Scottsdale hotels collection

Scottsdale's old mission was raised by hand by the Mexican families who settled here early in the last century, each adobe brick moulded from clay and straw. Around it, the old town stays low, sheltered under its porches; the Arizona Canal runs through it, edged by a path walked in the evening. To the north, the desert begins: the McDowell Sonoran Preserve climbs towards its ridges, and Pinnacle Peak, close by, raises a jumble of granite boulders, climbed between palo verdes and ocotillos. On the rare days of rain, the air smells of creosote bush, a resinous scent that often runs ahead of the shower.