Is Utah loosing its appeal?

I have traveled for work since I graduated high school and at over 40 years of age now I’ve met a lot of people that I asked me why Utah. I have always absolutely loved the state I’ve loved the recreation that it’s brought to me I’ve loved the people that I meet here. And as much as I’ve enjoyed spending my time other places I’ve never consider anywhere else being home.

That love of Utah has been shifting. I know if you listen to Elon talk the world is suffering from an under population issue but this place is become so crowded I don’t enjoy the things that I used to enjoy. And after trying to get out with my family this weekend and just completely frustrated with everything being an absolute shit show of people I can’t help it sit here and wonder if this is the place I want to be forever.

I have four more years until my kids graduated high school so I’m going to be here for another four years but I think I might consider looking around and maybe even buying a house or a property somewhere else if the right place comes up.

Is anyone else feeling this frustration with the outdoor recreation that we grew up with just not being available anymore? And if you had a choice of somewhere to be where would it be?

J-mobzz said:

I have traveled for work since I graduated high school and at over 40 years of age now I’ve met a lot of people that I asked me why Utah. I have always absolutely loved the state I’ve loved the recreation that it’s brought to me I’ve loved the people that I meet here. And as much as I’ve enjoyed spending my time other places I’ve never consider anywhere else being home.

That love of Utah has been shifting. I know if you listen to Elon talk the world is suffering from an under population issue but this place is become so crowded I don’t enjoy the things that I used to enjoy. And after trying to get out with my family this weekend and just completely frustrated with everything being an absolute shit show of people I can’t help it sit here and wonder if this is the place I want to be forever.

I have four more years until my kids graduated high school so I’m going to be here for another four years but I think I might consider looking around and maybe even buying a house or a property somewhere else if the right place comes up.

Is anyone else feeling this frustration with the outdoor recreation that we grew up with just not being available anymore? And if you had a choice of somewhere to be where would it be?

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I'm 100% with you. How the boom in population over the past 10 years has completely changed the outdoor recreation dynamic in the state makes me sad and frustrated. Sadly, there is no going back and it's probably just going to get worse. So the choice is to either learn to live with it or, like you suggest, move.

My wife is of the opinion that we learn to live with it. I'm of the opinion that we at least get out of the Wasatch Front/Back. She seems amenable too that when our kids are a bit older, but for now with family so close, it's hard to leave that support and opportunity for them to form relationships with grandparents, cousins, etc.

Im thinking that when the kids are starting elementary school we might be able to relocate to somewhere a bit less crowded. I have some ideas, but I also wonder if they still will be less crowded in six years?

All in all our state and local leaders have done a terrible job in encouraging growth and then not preparing for how that growth will impact the quality of life of Utahns. But I guess since they're all lining their pockets, they don't care.

The majority of my life was spent in Alaska followed by Utah and then Arizona. I love things about each place but would be just fine if I never was in Utah again. I’m working hard on spending the next two years getting my family in a position to spent summers in Alaska and winters in Arizona. Being able to do that for at least the next 10 years would be amazing.

So because the population has increased, you are going to move somewhere with less population... doing to them what has been done to you??




I'm in. Montana is my vote.
I've got about 8 more years.. Then GONZO!


In truth, I am like Jake. Utah has ALWAYS been the best. But I hate people, so something has to change for me.
We tried to find a campsite on some public land in the mountains for the 24th of July. We found well over 50 vacant trailers in campsites, and spent hours trying to find a spot that was empty. Most stayed unoccupied the whole weekend.

jeeper said:

I'm in. Montana is my vote.

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Feel the same I’m ready to leave, can’t convince the wife though.

Hate to break it to ya but Montana while not as overcrowded as Utah it’s catching up. I flew into all the little towns in Montana and it was the same story. They all were prefacing their town name with Cali-ssoula, Cali-spell etc etc. Montana is also under attack.

As I get older it becomes more about the people than the physical location and Utah is home to my whole family and most of my wife’s family. On top of that we just moved into a neighborhood with amazing neighbors/friends for us and our kids so I’m staying. There’s nothing wrong with evaluating your wants/needs and deciding on somewhere else lol you don’t owe Utah anything

Buuuuut Utah is clearly the bestest, most centralized location for rock crawling series’ and we all know how important that is 😃

TRD270 said:

Montana is also under attack.

