A guide to Scottsdale, Arizona's desert gateway

At first glance, you’d be forgiven for mistaking Scottsdale for a city without depth. Here, in the primordial expanse of the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona, first impressions are of a town adorned with all the hallmarks of generic modernity: luxury spas, high-end fashion outlets, sprinkler-fed golf courses. But you’ll find that Scottsdale’s history stretches further than its immaculate surface implies — further even than the history of the United States. Long before it became known as a haven for the rich and famous — before the first guest ranches sprang up in the 1890s, and the city’s first settlers planted their orchards in the red earth — this land played host to Pueblo Ultimo, one of a string of ancient Indigenous settlements that thrived along the Salt and Gila rivers.

It was the home of the Hohokam, or ‘those who have disappeared’, a long-vanished people who irrigated the desert with canals, bringing life to the dust before abandoning such villages in the 14th and 15th centuries. They may be gone, but their reverence for the desert landscape has been taken up by the artists enamoured with Scottsdale’s big skies, and architects who, in the oblivion of the surrounding desert, envisioned new ways of living in harmony with nature.

Today, you’ll find a city embracing its past as it steps into the future. It’s the kind of place where driverless cars hum outside restaurants highlighting indigenous ingredients cultivated in the same way for millennia, and granite peaks ripe for hiking lie a short hop from cryogenics labs where the hopeful await revival. And then there’s the wine scene — a vestige of the homesteaders and botanists who dared to imagine vineyards creeping across Arizona’s undulating scrublands.

You can experience the produce of those sun-baked vines in the tasting rooms dotted around Old Town Scottsdale, a place so compact it’s possible to explore an artists’ studio and sit down for a bottle of Petite Sirah in the time it takes for the sky to shift from pink to pure indigo. And a little further out, beyond the bars and galleries of the centre, satellite neighbourhoods dissolve into open desert. Here, you’ll find architectural oddities carved into the mountains, working ranches operated by real-life cowboys and urban preserves studded with boulders formed many aeons ago. How’s that for depth?

What to see and do in Scottsdale

1. Historic Old Town
Much like those interred in Scottsdale’s cryogenics facility, the city’s historic square mile remains frozen in time. Bring it to life on a self-guided walking tour taking in saloons, treasured establishments like Cavalliere’s Blacksmith Shop and public art monuments such as sculptor Louise Nevelson’s Windows to the West, which casts its labyrinthine shadow onto the botanical garden outside the Civic Center.

2. Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2024, this gallery in Scottsdale’s studio-studded Arts District lays claim to one of LA sculptor James Turrell’s Skyspaces — immersive, site-specific installations designed to reconfigure the viewer’s perception of light and space. Step into the ceramic belly of Knight Rise and watch the powder-blue sky subtly shift in colour from the elliptical opening in the ceiling.

3. The Old Adobe Mission
The oldest church in Scottsdale is a pearlescent space built by the city’s original Hispanic population, who, along with the Yaqui Indigenous community, created its 14,000 adobe bricks by hand around the time of the Great Depression. It opened its doors in 1933 and today stands as one of just three remaining adobe structures in downtown Scottsdale.

4. Taliesin West
Half an hour from downtown Scottsdale, this UNESCO-listed desert enclave was the winter home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who lived and worked here from 1937 until his death in 1959, instilling in his apprentices the importance of working in harmony with the natural landscape. Experience Wright’s ‘organic architecture’ on a guided tour, wandering among low-slung buildings encased in desert stone while keeping an eye out for hummingbirds.

5. Arizona Cowboy College
Bound by the expanse of Tonto National Forest, this working ranch and riding school up beyond North Scottsdale sees horse-whisperers Lori Bridwell and Rocco Wachman offering rigorous courses on horsemanship alongside guided four-legged excursions into the wilds of the Sonoran Desert. Nervous about getting into the saddle? Don’t worry — Rocco has horses he’d “happily let the Pope ride”.

6. REI
Join guide Tim Trissler on a half-day guided bike tour of North America’s largest urban preserve, the 3,500-acre McDowell Sonoran, where cholla cacti sizzle alongside surreal rock formations. Tim has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the plants and animals that call this land home, from saguaro-straddling cactus wrens to regal horned lizards.

Where to shop in Scottsdale

1. Native Art Market
Opened in 2018, this Indigenous-owned and -operated market and performance space in Scottsdale’s Arts District showcases the craftsmanship of some 200 Indigenous artists. Inside, stands stacked with tea, ceramics and turquoise jewellery surround a stage where the likes of Grammy Award-winning Native American flautist Cody Blackbird give regular in-store performances.

2. J Klein Gallery
The Sonoran Desert has long provided artists with a canvas to hone their craft. The spirit of the creative community that flourished here in the 1930s and ‘40s lives on in this gallery and working studio in Old Town Scottsdale, where founder Jim Klein’s abstract landscapes share the floor with a Steinway piano often played by local composer Ian Jamison.

