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Central,northern, and especially southern AZ get summer thunderstorms. West AZ,NV, and CA rarely do. West AZ/ the Colorado river towns are the hottest parts of the desert with the least amount of trees, the desert around Phoenix and Tucson is a lot more green compared to the Colorado River towns.
Strawberry has plenty of summer t-storms and a ton of trees to climb, though work is extremely hard to come by unless you are in with the local mormons. Pine and Strawberry were founded by the Church of LDS and are still very mormon. The only work I've seen there was construction/handy man stuff, a handful of restaurants(which aren't open as long as city restaurants), or the 17 mile drive into Payson for Home Depot or Walmart, both of which I'm not knocking as you can live off that kinda pay around there.
There's farms around the desert cities in AZ, but not the barn and chicken kind with the farmer family and their tractor, more like cotton fields, bean fields, and orange orchards.
I don't think any town in AZ, NV, or CA is anything like the South but I suspect Arizona is a little more culturally like the South than CA or NV.
AZ is a great place to grow up. Depending on where you live there might not be a whole lotta trees, but you got tons of mountains and canyons to explore and camp in. A lot of people here drive 30 miles out of town(phoenix) and they're pretty much in wilderness. Hunting, fishing, mountain biking, atv's, hiking, rock climbing, and all that are huge here. There's 5-6 pretty big lakes around Phoenix that are real good for fishing, boating, and are gorgeous. Phoenix is a big city but there's plenty of smaller towns around it close to the mountains. The summer's hot and long but the thunderstorms kick in during July/August and you get a little rain and wind to cool you off while you kick back and watch the lightning show.
If it has to be Western Arizona, I've been hearing a lot of good things about Kingman, but honestly I've never spent any time there, just passed through on the way to Las Vegas. Don't know much about it.
Good luck on your search.
"I Suspect AZ is a little more like the south culturally than CA or NV"
Why? Based on what? I don't think AZ is any more southern in any way than CA or NV. Your sentence above was the correct response which was I don't think any town in CA, NV, or AZ is anything like the South. To the OP please don't come to AZ if you think you are getting a little slice of the South. You will be extremely disappointed.
Julian was mentioned. If you don't mind mountain towns, my personal favorite in SoCal is Wrightwood. It's in the San Gabriel mts. This of course if you don't mind snow.
The state is large but all is within a days drive.
One area with very low humidity is in the Sierras
My wife came from the town that Little House on the Prairie was filmed - Jamestown, CA 95327.
Lightly wooded with oak and cedar. At 1200 foot the humidity is very low usually in the teens and lower. Down in San Diego, Long beach, LA the humidity is usually 60%.
Bakersfield has historically had one of the biggest country music scenes outside of the South and a lot of Okies emigrated there in the 1930s(although really a lot of them were from Arkansas and Texas). But it doesn't feel that Southern at this point, maybe at one point it felt closer to Texas or Oklahoma. Some parts of the Central Valley used to feel somewhat Southern, but the demographics have changed. But I have relatives from Fresno, that spoke with an almost Southern-sounding twang. There's some small towns in the Sacramento Delta that remind me of parts of the South in apperance.
Homegrown, most of what you described sounds like Michigan to me. I was there the end of June. The SE part, suburbs away from Detroit. Has tons of tree's, has the friendliness of people, overly friendly too which was surprising to me, has farming, etc. But not enough jobs. people do get to grow their own veggies in their back yards if they want, and my sister in law showed us her garden in her humongous back yard.
As for the bugs in Caliente, lately it's mosquitos biting the heck out of everyone. They are worried about the west nile virus. Plus they have huge spiders, and lots of other interesting bugs.
"I Suspect AZ is a little more like the south culturally than CA or NV"
Why? Based on what? I don't think AZ is any more southern in any way than CA or NV. Your sentence above was the correct response which was I don't think any town in CA, NV, or AZ is anything like the South. To the OP please don't come to AZ if you think you are getting a little slice of the South. You will be extremely disappointed.
I just have a "suspicion" that AZ has a different cultural streak than SoCal or NV which is more thick with CA transplants than AZ. I know from living in Phoenix that the large numbers of SoCal transplants here,more often than not came here because they were fed up with their quality of life in CA, and that goes to illustrate the differences in the two place's outlook on what their community should be like.
I can't say I know that for sure, but the West Coast is known for it's secular, progressive, outlook, and AZ is known for having a more conservative bent. Similar political/social leanings to some Southern states, but I'm not suggesting there's banjos, moonshine, and cornbread on every corner of Phoenix. The look of any Phoenix neighborhood will remind one of SoCal.
I just have a "suspicion" that AZ has a different cultural streak than SoCal or NV which is more thick with CA transplants than AZ. I know from living in Phoenix that the large numbers of SoCal transplants here,more often than not came here because they were fed up with their quality of life in CA, and that goes to illustrate the differences in the two place's outlook on what their community should be like.
I can't say I know that for sure, but the West Coast is known for it's secular, progressive, outlook, and AZ is known for having a more conservative bent. Similar political/social leanings to some Southern states, but I'm not suggesting there's banjos, moonshine, and cornbread on every corner of Phoenix. The look of any Phoenix neighborhood will remind one of SoCal.
I know where you're coming from. Many people think the whole red state thing makes AZ different than the surrounding states but I think you have to take it with a grain of salt. AZ isn't nearly as red as many think. I would compare most of the Phx. area with SD or OC. Fiscally conservative but socially libertarian. Most people in Phoenix couldn't care less what church you belong to or even if you go to church at all or what your personal lifestyle is. The social conservatives you do encounter usually come from the east valley suburbs where there is a high concentration of LDS. You could almost call Mesa a little SLC but the rest of the valley does resemble Vegas or inland parts of So Cal.
(BTW I am sorry that the thread seems so funny now. I had originally posted the same question on multiple forums - in three states in the area I was referring to and in three states in the area I must move.)
Have a great day!
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