Cottonwood, AZ

The Old Town osteria and tasting room of musician-turned-winemaker Maynard James Keenan, doing farm-to-table Italian with house-milled Arizona-grain pasta and breads, paired with the valley's high-elevation wines. The most serious food-and-wine experience in Cottonwood.

Naples-certified wood-fired pizza in a transformed 1920s auto shop, where the chef trained in Italy turns out a dozen blistered pies on a daily-changing roster. Industrial-modern room, a bocce court out back, and the best pizza in the valley.

A polished old-school steak-and-seafood room with dark woods, brass, and a 40-foot mahogany bar that feels transplanted from an East Coast supper club. The white-tablecloth special-occasion choice in Old Town for steaks, crab, and martinis.

A casual American gastropub in a historic Old Town building, doing burgers, sandwiches, and hearty entrees alongside an unusually deep list of Arizona wines. The reliable, all-ages, watch-the-game anchor in the middle of the wine crawl.

A laid-back breakfast-and-lunch spot in two prohibition-era buildings with a courtyard, doing a tight scratch menu plus house gelato, espresso, and craft beer. The Old Town morning anchor and the daytime hang.

A small, family-run Old Town spot that's become the local favorite for authentic Mexican, with well-balanced salsas and friendly counter service at honest prices. The unfussy taco-and-enchilada fix among all the tasting rooms.

A burger joint in a restored 1930s Texaco gas station packed with vintage signs and memorabilia, griddling classic burgers, shakes, and fries. A fun, retro, family stop in Old Town that the kids will remember.

A homey Old Town cafe doing coffee, breakfast, and lunch in a cozy historic room, the easygoing spot to caffeinate and read before the shops open. Friendly, unpretentious, and properly local.

An easy, flat path from the old rock jail lot in Old Town down to the Verde River and on toward Dead Horse Ranch, shaded by cottonwoods and willows along the water. The simplest way to reach the river straight from downtown.

Flat, easy trails winding through a dense gallery forest of Fremont cottonwoods along the Verde inside Dead Horse Ranch State Park, with fishing lagoons and one of the richest riparian bird habitats in the state. The accessible nature walk of the valley.

An easy loop around a rare freshwater desert marsh below Tuzigoot, fed by an old oxbow of the Verde and alive with waterfowl and wading birds. A short, quiet wildlife walk most visitors to the monument skip.

A longer, more rugged historic route running from Dead Horse Ranch toward Sedona along an 1870s wagon road, climbing through high desert with red-rock views opening to the east. The harder, regional day-hike option for those who want real mileage.

A four-hour, 20-mile round trip from Clarkdale through a wild canyon reachable no other way, in vintage cars with open-air viewing platforms. Bald eagles, ancient cliff dwellings, and red-rock walls roll by; it's the signature experience of the Verde Valley.

A Western-themed chuckwagon dinner and stage show on a ranch at the edge of Dead Horse Ranch, with a cowboy supper, live cowboy music and comedy, and a frontier-town midway beforehand. Corny in the best family way, and a genuine evening out.

One of the anchor tasting rooms on the Old Town wine row, pouring well-known Verde Valley and southern Arizona bottlings in a relaxed, walkable setting. A good first stop to understand what Arizona high-desert wine actually tastes like.

A small local-history museum in a 1920s schoolhouse covering the Verde Valley's mining, ranching, and railroad past, with a beloved working model-railroad room. The indoor, free-ish stop that grounds the area's history.

A 110-room hilltop pueblo the Sinagua people built and lived in for some 300 years starting around 1000 AD, crowning a ridge over the Verde River with views across the whole valley. The short loop through the masonry rooms and the small museum of recovered pottery make it the area's essential history stop.

A few restored blocks of 1920s storefronts that have become the Verde Valley's eating-and-drinking heart, packed with wine tasting rooms, restaurants, and shops. Walkable, low-key, and the reason food-and-wine travelers now stop in Cottonwood at all.

A 1912 planned smelter town just up the road, built by the United Verde mining company with a tidy grid of company houses, a town park, and the depot where the Verde Canyon Railroad now departs. One of Arizona's best-preserved company towns and a quiet contrast to Old Town's bustle.