3. Cosanti Originals
This bell foundry and craft shop in Paradise Valley was once the home of Taliesin West student Paolo Soleri. Today, visitors come to marvel at the Italian architect’s transgressive, ‘earth-cast’ structures, losing themselves in the gentle music produced by the bronze wind bells strung from sun-baked alcoves.

Best places to eat in Scottsdale

1. The Stand
From a portly hut crafted from cactus, Mike Washington and his niece serve made-to-order chilli tacos wrapped in deliciously spongy frybread — a deep-fried dough thought to have originated as a by-product of the ‘Long Walk’ that saw the Navajo forced off their land and into reserves by the US government in the 1860s.

2. FNB
Showcasing locally sourced, often indigenous ingredients such as the tepary bean, the ever-changing menu at this James Beard Award-winning restaurant in Scottsdale’s Arts District could feature anything from Peruvian spring rolls to Persian chicken served with grapes plucked from local vines. To drink? Try the NY sour, topped with a vermouth float.

3. The Mission
Tucked behind the Old Adobe Mission and slung with crystal chandeliers, this modern Latin restaurant serves meticulously crafted dishes inspired by Scottsdale’s Hispanic roots. Soak up the sultry ambiance over a punchy margarita at the marbled bar before sitting down for tableside guacamole, chorizo-stuffed porchetta and short rib tacos bursting with zingy purple cabbage.

Scottsdale's best bars

1. The Rusty Spur
The doors of this Scottsdale institution first swung open in 1951. Having a drink bathed in the bar’s neon glow remains a rite of passage for out-of-towners, so grab a stool under the wagon wheel chandelier and enjoy a prickly pear cocktail to the dulcet tones of Stetson-clad singer-songwriters from across the state.

2. Goldwater Tap Room
This intimate taproom offers a good taste of Scottsdale’s creative craft beer scene. The bar faces two enormous stainless-steel kegs, where 14 Goldwater beers are served fresh off the tap. Drop by for a pint of Desert Rose, a German-style Kölsch made with cactus fruits.

3. Scottsdale Wine Trail
Scottsdale’s wine scene is booming, with vineyard owners from Willcox, the Verde Valley and other Arizonian wine-growing regions setting up shop in the city. Sample wines with their roots in the Chiricahua hills over at LDV Wine Gallery or head down to newly opened Los Milics Vineyards’ tasting room, the passion project of Pavle Milic, co-owner of FnB restaurant.

Where to stay in Scottsdale

1. The Monarch
This laid-back residence in the heart of downtown Scottsdale overflows with bougainvillea, with a soundtrack of chirping quails. Behind the cream-and-yellow facade, refined doubles are illuminated by floor-to-ceiling windows, while family suites sport dining areas, sofas and private outdoor spaces overlooking the property’s sun-dappled pool.

2. Hotel Valley Ho
Famed for hosting the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Carey Grant, this mid-century hotel invites visitors to soak up the glamour of its 1950s heyday. Awash with jazz, the sleek lobby and cocktail lounge lead to extravagant rooms with snowdrop lamps and teal chaise longues. And with grilled oysters on the restaurant menu, you’ll dine in style, too.

3. Four Seasons Resort Scottsdale
Perched beneath Pinnacle Peak and surrounded by aromatic desert flora, the one- and two-storey casitas that make up this four-star resort form an intricate adobe village a lizard’s scuttle from the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Splash out on a premier casita, complete with bedside fireplace, ideal after a night stargazing with resident astronomer Mark Johnston. Don’t miss the fountain-fringed spa, where the gel of the nopal cactus makes for a relaxing massage.

How to see Scottsdale like a local

1. Cool your boots
At the height of summer, many Scottsdale residents leave the city to spend the day by the Lower Salt River. Head out on a guided kayaking tour with REI and follow the gentle current past wild horses with their muzzles in the water, winding up beneath the rusted bulk of Red Mountain.

2. Sugar Bowl
This downtown ice-cream parlour has hardly changed since it first opened its pink-and-white-striped doors in 1958. It’s served as a hangout for everyone from former Scottsdale resident Steven Spielberg to artist and illustrator Bill Keane, whose comic strips still adorn the walls above heart-shaped tables quivering under the weight of the gargantuan fudge sundaes.

3. Soleri sunset
Linking the downtown area with Scottsdale waterfront, the Soleri Bridge and Plaza also functions as a calender, marking solar events with a beam produced by sunlight hitting the 6-inch gap between its pylons. Gaze through the gap two weeks shy of the winter solstice and you’ll see the red line that directs footfall across the bridge illuminated by a golden ray. A perfect union of sun and symmetry.