Is Grand Junction a good place to live?

I'm looking to see if I can find a place in Colorado to live. The East slopes sound a little too crowded for my taste and I like small town vibes.    Is Grand Junction a place worth looking into to live and have good climbing?  

Grand Junction is not a good place to live.  But it is within reasonable range of amazing outdoor pursuits. 

GJ isn't bad and a decent size, not too big, but enough to where you have everything you would need.  It is close to lots of climbing, biking, water sports and they have a nice gym for when you can't get out.  Also, the cost of living is a lot less than that of a lot of other towns throughout Colorado. 

If your a weekend warrior, Its 50x better than the front range. Dont mind the heat in summer and ride a bike.

Wage vs Cost of living isn't as bad as the Front Range, but still pretty abysmal. Lots of awesome stuff outdoors and not far from Moab, but I couldn't be convinced to move back (doesn't stop my mom from trying). I'd say if you have a solid telecommuting gig, that will make it suck less.

As poster below said, Fruita is a little better. I lived there for a bit, and loved it. I still had to go to GJ for work, though, and that sucked.

Fruita is better if you are doing that. I wouldn' tho. 

I found nothing "Grand" about it personally. Have you looked in the Durango area? There are countless outdoor activities, small town vibe, access to big mountains and great skiing, plus your not far from Moab and great desert climbing. Just my two cents. 

I appreciate all the quick feedback.   Its been very helpful.   Thank you very much.  

Despite some bad experiences there I like Malfunction.

But Fruita is nicer.

A few miles from The Rib; no approach and you can skateboard back to your car.

Have to disagree with the above, moved here to GJ in October 2017 from the Front Range, and my girlfriend and I love it. And we definitely like it more than Fruita, that town is just TOO small. We live about 2 blocks from downtown GJ, though, so I'd imagine we'd feel differently if we weren't so centrally located.

The people are nice. Downtown is cool and has some great little spots to eat and drink at (I think Bin 707 is better than anything we had in Golden, or close by. Would hold its own in Denver, even). We're close to Rifle, Moab/Castle Valley, Indian Creek. Also have some stuff to climb in Colorado National Monument. The gym here is a pretty nice facility, never crowded, especially by Front Range standards. Cost of living is low, housing cost is super low. Good jobs are hard to find outside of the hospital and university, but we had our own gigs when we moved here so that wasn't a factor for us. I think in 5-10 years this area is gonna blow up, there's a lot of cool stuff going on here but people just don't know about the area yet. Once the economy allows for better employment opportunities, I think a lot of people will start moving here.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions :)

Abram Herman wrote:  Once the economy allows for better employment opportunities, I think a lot of people will start moving here.

Ah, there's the crux. Been waiting on that for a couple decades.

Grand Junction is a haven for racists and Q-Anon conspiracy theorists. Lauren Boebert is the US Representative. You may say you don't care about politics, but if you care about humans you should know that Grand Junction used to be a KKK headquarters, had sundown laws well into the 1960s, and those sentiments still exist today. You WILL see confederate flags here. As far as COVID goes, know that only 33% of people are fully vaccinated, many still believe it's a hoax. Whatever you do, don't put a Democratic candidate's or a BLM sticker on your car unless you want your windows broken. And forget about arguing for clean energy: this is a fracking town. Do yourself a favor and just come here to climb or mountain bike, but don't live here: it's over-priced, and full of right-wing, gun-totin' crazies. 

Daisy M wrote:

Grand Junction is a haven for racists and Q-Anon conspiracy theorists. Lauren Boebert is the US Representative. You may say you don't care about politics, but if you care about humans you should know that Grand Junction used to be a KKK headquarters, had sundown laws well into the 1960s, and those sentiments still exist today. You WILL see confederate flags here. As far as COVID goes, know that only 33% of people are fully vaccinated, many still believe it's a hoax. Whatever you do, don't put a Democratic candidate's or a BLM sticker on your car unless you want your windows broken. And forget about arguing for clean energy: this is a fracking town. Do yourself a favor and just come here to climb or mountain bike, but don't live here: it's over-priced, and full of right-wing, gun-totin' crazies. 

Gee, this sounds like an objective, neutral assessment from a non-partisan, non-woke person. Who joined MP six hours ago. Nothing sketchy about this person's motives. Nothing at all.

I wasn't asked to give a neutral assessment, I was asked if it was a good place to live. It's not. Good place to climb, tho. (I live in Grand Junction. FrankPS lives in Atascadero, CA, LOL, so ... take that for what it's worth. No law against climbers trolling non-resident's responses, I guess. Have a good day in Atascadero, FrankPS!) Agree about the restaurants and downtown being cool -- Rockslide Brewery and Taco Party are excellent. Spoons, Ale House and Palisade Cafe are also great!

As a resident of Grand Junction, I wholeheartedly disagree with Daisy's hyperbolic assessment of GJ.

Daisy trying to keep housing prices low...

100% if you're an open minded adventurous person it's one of the best up and coming communities to be in. Housing is still affordable and access is some of the best in Colorado. I lived all over the country and very deliberately bought a home here. We'd love to have more loving community minded individuals. If that's you? We can't wait to hang and climb with ya. 

What about Montrose? I flew into there to go ski Silverton. Seemed like a decent town. Right next to the Black Canyon. Closer to good ski resorts.

Montrose might be the best central location for outdoor activities in CO, as far as a vibrant community/outdoor culture? not as much, although it's trying, you will certainly find some climbers but for a real climbing community you are still going to GJ or Ouray for the time being, that said, the city seems to be serious about bringing in outdoor industry, I think there's a good chance that it is on the upswing as an outdoor town, get in now before you can't afford to ... 

Keep in mind that the OP asked this question 3 years ago. This thread was revived by a new assessment of Grand Junction, three years after the OP asked.

4 years from now I will ask "Is Grand Junction a good place to live?" and you will answer TODAY!