Katie Dufort was working on a combination during an escape-room outing with her daughter when an entirely different puzzle suddenly clicked into place.
“I could do this on a golf cart,” she remembers thinking.
Six years later, that idea became the centerpiece of a business that actually began four years before Dufort’s escape-room revelation.
Puzzle Rides is marking its 10th anniversary this year, tracing its roots to a free golf-cart shuttle service Dufort started in Scottsdale and Prescott in 2016.
What began as transportation eventually became something considerably less conventional: escape-room-style puzzle adventures conducted aboard golf carts through Old Town Scottsdale and historic downtown Prescott.
“I wanted this golf cart business to be more than just a taxi service,” Dufort said. “I wanted to start something more exciting and experimental.”
The anniversary comes as Puzzle Rides prepares to introduce its first new Scottsdale ride since 2022 and expands its business for corporate groups.
But neither was what Dufort had in mind when she started Ride Scottsdale and Ride Prescott a decade ago.
The original operation provided free golf-cart shuttle service to Prescott residents during the summer and Scottsdale residents during the winter.
By 2020, Dufort was ready to try something different.
“I had this shuttle service, but I wanted to do something more interactive, and I didn’t want to step on the toes of some of the amazing tour companies in Scottsdale,” she said.
Then came the January 2020 escape-room visit with her daughter.
Dufort realized the puzzles didn’t necessarily need to be confined within four walls.
The golf carts she already had could move players from clue to clue while Scottsdale itself became part of the game.
That led her to rebrand the business as Puzzle Rides.
Rather than simply transporting passengers around town, the carts now carry groups on guided scavenger hunts combining elements of an escape room with exploration of local landmarks and businesses.
A “puzzle master” accompanies participants as they solve clues and move through the game.
The same concept operates in Prescott, where Puzzle Rides added a brick-and-mortar puzzle store in April 2025.
The company describes it as Arizona’s only dedicated puzzle store and plans eventually to open a second store in Scottsdale.
Puzzle Rides also is expanding its offerings.
In October, it plans to launch “Time Trap Escape,” its first new Scottsdale puzzle ride since 2022.
Meanwhile, Dufort has returned to another part of her own background to develop a corporate version of the concept.
Before entering the golf-cart business, she worked in corporate sales.
Puzzle Rides’ new Relay MAX program takes the scavenger-hunt idea to hotels and other properties for corporate team-building events involving groups of up to 300 people.
“This is a big corporate scavenger hunt on property at hotels,” Dufort said. “It’s a fun way to build teams and replicate corporate life.”
But the company is pitching Relay MAX as more than an employee outing.
Puzzle Rides tracks participants’ performance during the event and generates a report based on the team’s performance during the puzzle relay.
“We wanted to create a fun event that actually provided good ROI for companies,” Dufort said.
“Before starting this company, I was in a corporate sales background, so this was an opportunity to use my professional background to grow our services while providing companies with data that can help them assess their strengths and weaknesses.”
The company’s evolution means the golf carts Dufort once used primarily to get people from one place to another have become vehicles for several different businesses — tourism and entertainment, corporate team building and, in Prescott, a retail puzzle operation.
Yet Dufort credits the two communities where those carts originally began running with allowing the idea to survive and evolve for a decade.
“We would not be where we are today without Old Town Scottsdale and Prescott lifting us up,” she said.
“Everyone from the small business owners who collaborate with us, the local chambers and governments that support us, and the customers who keep enjoying our experiences is the reason we are here 10 years later.”