor has a minimum of 80 acres in which you can build on and adjacent to the valley your limited to a minimum of 35 acres so there’s a growth limit because of these restrictions. There are some 5 acre lots available in certain areas and of course in town the houses have normal size lots. With all these restrictions Westcliffe can never be overpopulated.
Wow what an amazing place and you're allowed to. Live there? Is there sites for you know hook UPS and water and everything because I would live either in a camper or a tiny home or try to buy property? Are you near A town nearby or anything like that are there hospitals nearby? I mean is this out in the boonies or are you near everything? How far of a drive until you get to a grocery store? Is what I'm asking stuff like that? And is it affordable? Or is it expensive to live there? Because I'm very interested what a beautiful spot and what's it near as in? Is it near Rocky Mountain national? Or is it another part of Colorado that we don't know about cause? I've never heard of it. I've heard a Bear Lake and that's at Rocking national so if you could can you give me some more information love this area?
Westcliff has a downtown. Grocery store, gas station, PO, municipal building, bowling alley, art galleries & restaurants. There is even a small airport just out of town in Centennial Ranch.
It is in-between the Wet Mountains & the San Dio De Christo mountain ranges- giving some of the most spectacular views
You probably done your own research hopefully by now but if not :: No its nowhere near Rocky Mtn NP. and there are many Bear Lakes in CO. You cannot live in a camper for more than 14 days and you must have a way to dispose of grey and black water. There is 1 good RV park a few miles out of town. No Boondocking. Limited medical services. Its a small town that attracts day and overnite tourists who are up for a few hours driving to get to it. Chic little tourist cafes and a brew pub with not so great food. The one local grocery store is EXPENSIVE. for example : nearly $8 for a half gallon of tropicana OJ, $6 for a gallon of regular whole milk ( not organic) Their selections of food is for what I call the meat n potatoes crowd . Not much healthy food found here. I dont know how the regular farm families are able to afford anything in this market. Depending on where one lives it can be a short 15 min drive to town or an hour . They probaby drive hour and 45 to Canon City to stock up at Walmart . Building codes are strict and enforced in Custer County. Your best bet is to visit first then decide if you want to spend $40k for one acre of decent raw land .
Spectacular views. Actively searching to move to this area. Edit: Still searching for just the right spot.
Out of staters commonly over advertising Wyoming, bring more out of staters.
Beautiful place but far away from any international airport and a decent grocery store.
Silver Mountain is in Walsenburg. Definitely not West Cliffe. Maybe even can be considered Gardner.
Hi McParody,
Thanks for your note about Silver Mountain. Yes, you are correct: technically Silver Mnt. is not in the township of Westcliffe. That’s why we didn’t state anywhere “Silver Mnt is IN Westcliffe”, since that would be wrong. But it is nearby and only a short drive away. And since we called this video “14 reasons why we love living in Westcliffe”, stunningly beautiful, nearby Silver Mountain is definitely one of the reasons! Because it is only a quick drive down the road…
@Christoph Stopka Westcliffe is a great little town. I've been there several times. Mostly to go bowling, lol.
Bowling at Cliff Lanes is a great reason to come to Westcliffe! Have Fun!!
So secret you can’t tell us where it is???
Views and everything really nice! Nice Colorado feeling but the actual town/ people was a bit racists. Worked there for Xcel and people be rude and employees from stores would return cash by throwing them back at you on the counter and not saying a single word with a weird look. Other than that views/ drive and feeling was amazing!
I like the area because the people tend to have a very conservative attitude.
Where the hell is Westcliffe?
Westcliffe is not ‘hell’ - it is heaven out here. Located in South Central Colorado. Check it out on a map - you know, those things made out paper, where one can find the location of a place or town…
Westcliffe is directly West of Pueblo in the Sangre de Christo mountains.
@@christophstopka4285 Or rather comment, if you know how to read a map, the kind the service station used to give out for free, then you would love and know where Westcliffe is. Yea, I'm from Back In The Day and I would love to check out Westcliffe. Love to get my Pioneer Spirit On.
Images and editing are great!
Surprised there aren't more likes!
However I'm not a fan of those repetitive repetitive repetitive tunes...
Thank you, Linda! Glad you enjoyed the video! Sorry about the music - we actually got quite a few reactions from viewers who "absolutely loved" the music track. Well, different people have different taste - which is a very good thing, otherwise we would all be listening to the same tunes without any variety. FYI: This particular piece of music is in fact a very famous track, originally from "Tangerine Dream" and it became so famous when it was used in the blockbuster classic movie "Risky Business" (The love scene on the train...). People went crazy trying to find out who was behind this song, and it has been copied by many musical artists since then. I agree it is a bit repetitive, yet I feel that it is a good choice for the video. It is not easy to find a perfect track that's about eight (!) minutes long...
About the number of "likes": Surprisingly, according to RUclips the average ratio of "likes" compared to the total number of "views" for all of their videos is only between 1% and 2%. 3% is already considered "high" and "very successful". Crazy, isn't it? So, when I look at the latest numbers (right now 320 views in less than 24 hours and 22 "likes" = almost 7%!), then we are way above the average and - according to RUclips - this little video is VERY well received. Thanks to viewers like you, who notice the quality of the images and the attention we try to pay to editing. Again: Thank you and feel free to pass the link on to anybody who might enjoy it too!
I hope it isn't advertised very much.
Ha!! Salida kicks Westcliff’s a$$!!
Hi Karl,
Hmm, Nobody here is aware that there is a competition going on between Westcliffe and Salida…could it be Salida is eager to prove something? Jealousy? Anyway. But I wholeheartedly agree: If Westcliffe and Salida would ever be competing against each other, Salida would easily win . Salida has more cars clogging up the roads, way more people and bikes lumbering on (fewer) trails (to fewer lakes) than WC, Salida definitely beats WC when it comes to pollution going up into the air, has much higher temperatures, especially in the summertime since Salida sits at a lower elevation. And - beside the number of red lights ( Westcliffe has NONE!) there is one category where WC is hopelessly behind: Salida has way more houses, covering basically every inch of real estate (and often blocking the view of the beautiful mountain range outside of town). After all, who cares that I can see NINE peaks more than 14,000 ft tall from our property, have dozens and dozens of unbelievable, quiet hiking trails to choose from, leading to a multitude of stunning, high-alpine lakes that are brimming with trout, but are mostly without people. But really, who cares, those things are all totally overrated, right? Yeah, you’re probably right: Salida would kick Westcliffe’s butt.
But only in your dreams.
@christophstopka4285 nice retort. Love the area and prefer fewer people...