The upside of Perth being more like a small town than a capital city is minimal light pollution. It means Perth and its surrounding areas are full of excellent stargazing locations. The most obvious and fitting location is the Perth Observatory in Bickley Valley. Check their website for tours and special events. If you don't feel like taking a guided tour, why not make an evening of it by packing a picnic basket and jumping in the car to admire the Milky Way somewhere special, away from intruding city lights?

Without the novels of Zane Grey, it is quite possible that Hollywood greats like John Wayne, Shirley Temple, and Randolph Scott would have been lost on the world. Grey’s outstanding Westerns became movies that launched the careers of cinema mainstays, and his novels have been published in over 20 languages, with estimated annual sales between 500,000 and one million copies worldwide. Now his cabin stands as a historical site for visitors. While not everything in the cabin is original, certain pieces allow visitors to visualize Grey’s life in the early 20th century. Find cowboy boots, Grey’s original saddle, a writer’s chair, a cot, and a bear rug.

With refreshing water and multiple swimming holes, the Staircase Waterfall is a must see for Payson visitors. The Arizonan heat is easily escapable in the depths of the waterfall, which also serves as a massage of sorts.

Visitors and locals can feel like Paleontologists at the Naco Paleo Site. Invertebrate fossils remain from the days in which Arizona lay beneath shallow seas some 40-50 feet deep—300 million years ago. Find fossils of the ancestors of modern-day fish, reptiles, and insects.