Cave Creek Arizona in the Fall

I've lived in Phoenix all my life and love Fall in the Valley of the Sun. Cave Creek is a small town just outside Phoenix, and a great place to visit any time of the year, but especially once the weather starts to cool down. The Arizona temperatures steadily drop as you drive toward this rustic town, but this place is nothing close to boring! Cave Creek is a fun place to shop, dine and turns into a party place on weekends. During Halloween, you might even be able to find a rustic Haunted House to visit!

To give you a feel for Cave Creek, let's start with this diary entry I made a few years back, that paints a picture of an excursion I made one October morning to Here's what I wrote:

"It's 9 am on a mid-October Saturday morning and I am sitting roadside at Harold's, a steakhouse in Cave Creek, Arizona. It was only a short, fifteen minute drive North from Phoenix, which is now the 5th largest city in the United States, to get where I am now in this one-horse town.

I expect any minute for a bootleg truck to sneak down the back alley. Instead, I watch a white Mercedes Benz pull up. A man in slacks and a polo shirt opens the passenger door for a well-groomed woman dressed in jeans and a designer T-Shirt, carrying her Coach purse.

Arm in arm, they take careful steps on the uneven, wood planks of Harold's outdoor patio. He pulls out a rustic iron chair for her, and she sits down on a cushion covered by a remnant of some Mexican Blanket that he has brought along . In just a few minutes, they are happily sipping Mimosas from mason jars and sharing a Spanish omelette, sculpted melon and lively conversation.

The temperature in Cave Creek this gorgeous Autumn morning is 78 degrees, but the breeze that fans my skin feels cooler after a brief rainstorm earlier this morning. The air is almost intoxicating, filled with the sweet smell of wet, creosote bushes. Everyone in the Phoenix area loves the rain and, in spite of the clouds still lingering overhead, no one today is carrying an umbrella. That makes sense if you know that the Phoenix skies are clear 325 days of the year and rainfall averages only 7 inches. We can never find our umbrellas!

A good-looking cowboy, wearing jeans, boots and a baseball cap is sitting at the table next to me and his work truck is parked out front. He catches my eye and remarks "Smell that? It's the smell of fall, my favorite part of the year. Yup, cooler weather is just around the corner."

We agree that October here makes you forget about the stifling July afternoons and the August dry heat. He then asks if I ever come here to Harold's or The Buffalo Chip just across the parking lot on Saturday nights to dance. I answer, yes, I do, and we decide we should try out a two-step some evening soon.

He tosses a few bites of his bagel to the birds that have been performing some type of Western sonata during our breakfast and they hop away with their pay.

I remember that just down the road is a group of retail shops, one named "The Town Dump". I decide it's time to browse around a little, so I place a ten on the table to cover my breakfast and coffee. I then shake the cowboy's hand, accept his business card, and find myself in a race with a roadrunner that is also crossing the road. The Roadrunner beats me across but, after all, he is a Roadrunner!"

If you want to travel back to the 1800's in old West Arizona, Cave Creek is a town full of Arizona history and worth a visit. Cave Creek has unique shops and restaurants, rodeos, museums, and a fun nightlife with live bands. And don't forget about that Haunted House on Halloween! Maybe I'll see you there!

Places to Check out in Cave Creek Arizona:

Halloween 2010 Haunted House in Cave Creek Arizona (See the YouTube Video here)
Cave Creek Visitors Guide
The Horney Toad Restaurant
Silver Spur Saloon Restaurant (formerly Satisfied Frog)
Cartwright's Sonoran Ranch House
Buffalo Chip Saloon (Free dance lessons on Thursdays)
Tonto Bar and Grill

Related Arizona Slideshows:
A Tour of Downtown Prescott, Arizona
Arizona Daytrip: Four Quaint Towns to Visit
Pictures of Arizona's Montezuma's Castle