Nothing beats the sheer pleasure of feeling the temperature drop, degree by degree, as you drive or bike (God help you) out of Tucson's summer furnace and up into Mount Lemmon's cool pines. On your way up Catalina Highway to the summit, at 9,157 wonderful feet, you go past Molino Basin, where during the monsoons you can see the end of a rainbow; even higher you might see a mountainside turned into a cascade of waterfalls. Up top, you have to make your way through Summerhaven, afflicted with McMansions in the wake of the devastating Aspen Fire of 2003, but you can soldier on to the shady Marshall Gulch trail or even higher to Ski Valley, the southernmost ski resort in the U.S.
Finalists:
2. Bisbee
3. Tombstone
