So 10 years ago this summer we bought some mountain property and started building a summer cabin. It's about a 55 mile drive from the house here on the winter range, pretty much gravel road through the San Juan National Forest the whole way. The last few years about 5 miles of that has been paved but I have taken my dirt bike on the trip with no worries.Its at 9000 feet so no winter access unless you have a snow machine. Being retired these days i get to spend about half my summer up there. The drive is beautiful and I count my blessings every time i get to make the trip.
On the scale of vacation homes its intermediate level because you can drive to it (but you wouldnt want to do it without 4x4). The mixer truck drivers consider it off the grid.And we make our own solar power with a backup propane generator, and that seems to be one of the characteristics of off the grid. The solar is a PITA but mainly because im lazy, but i have to admit its nice not getting a bill. We use about 75 gal of propane (dryer and water heater are also propane) and 3 gallons of distilled water a year. Hell, it'll pay for itself in a couple hundred years.
We did it over the last several summers and are finally about done. The third season is when we did the mechanical and electrical so 7 years ago. We dont drink the well water but use it for everything else. It seems to be getting betterAt least it's a gusher - we are limited by permit to 5 gpm. We did a bunch of the work ourselves - pretty much everything but the heavy and high stuff. My wife is a hell of a hand but she quit me after the tile and drywall. We wont be doing another.
Its in the aspen conifer mix they call montane habitat. About all i have left is to finish clearing property lines and stacking rocks.
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Originally Posted by Mike
...Ben
. Why I gave the foff. 
This might be the first year i get to knock one over behind the house. Im a little long in the tooth for the high country stuff anymore but im old enough to be coming into some of the preference points ive been banking. Arizona was kind enough to send me one of the primo elk tags so in my wifes words my life has purpose again.
. We have a lot of bears here as well. We stayed in a cabin tent the first summer and had bears snoop around from time to time but never when we were there. We had one tear the chit out of a quad though. Went after the seat and the wiring. I built a drive in basement so that wouldnt happen again. Then i got a side by side and my "door" (its a steel reinforced hole in concrete - permanent) is 6" too short. 
I probably have a dozen different daytime pictures of them. I pretty much assume im being watched whenever im out and about. Two that we saw from the deck were a breeding pair. Thier mating ritual is loud and violent 
They were there almost all day. All we had were cell phone cameras. 
A sound you know when hear it. 