mild winters forests dry long summer (Phoenix, Flagstaff: home, college, camping)

[alexandreajean]

I've been looking for a new place to live. I'm from Wisconsin and I despise the mugginess and bugginess of Summers and the bone chilling coldness of the winters. Fall is beautiful though and I love forests and mountains.

The ideal place would be somewhere with dry hot summers and very mild winters, forests to hike around in and mountains to explore.

[gemstone1]

IMO, AZ has it all, but not all in one place.

"dry hot summers and very mild winters" and/or "forests to hike around in and mountains to explore" it's kind of one or the other in AZ.
Extreme western AZ for hot/dry, higher elevations which is mostly north central and eastern AZ for forests and mountains....the exceptions being the "sky islands"'

Higher elevations bring cold and snow. South Central and SE AZ brings summer humidity with the arrival of the monsoon season.

Regards
Gemstone1

[goolsbyjazz]

Originally Posted by gemstone1

IMO, AZ has it all, but not all in one place.

"dry hot summers and very mild winters" and/or "forests to hike around in and mountains to explore" it's kind of one or the other in AZ.
Extreme western AZ for hot/dry, higher elevations which is mostly north central and eastern AZ for forests and mountains....the exceptions being the "sky islands"'

Higher elevations bring cold and snow. South Central and SE AZ brings summer humidity with the arrival of the monsoon season.

Regards
Gemstone1

I second this^^^^^^^

[rambrush]

Kingman is pretty close to what you require, What snow does fall melts out quickly. Plenty of places to hike and explore.
Vegas is 90 miles North and Laughlin is half hour west.

Originally Posted by alexandreajean

I've been looking for a new place to live. I'm from Wisconsin and I despise the mugginess and bugginess of Summers and the bone chilling coldness of the winters. Fall is beautiful though and I love forests and mountains.

The ideal place would be somewhere with dry hot summers and very mild winters, forests to hike around in and mountains to explore.

[sloguy1496]

Look into Prescott. It has 4 seasons with warm-hot summers and cool-mild winters. Prescott is located in the foothills of the Bradshaw Mountains, which are gorgeous and thickly forested. Great back roads and hiking, close to Jerome, Sedona, Flagstaff, and Phoenix, and the year round weather can't really be beat by any other four season climate.

[teddyearp]

gemstone1 has it right. But the cool thing about Arizona over the place you're coming from is that it only takes a couple hours tops to get into a different climate zone. So you just make up your mind where you want your home base and go from there. I realized this up here in Washington.

So, if you love the mountains more, live there. And if (or when) the cold just gets to you too much, take a day (or a weekend) and drive down to the desert to warm your bones.

[infocyde]

Prescott, Flagstaff, Payson, some areas east of Coolidge if I remember right are all forested.

Prescott - Most of the amenities of a big city, maybe one or two snow storms a year plus 3 or 4 dustings. Winters are pretty mild with usually about only 10 days or so that are really cold. Lot's of retirees.

Flagstaff - Younger college crowd in the city, retirees in the burbs. lots of wind, lot's of snow even though it melts fairly quickly. Coming from Wisconsin you won't think the Winters are a big deal there but probably about the coldest and most snowy in AZ.

Payson - Fairly small, as pretty as Flagstaff, lot's or retirees. A lot of tourist in the Summer.

Other small "rim" towns all get snow and are beautiful, but these are the bigger areas that have forest and Winter. Someone above mentioned Kingman but it is more desert.

As someone stated above you are usually about two hours away from a different looking environment. Most places in AZ have excellent hiking / biking / camping near by.

Come out and explore, maybe take two trips one in the summer and then one in the Winter. Then pick your place.