Scottsdale

Scottsdale is widely known for its resorts, golf courses, galleries and emerging restaurant and nightclub scene. It's a big stage for million-dollar car auctions, the rowdiest golf tournament on the PGA Tour and Cactus League baseball.  The San Francisco Giants play at Scottsdale Stadium and the hometown Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies share Salt River Fields on the adjacent Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

But don't overlook one of Scottsdale's biggest assets, the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Over the past 20 years, the preserve has grown to more than 30,000 acres of saguaro-studded desert and mountain terrain with a growing number of trails for hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding.

Visitors might notice that Scottsdale still tries to hold onto its Western roots with lots of horse sculptures, urban riding trails and a new Museum of the West downtown. The city's oldest business is Cavalliere's blacksmith shop at Second Street and Brown Avenue that started in 1910. Back then "Scottsville," named for retired Army Chaplain Winfield Scott, had 267 residents. 

Fast forward to 1960 when Scottsdale was home to 10,026 folks and then it boomed to nearly 220,000 people living in 185 square miles and half-century later.

Greasewood Flat, Pinnacle Peak Patio and Rawhide are gone but you can still find a good cowboy bar at Handlebar J's or the Rusty Spur. The Hashknife Gang still brings the mail once a year via the Pony Express from Holbrook and the Parada del Sol, first staged in 1953, still clip-clops down Scottsdale Road as the World's Largest Horse Drawn Parade. 

The chamber moniker of Scottsdale being the West's Most Western Town has faded from use. But there are still plenty of trails to kick up dust on in the McDowell Mountains. 

And visitors looking for something a little off beat can find the condo near downtown where "Hogan's Heroes" actor Bob Crane

Scottsdale's McDowell Sonoran Preserve is an escape for hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. (Photo by Austin Corbett)

​was killed or the Alcor cryonics warehouse in the Scottsdale Airpark where baseball legend Ted Williams' frozen head and torso are stored. 

Founded: 1888
Elevation: 1,510 feet
Population: 255,310

Sunset on the Gateway Trail and cholla cacti in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. (Photo by Austin Corbett)

Cowboy and horse sculptures are common.

Old Town Cowboy at Main St. & Scottsdale Road.

A contemporary sculpture at a local gallery.

Barrett-Jackson auction attracts close to 300,000 visitors every January.

Sales topped $126 million at the 48th annual auction in 2019.

The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks play spring training games at Salt River Fields on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community.

A steep but shaded stretch of the Gateway Loop Trail in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve near Bell Road and Thompson Peak Parkway.