I’ve borne witness to the taming of the wild west over the past three decades as hundreds of thousands of new residents migrated to resort communities in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Fortunately, most of the big adventures available in the region I’ve partaken in from summiting big peaks, wilderness raft trips, biking the slick rock, heli-skiing Canada, snowmobiling Yellowstone before restrictions, fishing all the big hatches on the big rivers, and now reflecting upon what is next.

Growth in the Rockies just ran up the spine from south to north making a three decade march from the 1970’s in places like Aspen up in to Montana and British Columbia in the past decade.

Everybody wants to get in on a good thing ahead of the crowd when general discovery leads to disappearing opportunity and a squeeze play on working class families. Everybody wants to know but few ever hold the answer until it is too late. Why? You have to live and breathe the region, do your homework, and understand demographics and population movements to get there ahead of “the crowd”.

Fortunately I have had a pretty good track record in arriving in areas that get “too cool for school” just ahead of the major onslaught. For instance, I discovered Bend, Oregon in the late 1980’s before its explosion. I arrived in Sun Valley a year ahead of 1989 when prices nearly doubled; fortunately I bought before they did. I also bought real estate in Bozeman, Montana in the early 1990’s. So when I set out to find the “next place” for the Spires at Red Lodge development team most of the criteria were firmly established.

Two years ago I began doing what I call the great search, which was an attempt to identify some place that still had the right stuff, still had loads of upside potential, in spite of the fact that we were in the beginnings of a major real estate downturn on a national scale. This would require some place that had major new investment occurring, great proximity to established infrastructure, and a place that had not appreciated on a grand scale over the past several decades. The northern Rockies still contain a few such locations but they are getting scarce, even up here and with the Rocky Mountains still forecast to be one of the fastest growing regions in the country in the next 10 years as the baby boomers retire in mass it is likely going to disappear altogether.

Our criteria are relatively simple. Older folks control the vast majority of wealth so thinking about the needs of the age 55 and up crowd is a good place to start. Good medical care, good transportation options, median home and land prices, a broad array of activities and how crowded are those activities. If life is short then you need to minimize your windshield time so more of it can be spent on the enjoyable activities. The diversity of recreation, eateries, access to culture and a host of factors were evaluated.

After the better part of one year had passed we had identified a few pretty darn good options but Red Lodge was our clear winner and the City of Billings played a big part in its victory.

The town has an authenticity and charm that is getting harder and harder to find in this country. Park City, Utah had it back in the early 1980’s, but it is gone now. Jackson Hole had it back in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. People actually wave to you from their cars and these are people that you do not even know.

Red Lodge is 59 miles from Billings, Montana (pop. 105,000) and Billings has the best medical care in a five State region along with Montana’s only international airport. Every big box store known to man resides in Billings and a great many national acts pass through the town.

Being only one hour from the largest city in a 400 mile radius is a big plus for living in Red Lodge. Of course it doesn’t hurt that blue ribbon trout streams from the Big Horn to the Stillwater are very comfortable day trips.

An 11,000 foot pass just south of town opens in late May and offers what is without a doubt the best car serviced skiing terrain anywhere in the United States.

If you love to four wheel there are hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands and thousands of miles of trails and roads. Try the Meteetsee Trail on the south end of town and ride past Mount Maurice down in to Wyoming. For snowmobilers the terrain south of town right up to the border of Yellowstone Park is an undiscovered gem populated by just a few locals.

How would you like to ski over 4,000 vertical feet right out the door of your car? You can do it here on the Beartooth Pass which offers what has been called the best pass skiing in the country. The road opens in late May to early June.

Of course a $48 day ski ticket and a $450 season pass make it affordable enough for real people to ski here.

If you would rather trod the trail or do some overnight wilderness caping adventures than you would be hard pressed to find a better destination than the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness. One million acres that borders a 4 million acre national park makes this outdoor playground bigger than the State of New Jersey.

The day hikes and overnight trips in this area are, once again, some of the best anywhere in the country. Try the Beaten Path from Cooke City, Montana down to East Rosebud where you will go by a dozen or more lakes through the heart of 12,000 foot peaks and get to camp at a lake very night. With Yellowstone Park immediately bordering the one million acre wilderness that borders Red Lodge you’ve got an area that is as big as the State of Massachusetts that is all national park and wilderness.

If you are looking for a good real estate investment with all of the right catalysts and all of the “right stuff” then check out Red Lodge, Montana and The Spires at Red Lodge.