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Everywhere is. City life is crappy and city folks have figured it out. I don't know that there's anywhere in the US worth living that isn't on the map and attracting refugees from the areas that have already been ruined.

Maybe areas of Canada.

Yep.

And the fact that the “Silicon Slopes” leaders want to bring another cool 3 million in. Where they gonna fit? I have no idea.

I don’t hate people for the record, I love people. I just can’t handle the chaos. We went up to Strawberry today. It was so crazy people were double parking people in parking boat trailers in the road. I watch some dude in a lifted dodge that just launched a quarter million dollar boat put it into 4 wheel drive and go over a huge rock blocking parking only to jack up his truck as he slide into another rig and trailer.

Then it was bumper to bumper traffic all the way down to Heber and down i80. It’s just madness.

J-mobzz said:

I don’t hate people for the record, I love people. I just can’t handle the chaos. We went up to Strawberry today. It was so crazy people were double parking people in parking boat trailers in the road. I watch some dude in a lifted dodge that just launched a quarter million dollar boat put it into 4 wheel drive and go over a huge rock blocking parking only to jack up his truck as he slide into another rig and trailer.

Then it was bumper to bumper traffic all the way down to Heber and down i80. It’s just madness.

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Yuuup! I was up at Strawberry about a month ago and some dork tried to launch his jet skis in a totally inappropriate spot just because he didn't want to wait for the crowds. Buried his Suburban to the axles in the mud. Luckily for him there was an Armada with a winch nearby who's owners wife told him to stop laughing and be helpful...

Kevin B. said:

Everywhere is. City life is crappy and city folks have figured it out. I don't know that there's anywhere in the US worth living that isn't on the map and attracting refugees from the areas that have already been ruined.

Maybe areas of Canada.

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I hear North Dakota is nice 3 weeks a year

I freaking love the Utah I grew up in, but I don't recognize the one I’m living in.

Honestly though where could you go that even compares? The thing we love about being here is the proximity to virtually everything.

I think the biggest push in population boom comes from the pandemic and the realization that you don't have to work in an office to achieve the same results. It's not true for every job that was "tele-commuting" I know, but it was enough of a taste of freedom from an all concrete jungle that everyone seems to want to be free from it now. I can't blame them, I've lived and worked in several large cities, hated every minute of it.

I'm not a fan of crowded places and the chaos myself as stated, however I can't think of any rural area in the country I've been to in the last decade that doesn't have the same issue. With that in mind, Utah is still home and most of my family is still here within a 30 minute drive. Due to that and the time I still need to retire from my part time gig, I think we're here for at least another 8 years. After that my youngest will have graduated high school and I'm willing to entertain positions further north that are more rural and hopefully scare others off with their colder climate.

My people came here in 1847. Certainly each generation lamented the 'progress' brought by more people.

Imo, the influx of humans at every trendy outdoor recreation spot has less to do with population growth (though certainly an issue) and more to do with a higher percentage of existing population taking on the outdoors as a hobby. Add the failed land use policy, massive marketing from the State of Utah to advertise our already grossly packed 'Mighty 5'... and it's at a boiling point in some areas, Cottonwood Canyons, AFC and many other urban forests and rec areas within an hour of SLC.

I just spent the long weekend at the homestead property of my wife's family in Northern Nevada. Ironically it was a bunch of Utahns that homesteaded that barren desert in the early 1900's as there wasn't much land still available in Utah . There is a nice BLM campground along a running creek (Tabor Creek) not too far away, we rolled through on Saturday. Just 3 of the 13? sites were taken, pretty typical for Labor Day weekend there. Nevada has plenty of room

There's nothing for anyone to see or do in Nevada. It sucks there.

