7 Things to Do in Scottsdale: Art, Desert and Parks

Scottsdale lets you move between Western art, contemporary galleries and desert landscapes without leaving the city. Old Town gives you a central place to browse, while Taliesin West and the McDowell Sonoran Preserve draw you north for architecture and hiking. Choose among these seven activities according to your interests, the weather and how much walking you want to do.

Art, desert walks and parks

Activity / access anchor	Visit allowance	Distance / mode
Old Town / Fifth Avenue	—	about 0.8 miles · walking
Western Spirit: Museum of the West	About 1.5–2 hours	about 0.5 miles · walking
Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art	—	about 0.2 miles · walking
Taliesin West	About 90 minutes	about 13 miles · driving
McDowell Sonoran Preserve / Gateway	—	about 15 miles · driving
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park	—	about 3.5 miles · driving
Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt / Chaparral Park	—	about 2.6 miles · driving

Scottsdale’s distinctive mix is Western culture, experimental art and desert outings. Choose Western Spirit for paintings and objects about the American West, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) for contemporary exhibitions, or Taliesin West for Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. Gateway offers desert walking, while the railroad park suits younger children and the greenbelt offers gentler outdoor time.

Old Town and the museums can share a central walk. Treat the northern attractions and parks as separate outings rather than trying to cover everything at once. Indoor galleries are the better choice in peak heat or rain, unlike exposed trails and Taliesin West’s outdoor campus stretches.

Old Town and the Arts District

Old Town rewards a browsing visit, with time inside galleries as well as on the streets. Fifth Avenue brings shops into the outing, Historic Old Town gives you the Western-history side of the centre, and the Arts District around Main Street and Marshall Way shifts the focus to artworks. Leave room to stop when a painting or sculpture catches your attention rather than treating the district as a shopping checklist.

Late afternoon into evening is a useful choice for the outdoor portions, especially when daytime heat makes lingering less appealing. Browse Fifth Avenue and Historic Old Town before turning to the galleries around Main Street and Marshall Way.

Scottsdale ArtWalk runs Thursdays, 7pm–9pm, and special Gold Palette ArtWalks run 6:30pm–9pm. These evenings give gallery browsing a clear place in your day, with time to look at works rather than rushing between doorways.

Western Spirit: Museum of the West and Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art can each extend the same central outing. Choose the former for Western subjects or the latter for changing contemporary work, then return to the streets for a change of pace. For a couples-focused selection beyond gallery browsing, Scottsdale date ideas offers more ways to spend time together.

Western Spirit: Museum of the West

Western Spirit: Museum of the West turns the Western themes of Old Town into a gallery visit. Paintings, sculpture and objects let you explore the American West through both art and history. Give individual works time, looking at how artists represent people and landscapes rather than moving through the rooms simply to see everything.

This is the history-focused choice beside Old Town, in contrast to SMoCA’s contemporary exhibitions. It also gives you an indoor pause between outdoor stretches of a central walk. If you enjoy reading displays and lingering over artworks, allow closer to 2–3 hours rather than a quick circuit.

Ordinary admission needs no advance booking, so you can walk in during opening hours. The regular window is Monday–Saturday, 9:30am–5pm, and Sunday, 11am–5pm. From November through April, Thursday opening extends to 8pm, making an evening museum visit possible alongside the district’s galleries.

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) offers a different emphasis from Western Spirit: changing contemporary-art exhibitions rather than a Western-history focus. Beside Scottsdale Civic Center, it fits into an Old Town outing when you want to spend part of the day looking closely at current artistic ideas.

James Turrell’s Knight Rise Skyspace gives you another way to look: an opening overhead frames the sky as part of the artwork. Access is through SMoCA’s courtyard as part of a museum visit. The indoor galleries make a useful heat or rain alternative, but the courtyard experience takes you outside again.

Buying ordinary admission online is cheaper than walking up, although advance booking is optional. Pay-what-you-wish admission applies on Thursdays and every second Saturday, giving you a recurring alternative to the ordinary admission choices.

Galleries open Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11am–5pm, with a longer Thursday window of 11am–7pm. That later finish lets you put contemporary art towards the end of a central afternoon before continuing into the Arts District.

Taliesin West

Taliesin West makes architecture the reason for a separate northern outing. Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and studio brings living and working spaces together in its Historic Core. Look at how the low buildings relate to the desert around them, as well as at the rooms themselves. The relationship between architecture and landscape distinguishes this visit from the central art museums.

