2. Willcox
The geography around Willcox is one of desert beauty and mountains and features gorgeous desert flowers in the spring and magnificent saguaro cactuses across its landscape. Arizona’s official tourism website suggests there are around 4,000 people living in this small desert community and cites wine tours as one of the ways that tourists spend their time.
Although the town does welcome a healthy dose of tourists into the area to enjoy the boutique guest ranches like Sunglow, real estate prices haven’t yet gotten out of the reach of an average family. Real estate website Trulia pegged recently sold properties at an average of just over $80,000 in 2014, with many homes in the area listed somewhere between $72,000 and $163,000.
Fans of old westerns made in the first half of the 20th century might remember Rex Allen, who was one of Willcox’s most famous residents. His Willcox Cowboy Hall of Fame, which opened in 1989, attracts fans of westerns and is one of the most amusing aspects of this small Arizona town.
Located in the far southeast portion of the state, Willcox is just a small stop of a town right off Interstate 10, and it’s about equidistant between El Paso, Texas and Phoenix, Arizona on a map. According to Desert USA, the town was originally established in 1880 and was made a town in 1915.
According to data provided by The Weather Channel, the average temperature is quite high in Willcox, so residents must love the hot, desert air.
The average highs in the summer reach the upper 90s and the highs in the winter hover around 60. However, like many vibrant desert locations, Willcox also gets quite cool during the night and dips below freezing from November through February each year. The city is far away from any major source of water, like the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean, so precipitation only totals around 14 or 15 inches a year.