In the general vicinity of where you are looking is New Mexico. My daughter spent 19 months in Santa Rosa. Loved the people, made many friends, but the town was SO small that she would travel to Santa Fe for shopping, etc. She still goes back there to help her friends on the ranch. She's a very good horse person, and helps with roundups, moving cattle, branding, AI, etc.
When she moved to Santa Rosa, the job came with a relocation to Santa Fe, NM. (Engineer with the USDA.)
Santa Fe is beautiful, not too crowded (yet), and the motorcycling / dirt biking in Northern New Mexico/Southern CO is spectacular. I spent 4 weeks there this spring, and I would move from Bozeman, MT, in a heartbeat. (we live in Bozeman so my wife can ski. The skiing here is better than NM, thus our location.) You can ski in the winter, ride motorcycles in the summer. it's hot, but not humid. Riding dirt bikes on a 90 degree day was no problem - just carry water.
Albuquerque is close, less expensive, but not as nice, and has really high crime rates. (my daughter won't park her tacoma there, but will park "chuck the work truck" when she's there on business. )
Just my $0.02. Some of my graduated students live in SLC, and they are bothered by the air quality. Santa Fe is on a Mesa, so air quality is good (if that is an issue).
Good luck. Thanks, also, for the head light covers.