As for your wanting to be away from crowds and such, you might try Golden and in and around that area. Maybe Morrison? Still close enough to civilization and actually closer to Downtown denver than Boulder. I hate the commute from Boulder, via 36, I-25, federal whatever. It takes forever to go anywhere.
On my last trip, to go from downtown Denver to 107th, we are talking 2.5 hours....2.5!!! Denver is only 2.2 million... that distance for that amount of time = California numbers. Just terrible. For me, I have to avoid living north of the I-25 and I-70 bottleneck. or south of the DTC bottleneck.
So, I'll be around to meet ya if you are up there post January 06!