Prickly Pear Inn

That starts with check-in at the Grumpy Ole Mule Mercantile, which doubles as the hotel lobby and offers an extensive collection of souvenirs and furnishings, along with conveniences for travelers. Then, it’s upstairs to one of 11 spacious guest rooms, each of which features a king bed, a large and well-stocked kitchenette, and its own variation on the property’s Western theme.

Most of the rooms have private porches for enjoying the inn’s views of the town and its surroundings; the four rooms without porches share a common area that Paul calls the “happy hour deck.” A true happy hour is right downstairs at Stumblina’s Cantina, which the Morinas started before selling to another owner. The cantina is now one of the property’s three tenants — the other two are an ice cream shop and a salon.

There’s no shortage of on-site amenities, and that commitment to customers comes naturally to the Morinas. They met in the 1980s while working at America West Airlines, then ran properties, including a 10-room hotel on the Pacific Ocean, in Sitka, Alaska. They later moved back to the Phoenix area and fell in love with Cave Creek, where they saw a need for an upscale boutique hotel to fill the gap between the area’s budget lodging options and luxury resorts.

Thus began a two-year process of converting what had been a restaurant and other businesses into the Prickly Pear Inn, which opened in 2017 and has drawn guests from all over, including as nearby as Anthem. Paul notes that visitors to Cave Creek often come for the day, then find themselves wanting to come again and spend more time. And he and Cherie are happy to make that happen — and to start a lasting relationship.

“These days, businesses work so hard to get a customer, and once they get them, they kind of forget about them,” he says. “We want to give people an experience that makes them want to come back.”