Prescott (locals say PRESS-kit) is a former territorial capital in the mountains of central Arizona, about 100 miles north of Phoenix. At 1,600 metres it escapes the worst of the desert heat, and its pine-covered hills and mild summers have made it a popular retreat for Arizonans.
The town square — Courthouse Plaza — is the heart of old Prescott, ringed by restaurants, shops, and the bars of Whiskey Row, which has been pouring since the 1860s. The Sharlot Hall Museum preserves Arizona's first government buildings from 1864 and tells the story of the territorial era in depth. The surrounding Prescott National Forest offers excellent hiking and mountain biking, and nearby Granite Dells — a landscape of rounded granite boulders along Watson Lake — is one of the more striking geological features in the state.