The town motto is “Where the Wild West Lives,” and you can see why in its old buildings. The Cave Creek Museum, the Historic First Church of Cave Creek, the Tubercular Cabin and the Cave Creek Service Station are all printed on this map. So are the Desert Foothills Library and the Cave Creek Tourism Bureau, with Elephant Mountain, Go John Mountain and Gunsight in the hills around town.
Cave Creek is in Maricopa County, about 33 miles north of downtown Phoenix.
KNOWOL made this map in 2026 and gave it the look of an old atlas. The shaded relief of Elephant Mountain, Go John Mountain and Gunsight comes from United States Geological Survey elevation data, and the streets were drawn from Census Bureau files. The town covers 37.7 square miles of the Sonoran Desert, and Elephant Mountain, in its northernmost part, rises to 3,926 feet. The Cave Creek Service Station and the Tubercular Cabin are on the National Register of Historic Places, and we checked them against National Park Service records. Cave Creek had 4,892 people at the 2020 census.
Soldiers, gold and a cave
Soldiers on horseback from Fort McDowell settled here in 1870, and three years later prospectors from the Bradshaw Mountains found gold in the area. The town took its name from the cave beside the creek it grew up on. Cave Creek itself runs south through the western side of town into Phoenix, where it fades out in the Salt River valley. Cave Creek was incorporated as a town in 1986.
The town sits on the northern edge of Scottsdale, with the Phoenix city limits reaching its southern border, Carefree to the east, New River and Desert Hills to the west and the Tonto National Forest to the north. The mountains north of town run on toward the New River Mountains and the Black Hills. Black Mountain, a local landmark 3,398 feet high, stands in the south of town on the line with Carefree. Being higher than most of the valley, Cave Creek runs cooler than the lower parts of the Phoenix area, and the summer monsoon brings storms from July into September.
The museum grounds
Several of the town’s historic buildings stand together at the Cave Creek Museum: the Tubercular Cabin, which is listed on the National Register, the First Church of Cave Creek and the Golden Reef Stamp Mill. Two other old buildings have found second lives as restaurants, the Cave Creek Inn and the Cave Creek Service Station, which is on the National Register too. Frontier Town holds more of Cave Creek’s original structures. The town council made “Where the Wild West Lives” the official motto at a meeting in November 2013.
Click to explore a larger preview. The digital watermark does not appear on printed maps.
Names on this map
These names are printed on this map.
Streets and roads: N Sierra Vista Rd, E Honda Bow Rd, Mornin Star Rd, N Cottonwood Canyon Rd, E Saddle Mountain Rd, E Tanya Dr, Joy Ranch Rd, E Maddock Rd, E Cahava Ranch Rd, E Willow Springs Ln, Rockaway Hills Rd, Rockaway Hills Dr.
More street names, A to Z
42nd St, Arroyo Rd, Bach Rd, Bear Rd, Canyon Dr, Cave Creek Rd, Celestial St, Clubhouse Rd, Crisscross Way, Dove Valley Rd, E Azure Hills Dr, E Carefree Dr, E Cloud Rd, E Continental Mountain Dr, E Desert Hills Dr, E Dossey Rd, E Glory Rd, E Lasalle Rd, E Lazy Lizard Ln, E Military Rd, E Olesen Rd, E Ridgecrest Rd, E Saguaro Dr, E Seven Palms Dr, E Stagecoach Pass, E Viola Ln, E Westland Rd, Golden Spur Ln, Grapevine Rd, Long Rifle Rd, N Old Stage Rd, Ocotillo Rd, Rackensack Rd, Ridge Dr, Saber Rd, Sun Rd, Tom Darlington Dr, W Dove Valley Ranch.
Spur Cross and the hills
In 2000 the state of Arizona, Maricopa County and the town of Cave Creek joined to buy Spur Cross Ranch, 2,154 acres of Sonoran desert, for $21 million. The land had unusual cacti, stone formations and hundreds of Hohokam artifacts, and it’s now a Maricopa County park. On the map, Elephant Mountain, Go John Mountain and Gunsight give shape to the high ground, and the Desert Foothills Library and the Cave Creek Tourism Bureau are printed among the streets.
The town page lists some well-known residents, among them Bob Boze Bell, publisher of True West Magazine, and Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight novels. Town politics have their own Western flavor as well: in June 2009 a tied vote for town council was settled by a game of chance, which the Arizona constitution allows.
This Cave Creek map is a good addition to an office, library or den, and it can help teach children the geography and history of the area. It’s made for anyone who calls Cave Creek home, from the museum grounds up to Elephant Mountain, and KNOWOL created it in 2026 to show the town as it looks today. Zoom in on the preview above to explore the details, then click here to get your copy of the Cave Creek map.
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