I was born in raised in a small town of Eagar, which is located in the White Mountains within eastern Arizona. I spent a majority of my childhood outdoors camping and exploring the mountains which grew my fondness of the outdoors from a young age, My dad was a school teacher and many of our vacations were trips up to the mountains or to nearby Flagstaff where my grandparents lived. We chose those vacations because of the financial savings of not having to pay for a hotel or restaurants. Because of this, I was never exposed to the various National Parks and destination locations because we didn’t have money to travel or a TV to see the beauties of these locations. I had heard of different places in school but a name without understanding what the location was had very little impact on my desire to explore anything outside of my small world of Arizona.

In the early 1990’s, I was in college at ASU. I had a very good friend that I loved to talk with about life. Invariably, we would talk about places we wanted to go and experiences we wanted to have. One particular summer we decided to drive out to Yosemite. I had seen pictures and it looked like an amazing place. 30 years later I still remember the chill that I had as we turned the bend and had the first glimpse of Yosemite Valley with the majestic walls and the waterfalls cascading off each side of the cliffs with the backdrop of half dome in the distance. We spent 3 days hiking every waking second trying to take in all of the wondrous sites. It forever changed my life.

Hiking had become an obsession for me. Visiting places that everyone loved as well as places that very few people went because of the difficulty getting there. While I was still a poor college student, I had a car and an occasional free weekend where I could explore.

After graduation traveling became easier as I now had money to fly to further destinations and could afford to stay in hotels. One of my favorite places was a little boutique hotel in the Hudson River Valley. We explored colorful meandering backroads while the leaves were changing color in the fall. It was simply amazing. I wished that I could find a little quaint hotel like that in all of the places that I explored. I discovered that about 30% of the time I could find that ideal hotel. Not a big chain, but a charming Inn that felt almost like home. It wasn’t that all the rooms were perfect. Not all of the beds were amazing. Some of the bathrooms were small. However, they just had that feel of a unique experience that you had to search for.

Over the last 20 years I have continued to travel. I have always looked for that charming little place to magnify the experience of that special location. About 3 years ago I had the opportunity to buy into a little boutique hotel in Sedona called Adobe Hacienda. While I had the experience of owning single unit rentals, this came with a different set of challenges. However, from the first minute I walked the property, I knew this was a place that would create that feel that I was always looking for in the places I stayed. Sedona is magical and the properties should magnify that feeling. We have now expanded to 5 locations in Sedona and are looking at adding several more. This is the beginning of a vision that started 30 years ago. Our dream is to provide that special place to stay that only a boutique hotel can fill. I want that to include National Parks and unique locations across the country. We have just purchased our first national park property in Joshua Tree and are excited to provide consistency in every location.