Where to cool off in the summer?

We live in AZ and are looking to cool off in the summer. Spent a week in So Cal this summer but was alittle too warm and crowded. Prefer to drive. Where else should we go to cool off in the West?

How about northern CA coastal? San Francisco is almost always cool, as are the coastal towns north of it. Even spots further south like Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel, Morro Bay, etc. stay pretty cool even in summer. The mountain areas like Lake Tahoe will also be cooler than the valley.

Sedona is quite a bit cooler than Peoria, isn't it? Like 20 degrees or so...and it is really close, so you may want to try that.

Fern

We enjoyed Park City, Utah, and Pagosa Springs, Colorado; both are relatively easy trades in the summer.

This summer, even San Francisco was warm, not hot, but over 85 for sure. Santa Cruz mountains might be great, shade, trees and ocean and probably not very crowded. This last heat wave was severe, so anywhere inland was awful. When we got back from SF on July23 and flew into Ontario, it was 107 at 7:30 PM. Last week San Francisco was great, very comfortable, not too hot, breezy, but not too cool as SF can be in the summer.
Liz

The Colorado Mountains

It is usually twenty degrees cooler up there than Denver. The higher you get, the cooler it is. Rocky Mountain National Park will have snow falling sometimes in July. It snowed six inches in Winter Park the end of June a few years ago. Fraser, next to Winter Park, is generally the coldest spot in the country, except for Alaska.

Summit County, Colorado.....
nkosi

Vail

One of the Vail timeshares or one of the nicer timeshares in Avon such as the Sheraton Mountainside, Falcon Point or Lakeside Terrace. You can usually get a really nice selection if you reserve early.

White Mountains

We live in Tucson and like to go to the White Mountains a couple of times in the summer. In Pinetop/Lakeside there is the Roundhouse Resort (older but very comfortable with excellent staff) or there is also a Worldmark property (newer and very nice units) up there. The hiking or horseback riding is exceptional there, beautiful wooded trails that are well marked. I hear the fishing is also great at the many nearby lakes. We also enjoy going to Kohls Ranch in Payson if we can get a two bedroom unit, the older cabins on the creek are our preferred pick there. Both areas are in the pines and very realxing.

I 2nd that

Sallylee's suggestion is a good one. I know a lot of people who have summer cabins up on or near the Mogollon Rim. Even Flagstaff is usually cooler. You could also go up to the Salt Lake city area, about a 10 hour drive. SF is more like a 12-hour drive.

Excellent suggestions, many of which we never would have thought of. We were very surprised to find that Sedona is very warm in the summer. July averages in AZ are as follows:

Flagstaff 82
Sedona 97
Peoria 108

One of the reasons we chose to move to AZ was to explore the West. Thank you for all of the great suggestions.

I have lived in colorado and now live very near Lake Tahoe and while Colorado is beautiful, I think Lake Tahoe is going to have a lot more to do....the days can get warm-mid 80's, but the evinings cool off wuicly-with lows around 50.

rickandcindy23 said:

It is usually twenty degrees cooler up there than Denver. The higher you get, the cooler it is. Rocky Mountain National Park will have snow falling sometimes in July. It snowed six inches in Winter Park the end of June a few years ago. Fraser, next to Winter Park, is generally the coldest spot in the country, except for Alaska.

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We were in the Estes Park/Rocky Mountain National Park the third week of July and it was hotter then we expected. Estes Park was in the 80s during our week, and the place is around 7500 ft. above sea level. It did feel better inside the higher elevations of the Park, particularly after the afternoon thunderstorms.

Because I like horse racing, my Summer hang out is Ruidoso, NM.

GEORGE