Adventures in Flagstaff Arizona

Jenny , an Active Travel Adventures listener lives in Flagstaff and shares her love of her beautiful adventure paradise on today’s show – in fact after we chatted, she wondered if she should just keep Flagstaff a secret!  Located in northern Arizona on the southern part of the Colorado plateau, Flagstaff has a metro population over 130,000 which means it’s large enough to support great culture and restaurants, yet small enough to retain a community feel.

Flagstaff sits next to Mount Elden at the south end of the San Francisco peaks, Arizona’s highest mountain range.  Surprising to most, Flagstaff has a higher elevation than Denver at over 7000′.  This means you can have wonderful adventures year ’round in this high and dry desert landscape, from hiking and biking in the warm months to all of the winter sports in the colder months.  Skiers and snowboarders will love the 108″ average snowfall!  Unlike much of Arizona, it rarely exceeds 88 degrees F in the summer, and the normal annual range is 19°F to 81°F – perfect!

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Listen to the podcast here:

Adventure Things to Do in Flagstaff

People who live and work in Flagstaff love the outdoors and they have a perfect playground.  There are dozens of beautiful hiking trails, over 35 mountain biking trails from beginner to expert levels, a lake to kayak in and a chill downtown to eat and drink after a fun day in nature.  Flagstaff is also a gateway to the Grand Canyon, Sedona, and magical Havasu Falls.

Scroll down for the best hiking trails and links to other outdoor adventure activities.

Prefer a Guided Hiking Tour in Arizona?

Check out the guided hiking tours that my affiliate Wildland Trekking offers!  All you have to do is choose your adventure, train and then show up to hike!  Wildland takes care of the rest.  No need to worry about logistics.  

Where is Flagstaff?  How do I get there?

Flagstaff is located in the northern part of Arizona and has its own airport or you can come in from Phoenix, which is less than 150 miles away.  You can always take a road trip and arrive via Route 66!

When in this region, don’t just visit the Grand Canyon and Sedona, be sure to allow time to explore Flagstaff!  Other nearby attractions include Oak Creek Canyon, the Arizona Snow Bowl, Meteor Crater, Coconino National Forest, the Ruins of Elden Pueblo, Red Rocks State Park, Wupatki National Monument, Monument Valley Navaho Park and the Lowell Observatory.

You can access detailed transportation options here.

Where to Stay in Flagstaff?

As the gateway to the Grand Canyon, you have a multitude of options in all price and quality ranges.  Choose from a chi-chi boutique inn or guest house, standard hotel, bed and breakfast, or even a hostel or campground.  Airbnb places are also available.  You can find more information here.

Weather in Flagstaff

Enjoy four seasons of beauty and adventure in Flagstaff! 

In the summer, it rarely exceeds 88 degrees, and generally has clear sunny skies in the low 80’s – delightful! Summer arrives in May and is warm and very dry until early July followed by the monsoon season which runs July to early September.

Enjoy dry, sunny and crisp fall days while walking among the aspens and enjoy a pallet of fall color from yellow, orange red and purple.  Snows start to arrive in November.

Winter is a special time in Flagstaff and no wonder it is called Arizona’s Winter Wonderland:  an average of 108″ of powder falls making it the ideal destination for skiers, snowboarders and snowshoeing.  Flagstaff is one of the snowiest incorporated cities in the US!

In the spring, enjoy the many wildflowers as the land comes alive again.   Spring is generally dry and windy with occasional snow.

And all year, enjoy the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the country.

Weather averages  

Consider Flagstaff as your Home Base

 If you want to explore Northern Arizona, then make Flagstaff your base camp.  

After you spend time playing in Flagstaff, you can check out the Grand Canyon which is about 80 miles away.  Sedona is a little more than 30 miles away.  Phoenix is little more than a two hour drive.

Enjoy the scenic drive to Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument as you go from desert to mountain landscape.  Or see a smaller, less crowded yet stunning canyon than the Grand Canyon:  Oak Creek Canyon.  Another beautiful canyon is Walnut Canyon where you can see cliff dwellings and pueblos from 800+ years ago!  Learn about the environment and people from the helpful Visitor’s Center and challenge yourself with a strenous 1 mile Island Trail into the canyon or take the shorter Rim Trail for pretty overlooks and a pithouse display.