The main option is a self-guided audio walking tour, with narration through a free smartphone app. Its 60–75-minute format takes you through the Historic Core and selected buildings on the grounds at your own pace. Indoor and outdoor stretches both form part of the visit, so it is not an all-indoor escape from the weather.

For a more extensive visit, the guided Behind-the-Scenes walking tour takes 2–2½ hours and includes additional spaces beyond the Historic Core. Choose it for a deeper look at the campus rather than as a substitute for a shorter visit.

The ordinary visit is not fully step-free: uneven desert terrain and steps can make it challenging if you have limited mobility. Wear comfortable shoes with a secure grip, bring sun protection and favour a cooler start for the outdoor portions.

McDowell Sonoran Preserve

McDowell Sonoran Preserve is the choice for desert scenery on foot, with rocky hillsides and trails rather than galleries or landscaped park paths. Gateway Trailhead and Tom’s Thumb Trailhead offer alternative starting points within the same preserve, not two stops you need to combine.

Gateway has options ranging from relatively easy, gently rolling paths to strenuous routes over steeper, rocky and uneven ground. Choose it when you want to match the walk to your energy and the conditions, rather than committing straight away to a sustained climb.

Tom’s Thumb is the more demanding choice. Switchbacks gain about 1,200 feet on a sustained climb, with loose gravel and rougher footing towards the top. The granite formation is the focal point of the hike, but the exposed trail has little shade. Pace yourself and give the descent as much attention as the climb.

Trailhead gates open roughly 30 minutes before sunrise, making an early start possible. Wear suitable footwear and sun protection. Choose an indoor museum instead when the heat makes an exposed walk unsuitable for your ability or the day’s conditions.

• Hydrate beforehand and carry ample water. For hot-weather activity, drink at least 2 cups of water 2 hours before setting out and 5 ounces every 15 minutes while active.
• Turn back when half your water is gone, rather than waiting until you are thirsty or nearly out.
• Recognise heat-illness signs, including dizziness, nausea or weakness. Stop exertion and seek cooling and help, with confusion or collapse requiring emergency assistance.
• Rehydrate with water and electrolytes afterwards.

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park

Paradise & Pacific Railroad: January–February and September–December

9am–5pm

Paradise & Pacific Railroad: March–August

9am–7pm

McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is the family-focused choice, combining the Paradise & Pacific miniature railroad with a model railway exhibit and a playground. Mix a train ride with looking at the models and outdoor play, rather than making the ride the whole outing. The models offer a different scale of railway detail, while the playground leaves room for children to move around.

Buy ride tickets at Stillman Station. A single train ride costs $3 per rider, and children aged 2 and under ride free. Discount ticket packs and all-day wristbands are also available, so the single-ride ticket is not the only purchase option.

Favour a cooler part of the day for the outdoor activities. You can keep the visit simple, with one ride and some playground time, or linger over the model railway exhibit if trains are the main interest.

Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt

Indian Bend Wash Greenbelt offers walking and cycling among parks and lakes, making it a gentler outdoor alternative to desert hiking. Start at Chaparral Park for a short stretch with room to pause beside the lake. Indian School Park is another starting point within the wider greenbelt, so you do not need to cover the whole corridor to enjoy it.

Choose a short out-and-back stroll or ride, turning around when you have had enough rather than setting a distant endpoint. Cooler hours suit this outing too, even though the park setting is less demanding than a preserve climb. A lakeside pause can be the point of the visit, not simply a stop between activities.

Cyclists must adjust their speed around pedestrians and other users and pass safely. Keep the ride relaxed when paths are busy, leaving space for people who are walking or stopping to enjoy the parks.

Sources & fact-checking

Checks against the sources below cover: fares and charges, opening hours, services, and closures.

• Scottsdale Gallery Association — opening hours
• McDowell Sonoran Preserve
• City of Scottsdale Parks & Recreation Department — fares and charges
• City of Scottsdale Parks & Recreation Department — opening hours
• City of Scottsdale Parks & Recreation Department — closures
• Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation — service
• Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation — closures
• Bikeway Element
• Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West — fares and charges
• Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West — service
• Scottsdale Arts — fares and charges
• Scottsdale Arts — closures
• Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art — service
• Scottsdale Arts — service