- DAA

While I have only lived in Utah but the wife and I have traveled all over the Western U.S., up into Canada and a toe dipped inside Mexico but we still love living in Utah. That being said, we lived in Davis County (West Point) for 26 years and ended up moving almost 6 years ago because it was getting so congested plus I had Sanford & Son living next to us. When we first moved to Davis Co. back in 1991 we loved it but by the last couple of years (2015/2016) we couldn't wait to get out and were just looking for the right place in Weber County. Our past mayor of West Haven was hell bent on bringing as much high density housing into West Haven as she could so we finally kicked her ass to the curb and our new mayor seems to be trying to find that balance to keep our small town lifestyle which I greatly appreciate. I am originally from West Haven area before it was actually West Haven and loved growing up here although now it seems to be getting a bit more congested and see that trend continuing to some degree but at least our neighborhood has large enough lots that we don't feel like we're on top of one another and there can be no more building in our specific subdivision so we will continue to enjoy our little piece of heaven on earth.

As for other areas, everywhere we have traveled for pleasure seems to be getting just as busy and congested as we are here, no matter South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana so we've just learned to deal with it by making our reservations early enough that we can still go and enjoy these areas.

Personally, I think it has more to do with the societal manners of people more so than the actual numbers of them. I have watched a steady decline of people's morals and ethics over the past couple of years in particular which has made me not want to deal with people like I once did. It seems less and less people these days have any respect for themselves let alone anyone else. The whole ME, ME, ME mentality has been shaking my faith in humanity lately. Granted there are still good people out there but they are getting over-run by the worthless meat bags that society is developing these days.

I weep for what my kids and grandkids will have to deal with in the next couple of decades.

Sorry, rant over.

Mike

zmotorsports said:

Personally, I think it has more to do with the societal manners of people more so than the actual numbers of them. I have watched a steady decline of people's morals and ethics over the past couple of years in particular which has made me not want to deal with people like I once did. It seems less and less people these days have any respect for themselves let alone anyone else. The whole ME, ME, ME mentality has been shaking my faith in humanity lately.

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This 100%. So many people think nothing about how the consequence of their behavior may affect anyone other than themselves. People have lost respect for their fellow humans. As you said ME ME ME. Still trying to figure out why people find it necessary to lug an 8lb bluetooth speaker up the mountain so they can "share" their music with everyone else outside, vs some 8gram headphones. Sorry didn't really want to enjoy your hip-hop on my stroll through the forest anyway.

I agree with this and have felt this way for a while. Utah is packed, can't go anywhere really unless you know the secret places that are not advertised or less than 30 minutes from the over crowded communities or any body of water really, which are boat to boat it seems. When we bought our trailer I was thinking back to the days of easy "boon docking" which is hard to find because people use it as their RV storage these days, always knew you'd see it around hunting season but not general summer. The most annoying part for me is every damn city has the same 10 restaurants that can't get a single order right and more choices for which automatic car wash you want to use on every corner but don't worry they "save water", I recycle my water from washing my cars into my grass.

We escaped for a year and I wish that could have worked out for us but my wife's company did not hold up their end of the deal which left me basically being a single parent working full time while home schooling our kids and my wife sitting in hotels in Utah, was not great on our mental health. Moving back and even closer to family than before the move made me realize how big of a help it really is, we are fortunate enough to have found a nice house in a great neighborhood where my kids have friends they go to school with and my mom and sister are less than 10 minutes away.

I used to like to look at the mountains and see mountains and not houses and depending on the time of year smog and no mountains. Eventually we will find some property and start making that ready for retirement, for now it is make the best of it and try and teach our kids how to enjoy the outdoors responsibly.

the grass is always greener on the other side.

I went boating for the first time yesterday in many years and despite the expected low water thought there would be more people. Granted we were at willard bay which is where we grew up boating and not a fancy mountain lake but there were not many boats out at all. The few we did see coming and going from the marina were friendly and asked if we had depth gauges and then told us where to be. I remember waiting what seemed like forever in the line to launch the boat then being right on top of each other skiing. The water was so good too, it was glass the whole time we were there, almost seemed like a waste to be out there.

I like being close to the mountains but what I'm enjoying much less is the heat. I really want to spend my nights and evenings out in my yard puttering around but the heat has killed that for me. I've been very interested in moving to the PNW for the last 15 years but I don't see my wife ever being willing to do that. She doesn't have the family ties here like I do but she isn't one for change. My colleague in the Portland area is retiring at the end of the month and so I could transfer up there right now.