Visit the youngest volcano on the Colorado Plateau, Sunset Crater.  Allow time for a stop in the Visitor’s Center to learn about this 900 year old volcano and see the aftermath of the eruption on the self-guided Lava Flow Trail.

There are plenty of wonderful hikes in the area from the spectacular San Francisco Peaks to the Coconimo National Forest where you’ll see the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the world, which live only at elevations between 6000-8000′, and Flagstaff is right in the middle at about 7000′ high making for a perfect habitat for these stately beauties!  Here’s a fun fact:  Flagstaff got its name from a Boston scouting party who hoisted the flag to celebrate the July 4, 1876 Centennial on one of the ubiquitous ponderosa pines, which stand nice and straight like a telephone pole.  This event is often referred to as the Second Boston Party!

Speaking of ponderosa pines, these tall specimens suppress much undergrowth besides some grasses, which makes for a bit of a surreal forest experience!

NOTE:  It is not unusual to see artifacts as you hike and bike.  They are wonderful to find, but be sure to leave them as you found them, taking only pictures, please!

Outdoor Adventures in Flagstaff

Because Flagstaff has such diverse terrain, such pleasant four season weather, and is beautiful, it attracts all sorts of outdoor enthusiasts.  The high elevation is also appealing to those training as elite runners and bikers.  There are opportunities for hikers, bikers, backpackers and campers, climbers, runners and bikers and so Flagstaff attracts casual and serious outdoor adventurers.

You don’t need to leave town to enjoy nature, either, as there are almost 700 acres (300 ha) of city parks.  The largest ones are Thorpe Park and Buffallo Park.  Right next to City Hall is Wheeler Park, home of outdoor concerts in the summer plus other events.

“FUTS” as it is affectionately known, or the Flagstaff Urban Trails System, has over 50 miles of trails, both paved and unpaved, for running, hiking and biking.  the network is throughout the city so folks use it for exercise as well as getting from one place to the other.

Flagstaff is large enough to host multiple clubs and groups for outdoor enthusiasts:  there are hiking and cycling clubs, running and cross country ski races, triathalons, along with cultural groups.

Flagstaff is the home base/starting point for the Colorado River expeditions through the Grand Canyon as well as several backpacking outfitters.

Best Hiking Trails near Flagstaff

Year ’round hiking if you hike in the snow, otherwise the hiking season runs from mid-spring until mid-Autumn (see weather sections for more details).  Trail planning information link

IMPORTANT!!!  Because of the dryness and the elevation, you will need to drink much more water than you are probably used to!  Because it is so dry most of the time, you may not even realize that you are sweating.  So bring a lot more water than you think you’ll need.  As a side note, in the same way, alcohol will affect you quicker than you are used to, so keep that in mind when imbibing.

Antelope Canyon

Antelope canyon is a must see while you are in the area!  However, it is required that you use a guide.  Here is a link to the various guide companies.

Podcast Audio Correction:  Kendrick’s Peak is 10,423’ 

ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES IN AND NEAR FLAGSTAFF:

Flagstaff Dining and Nightlife

The outdoors isn’t all the Flagstaff has got going for it!  After a busy day playing and exploring, head downtown for a variety of entertainment options.   

It will be hard to choose from the more than 200 restaurants. You can learn more here.

Perhaps you’d prefer a craft beer?  Flagstaff has been named Arizona’s Craft Beer City and local breweries have won numerous honors at the World Beer Championship and the the Great American Beer Festival.  While visiting Flagstaff, be sure to check out the Brewery Trail so you don’t miss out on a favorite!

Flagstaff Festivals

Flagstaff knows how to celebrate!  Pretty much every weekend from May through October, you’ll find Flagstaff toasting someone or something!  From the numerous FlagShakes, to Blues and Brews (even Barks and Brews), Hopi and Navaho Festivals to OktoberFest, you are sure to find something to join in the fun.  Beers are celebrated.  History is celebrated.  Music and theater are celebrated.  Food and Holidays are celebrated.  People and Product are celebrated.  Arts and Sciences are celebrated.  It is hard to find something NOT celebrated!  You can check out the latest festivals here.

