Like Lewis and Clark, We be Moving

rojo.grandeSo long story short, my girlfriend and I are planning on moving come May. We're looking for a relatively small town, no larger than say 15,000 people given that we currently live in a sleepy lil maine town.

That being said, we've looked pretty hard into Sisters Oregon, as well as Hood River. We know we want to end up in either Washington or Oregon, but I figured where better to ask than the cesspool of NS.

Any thoughts, leads, advice, things to stay away from etc on smaller towns in Oregon or Washington, preferably somewhat close to some mountains is greatly appreciated.

Hit me.

bennwithtwonshave you considered truckee? great access to loads of resorts and still has a sweet walkable downtown. plus, the dopest lake around is just 20 minutes away

weastcoatLet’s friggin go, so stoked for yall❤️❤️

I feel like hood river would be a cool fit. 45 minutes from T Line for day laps as well as Skibowl for night laps. Small but good community, I feel like you’d be right at home it’s def got east coast small hill vibe. Seems expensive to live in but if you could afford it it could go. Best of luck to you two.

GrandThingsSkowhegan

rojo.grandeThis is next up on our research list for sure. Anywhere specific in truckee?

rojo.grandeI got a good laugh outta this

partyandBSwhy do you hate the sun??

-DanDeming Washington



30min to bellingham
hour to mt baker

BallClapperI second that. Been scouting myself.

rojo.grandeThere is no chance you’ve been actively looking at moving to a small unincorporated community in Oregon. But if we end up there let’s get a beer big boy

BallClapperDeming is in Washington.

eheathI think you should pick where you wanna ski then pick a surrounding community. Hard to recommend small towns, there are 100s but if you can lock down your zone it will prob make it easier for you to find out where you wanna go.

Sisters is a tiny like two light town, I wouldnt recommend moving there, but surround areas of bend are awesome and you can avoid a "big town" vibe. But, bend isn't really a big city or anything either, you might end up liking it.

rojo.grandeTotally love the logic here, that’s kind of how we’ve been doing our research. Bachelor would be so sick to call a home hill with a move to bend, and it’s a reasonable distance from hood.


you have any recs on areas around or just outside of bend?

rojo.grandeLmao I was thinking ab this actually, sunlight is crucial and idk if we’re gonna get enough

rojo.grandeTotally love the logic here, that’s kind of how we’ve been doing our research. Bachelor would be so sick to call a home hill with a move to bend, and it’s a reasonable distance from hood.


you have any recs on areas around or just outside of bend?

partyandBSif i could move anywhere, i would go to salida, co. high and dry artsy town of about 5,000. skiing closest to monarch which is alright but tons of mountain biking and the arkansas river is pretty all time there. love the town too. lots of live music.

just up the road is beuna vista and that towns super fun too. younger town i think the average age is like 33 or something. hour from breck and copper with some pretty cool stuff going on in town too.

if i had a remote job id go to one of those 2 towns in a heart beat.

OregonDeadBoth Sisters and HR are total tourist towns. Both still have their off times so sometimes they'll have that sleepy feel but sometimes they will have that car to car gridlock traffic through the entire town feel. If you have employment and are able to work around the tourists for your recreation then both have the potential to be awesome.

rojo.grandeWhat’s the vibe with Redmond if you have any info

partyandBSif i could move anywhere, i would go to salida, co. high and dry artsy town of about 5,000. skiing closest to monarch which is alright but tons of mountain biking and the arkansas river is pretty all time there. love the town too. lots of live music.

just up the road is beuna vista and that towns super fun too. younger town i think the average age is like 33 or something. hour from breck and copper with some pretty cool stuff going on in town too.

if i had a remote job id go to one of those 2 towns in a heart beat.

-DanDeming Washington



30min to bellingham
hour to mt baker

partyandBSif i could move anywhere, i would go to salida, co. high and dry artsy town of about 5,000. skiing closest to monarch which is alright but tons of mountain biking and the arkansas river is pretty all time there. love the town too. lots of live music.

just up the road is beuna vista and that towns super fun too. younger town i think the average age is like 33 or something. hour from breck and copper with some pretty cool stuff going on in town too.

if i had a remote job id go to one of those 2 towns in a heart beat.

eheathThis just reminded me of Gunnison, feel like thats a pretty legit small CO town too.

switchlip2If you’re looking for somewhere up there maybe white salmon / bingen I’ve heard it cheaper than hood river and right by it. Also Wenatchee right by mission ridge could be another good relatively cheaper option

Farmville420Squamish, BC is 20,000 people one of the more beautiful locations in the continent. It's not super far from whistler or Vancouver but it is probably mega expensive and also in Canada so technically international

Farmville420why is this a hated reply I went there once and it was my favorite place in the PNW am I missing something

Woody.Sister is dope. They go for a bit of a old west theme in the downtown which is cool
if you’re into that sorta thing. Hoodoo is a small mountain that’s pretty close, they have super fun night skiing and underrated terrain, not much as far as a park tho couple rails maybe. There’s a bunch of sick backcountry terrain out there too like tam MacArthur rim. Definitely is a lil far to bachy but nothing ridiculous especially if you’re weekend warrioring. Bend is awesome too but is pretty fucking busy these days and definitely doesn’t feel like a small town anymore. You can’t go wrong with any of your options tho tbh! Good luck

**This post was edited on Oct 8th 2024 at 1:13:17pm

JbleddyI just moved away from Bellingham, but second this. Deming/Glacier area is rad. Really small though, gonna be driving 30mins to go to Bellingham for stuff.

I 10/10 recommend Bellingham though, it’s fun and lots of small towns outside of it.

(We moved due to work, miss that area and Mt Baker though)

dwt802This area sounds super sick, half an hour for groceries isn’t necessarily that bad for small towns and good access to baker & national forest

GANDALFBaker fucking sucks and deming is worse. sisters oregon is what you want!

brownetownThe region is known for its rainy climate, but honestly it can vary by quite a bit. Living anywhere on the west side of the Cascades (bellingham / snoqualmie / astoria /etc.) will bring with it 150-200 days of rain per year, whereas being on the east (wenatchee, yakima, hood river, bend) will be drier (50-100 days of rain per year) and have larger seasonal temp fluctuations.