Story location, Texas, or Arizona. Need help.

The novel I'm currently writing is taking place in Texas, or Arizona for the simple fact that both states tend to have cities, surrounded by endless desert and roads. I can't avoid finding a city any longer in the story and need some help.

Google Earth, or Bing Maps isn't helpful of course because it doesn't show terrain. I can't just look around search for pictures of cities all day! I've tried...

Anyway, it doesn't need to be complex. Just a city, with a section of tall buildings but mostly suburban, with neighborhoods and things like that. It also needs to be surrounded by desert, and hills or mountains. Can anyone help?

Just need a town name and state . Everything else can be fictional like buildings and houses I make up.

The portions of Texas with large cities tend to not be surrounded by desert. And in fact, very little of Texas is actually desert (it's less than 10%).

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but Phoenix & Tucson (Arizona) are both large cities surrounded by desert, as is Albuquerque, New Mexico. There's also Las Vegas, Nevada.

I think in Arizona, maybe Sedona or a city by the Grand Canyon? Not sure. Again, Texas is not a lot of desert, surprisingly, thought this had been said.

I grew up in Phoenix, Arizona- or rather, just outside of it. Jackrabbit Trail to be precise- and though I'm not sure what it looks like now, it was desert just beyond my house, big and beautiful and silent... and hot...oh, and like a bazillion lizards running around- kid heaven.

Are you sure you don't want to just make up a town? I mean, I can understand wanting an actual name to use- but I've found it kind of restricting when I'm writing fiction.

Anyway, hope I helped at all

Thanks guys. Sorry I didn't reply sooner! Yea, it's been hard to find a good place with my standards. I just figure a real city can be related too. Perhaps that's just me hoping I wont have to describe it :]. So, thanks for your help! I know what I'm going to do know.