Silver City

Yes — I think your conclusion is reasonable. Silver City looks much more interesting as a spring/fall outdoor-sports destination than as a place to escape Ohio’s winter. The elevation (about 5,900 feet) makes the winter nights quite cold even though sunny afternoons can be pleasant.

The dates I’d target

For you specifically—tennis/pickleball + hiking + being outdoors, I’d divide it this way:

Period

Outdoor sports

Hiking

My suggested window

🌱 Spring

Excellent

Excellent

April 10 – May 20

☀️ Early summer

Good, mornings best

Good at elevation

May 21 – June 15

⛈️ Monsoon

Mixed

Mixed

July–August

🍂 Fall

Excellent

Excellent

Sept. 20 – Oct. 25

❄️ Late fall

Good afternoons

Good lower down

Oct. 26 – Nov. 15

🥶 Winter

Limited

Possible on sunny days

December–February

The National Park Service specifically describes spring and fall as having moderate days and cool nights, and its local hiking guidance identifies spring and fall as the best seasons for several of the area’s higher trails.

If I were picking a 7–10 day trip for you, I’d lean toward approximately April 20–30 or October 5–15. Those dates give you a good combination of comfortable daytime temperatures, hiking weather and outdoor racquet-sport weather without the summer monsoon issue.

And Silver City has a LOT for a small town

This is what surprised me when I looked more closely.

For tennis:

WNMU Tennis Courts are outdoor courts associated with Western New Mexico University. So you have an actual university tennis facility rather than just hoping to find a couple of municipal courts.

For pickleball:

Henry V. “La Burra” Morales Recreation Center has a large indoor gym that can be configured for up to nine pickleball courts, as well as volleyball and an indoor walking/running track. That’s particularly interesting for you because it gives you a bad-weather option.

There’s also WNMU C-REC Fitness Center, which has fitness facilities, a pool and recreational courts.

Hiking is actually the big attraction

Silver City sits right on the edge of the Gila National Forest, which is enormous. The surrounding Gila country has 1,900+ miles of trails, including portions of the Continental Divide Trail.

And you don’t necessarily have to drive an hour into the wilderness.

Boston Hill Open Space is essentially hiking right in Silver City. It has a network of trails with substantial views, old mining remnants and enough variation for repeated walks.

Then just outside town:

• Dragonfly Trail Petroglyphs — about a 2-mile loop, relatively easy, with ancient petroglyphs. NPS specifically says spring and fall have the best weather.

• Little Walnut Picnic Area — gateway to the Gomez Peak trail system.

• Gomez Peak — mountain hiking with considerably more elevation.

• Signal Peak — about 5 miles round trip and roughly 1,700 feet of climbing; spring and fall are recommended.

• Gila Cliff Dwellings — a really unusual combination of hiking, archaeology and wilderness.

• Catwalk National Recreation Trail — a short trail on a metal walkway above Whitewater Creek.

• Continental Divide Trail — you can sample it without attempting anything remotely like a thru-hike.

And then there’s hot-spring hiking, including Lightfeather and the much more ambitious Jordan Hot Spring.

There are also some practical resources

For a town of roughly 10,000 people, it has a surprisingly good recreational infrastructure:

• University with tennis, pool, gym and recreation facilities

• Municipal recreation center with indoor pickleball/volleyball

• Huge national forest immediately adjacent

• Mountain biking

• Cycling

• Fishing

• Hot springs

• Gila Cliff Dwellings

• Continental Divide Trail

• Dark skies/stargazing

• Historic downtown and an unusually active arts community

For food/groceries, there is even a natural-food-oriented The Silver City Food Co-op, plus Food Basket, Albertsons and Walmart.

So I wouldn’t think of Silver City as “a little desert town where your friend happens to live.” It’s more like a small mountain/arts town sitting on the doorstep of a gigantic wilderness.

And given your interest in tennis + pickleball + swimming + hiking, I think a late-April or early-October visit could be particularly interesting. You could potentially play tennis in the morning, hike in the afternoon, and still have enough energy for a second outdoor activity—without dealing with Ohio’s spring humidity or fall cold.