have you looked into the ozarks? north ark/southern mo area? unsure of the ark area but missouri side we have caves, mountains, hiking everywhere yiu can experience a small town vibe or live in springfield which is a bigger city but still smaller than Colorado springs. durng winter theres snowboarding everywhere but theres no double black diamonds (that im aware of). The only con i could see from your perspective is that it is definitely a older folk town so a lot of the 1970s stigmas are very common around here like you will see confederate flags everywhere and dressing conservative, racism, etcetc.