Located approximately 75 miles south of the Navajo Nation, Alpine was settled in 1876 by Anderson Bush, a European-American who built a log house there.

Alpine has been affected by the Wallow Fire, the largest wildfire in Arizona's history, which entered New Mexico, burning 538,049 acres in 2011.

[6] Alpine is located at an elevation of 8,050 feet (2,450 m) above sea level in the eastern end of the White Mountains and surrounded by the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.

Alpine has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) influence by its very high altitude and the North American Monsoon, which brings frequent thunder showers during the summer.

Although temperatures are generally comfortable during the daytime, the sun is very intense and at night frosts have occurred even in summer and are an almost daily occurrence from October to May.

Because Alpine is on the eastern end of the Mogollon Rim, it experiences a rain shadow from the White Mountains and receives less snowfall than points west at a similar elevation.