Paonia

In Delta County, Paonia is known as the town that's a little... different. Paonia is a small town in the mountains near the Grand Mesa, surrounded by a fairly conservative community, and yet they are nationally known for the liberal environmental newspaper the High Country News. Their annual Earth Day festival rivals Seattle and San Francisco in its hippie-ness. Also, Paonia and the Overland Reservoir have hosted the Rainbow Gathering over several decades - and If you don't know what the Rainbow Gathering is, look it up. Or better yet, just go.

In short, Paonia is a fantastically quirky and richly beautiful town that deserves a visit if you are traveling through the area.

I have several friends who live in and around Paonia and this is a great mountain town! It is a very unique, kind of eccentric small west slope hidden treasure. The Ute indians lived in the North Fork Valley (that is north fork of the Gunnison River) were Paonia sits along with its sister towns Hotchkiss and Crawford. The population of Paonia is under 2,000 but there are big ideas there, people living off the grid, art, organic farms and local restaurants and shops.

The largest employers are the coal mines in the area. Fruit orchards also dominate the valley especially famous for peaches. There are also wineries that have sprang up in the last years. The fruit orchards give the area a special life and beauty along with the mesas and beauty of the valley in general. There are a lot of wild places and forest roads close by.

There is also the Mountain Harvest Festival the last weekend of September, I went a few years ago and fell in love with the art and people. There is some good energy around Paonia. I plan on going there this year too.

As far as cost of living I think it is pretty reasonable and if you are looking to buy land there are some big lots were you could even start a farm or orchard, there are a lot of community efforts and new age ideas and people there. I romanticize that the community efforts and spirit of the Utes that were pushed out over a hundred years is starting to come through again.

Paonia is a far far drive from Denver and is real west slope living. It seems more like Utah than the Front Range Colorado. But there is something about Paonia that reminds me of Boulder (must be the hippies:)