Salida and Buena Vista, as mentioned are awesome small mountain towns. If you can find property outside either of those you should be good. I dont know about the county regulations (that is chaffe county I believe) so check those regarding outdoor grows. However, once you are so far out there isnt anyone to bother you and the cops arent coming unless you are blowing it up and selling or shipping out of state. Both of those towns are remote though, and access to medical facilities, shopping, dining, and entertainment will be severely limited unless you want to drive to a larger city.
For a good "In between" area I would suggest fremont county around Cañon city, Penrose, or Florence. We are somewhat remote yet still around 30 minutes to Pueblo and 45 to Colorado Springs so medical options are more available. Property is relatively cheap here, but the area is still decent. Technically outdoor grows aren't allowed in Fremont county but out of the 20 houses in my neighborhood I guarantee 15 have plants in their yard. As long as you arent right in town, or in a very conservative area you should be good as far as growing.
As far as prices, if you start on the 125 corridor around fort collins and Denver prices generally go down as you move south. The springs is Cheaper than Denver, Pueblo is cheaper than the springs. Smaller outlying towns east of the front range can be cheap, but isolated and the plains are flat, boring, and windy as hell.
Southern mountain towns like the ones mentioned are the most reasonable mountain towns in Colorado. The ski towns that are actually in the Rockies, don't even think about it. I saw a parking space being sold for like 300k.
I certainly don't speak for all areas of Colorado, as our state is huge and quite varied when comparing a city like denver to the 9k population of salida. However, I wouldn't worry about rippers where I am at. Everyone is growing, so no one is going to come through our neighborhood stealing plants. Rippers would have to pass three large scale grow houses and countless backyard grows to get to me. Add to all that the fact that unless you are some socially awkward junior high student you probably already have access to weed much more reasonably priced than risking your life to steal someones crop. Weed just isn't that big of a deal in my area. Im sure it does happen, but in my opinion you are just as likely to have someone steal your car or break in your house as you are to have them rip your crop.
