Mesa, AZ, Good Place to Live?

[CoastalPlains]

Hello fellow sportsmen/women. I am considering applying for a job in Mesa, AZ. I was wondering if anyone here is familiar with the area and may know if it would be a good place to live/hunt? My family and I would prefer to live in a more rural community so I would love to hear if there are any around Mesa, and also what the hunting opportunities are like. Any input on hunting or fly fishing would be appreciated!

 

[AZBridger]

i personally wouldn't live in mesa. i work in Phoenix and live in Gilbert. I'm planning on buying a house in Queen Creek or San Tan Valley. It is getting pretty populated out there but there are a lot of neighborhoods with land. You could Possibly look at Gold Canyon as well. Some people commute from Payson every day, which is a cool mountain town but the drive would be about 1:30 each way

 

[LopeHunter]

I split time between PHX area and the NW USA. I like Phoenix. Good airport. Great medical facilities and specialists which come into play as age. I have a home in Scottsdale so a hop skip and jump north of Mesa. No regrets living on the East side. Sure, gets warm about 100 days a year where you will wish you had an indoor job if you work outside. The other 265 days of the year you wish you had no job because is comfortable outside. If you do move to Mesa then as soon as qualify as a resident for hunting purposes then go and buy the lifetime hunting license. If for some reason you move out of AZ and lose residency, you still get to apply in the Resident pass (18x to 19x as many tags) though will pay Non-resident prices.

 

[WalkingBird]

AZ sucks, no one in their right mind would live somewhere with Elk, Coues, Muleys, Sheep, Javelina, Bear all around them

That's why I'm glad I lost my mine years ago!

I live where Tempe/Scottsdale/Mesa/Pima Indian Community all come together, in a way, and work at Sky Harbor. Mesa is a cool part of town and the traffic isn't as bad as Phoenix, Scottsdale or Tempe can be. It's not really rural though. The above mentions of Queen Creek, San Tan and Gold Canyon are good. The city is expanding rapidly, so what you'd consider Rural now, might be "downtown" in another decade or 2.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

NO! Out of town...

 

[Gr8bawana]

The sprawl of the Phoenix metro valley seems to go on forever. When I was a kid we used to drive through several small towns before we got to Phoenix such as Surprise, Sun City, Glendale, now it's all one giant city.
Add to that 4 million + people and 110+ degrees in the summer. It's not for me. If you come from a really big city it might seem small to you.
On the plus side the mountains aren't that far away for an escape. The winter weather is pretty darn nice though. Lots of hunting and fishing not too far away.

 

[sdkhunter]

Almost exactly a year ago I almost took a job in the Phoenix area... Flew down for a second interview, scoped the area out... I did get the job offer and think I would have probably liked it - but declined when the wife got cold feet about moving the kids.... Often regret not taking it.... I grabbed a hotel in Mesa because it was fairly cheap but it wouldn’t be my first choice for buying a house...

 

[65swede]

I lived in Mesa for ~ 6 years. It was in a nice middle class neighborhood. It's true there are some shady areas, but any city with a population over 500k is going to have that. I live in Chandler now, we moved here because the schools are better. The whole PHX metro area has pockets of 'bad' areas. Plenty of good ones too.

 

[Old man bob]

Depends on where You are going to work. There are Good and Bad parts all over town. You just don't wanna drive 40 miles each way to work......BOB

 

[CoastalPlains]

Thank you all for the replies! I applied for the job but was not selected. Looks like I'll get another season to hunt Oklahoma! Also buying a preference point for Wyoming antelope this year as well. I have never taken a mule deer, elk, or antelope and I feel like antelope would be a good place to start. Thanks for all of your info, I am learning a lot.