World’s First ‘International Dark Sky City’

Flagstaff citizens and the government take its sky and the Milky Way seriously!  For more than 50 years, Flagstaff has stayed in the forefront of taking measures to reduce light pollution so we can enjoy these magnificent night skies.  It was named the world’s first ‘dark sky city’ in 2001.  You can learn more by visiting the Lowell Observatory. The US Naval Observatory has a station in Flagstaff as well.  This photo was taken from Bonito Park.  

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Links Mentioned on the Show:

Raft the Grand Canyon

How to Fit and Pack a Backpack

Banff Canada Adventures

Rota Vincentina Fisherman’s Way Portugal

Adventure Travel Show podcast directory and website

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Adventures In Flagstaff Arizona

Hike, Bike And Paddle In The Gateway To The Grand Canyon

In this episode, we’ve got a special treat for you. Similar to the Banff episode in Canada, where we used a base area to explore and have adventures, now we’re heading to Flagstaff, Arizona, which is surprisingly completely different than most people’s image of Arizona. It’s also great not just as a base to get to the Grand Canyon, its neighbor, Flagstaff has got tons of adventure activities and other cool things about it that make it a destination in and of itself. The cute downtown has got a great culture scene, a big foodie scene, an art scene and tons of urban trails. While there’s plenty to see and do in the downtown Flagstaff area, the surrounding mountains are also a huge attraction for this region and this makes it a paradise for adventure lovers like you and me. Our guest, Jenny, lives in a place in Flagstaff, so we get the local perspective and also learn some of the secret places that you might not pick up from a tourist guide. After the interview, Jenny joked, “Maybe we shouldn’t let people in on the secret of Flagstaff.†Let’s find out why and let’s get started.

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I first met Jenny when she sent me a lovely email and I asked if I could get on the phone with her. She kindly consented. We got over chatting on and on. I found out that she lived in this amazing place that reminded me of an episode that we did in Banff, where we concentrated on one area that you could use as a base camp to go out and explore the area. Welcome to the show, Jenny. Could you please introduce yourself and perhaps tell us your age?

I’m Jenny. I’m 59 years old.

I look at the photos of things that you’ve done and the things that we’ve talked about. How did you first get into all this adventure-type of activity? You’ve done some incredible adventures.

I grew up with it. Growing up in the State of Oregon, my parents were active. Over the years, my travels with my husband mostly and my kids have been active. We planned trips around hikes or mountain bike rides or something where we stay active because we realize that it makes the trip more fun for all of us and we feel better about ourselves too.

You happen to live in Adventures Paradise. Where are we going?

I live in Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s in Northern Arizona. Most people think of Arizona as a state full of cactus and sagebrush, but I live up in the mountains in the pine trees. It’s a good escape if you are in the desert. We’ve been here for many years.

You do live in an incredible area. You’re not too far the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix and Vegas. It’s also inexpensive to fly in that area. What is it about Flagstaff that appeals to you the most?

I love the mountains and open space. There are a lot of national forests around here, as well as all the national parks and monuments. There’s a lot of room for what I consider my playing. I do go to the gym, but I go with the idea that it’ll get me out further into the wilds and be able to do my activities out there better. I love the wild and open spaces here, which you don’t find so much on the East Coast.

Even though you’re at a high elevation, you’re close to around 7,000 feet in Flagstaff if I’m not mistaken, but it’s still fairly flat and you had the panoramic view of the mountains in the distance. Am I getting that right?

Yes, we have the San Francisco Peaks, which are sets of 5 or 6 big mountains. They’re quite dramatic. They rise to the north of downtown Flagstaff and that’s where a lot of my recreation is between mountain bike riding, downhill skiing, cross country skiing and hiking. We are basically on a big high elevation plateau with the big mountains sticking up out of it and then 1.5 hours away, we have a big Grand Canyon sticking downward. It’s a little contrast there.

The Grand Canyon is close to you.

It’s about 1.5 hours drive.

It sounds like the town itself is quite cute. It’s gone through a bunch of redevelopment over, I don’t know how many the last decades, but tell us a little bit about your whole downtown scene. What’s going on there?

If you’re driving through Flagstaff, you might think it’s an ordinary, not too cute of a town. If you go down to the downtown area, which has had a lot of renovations and a lot of old-time Western stores, you have a lot of great restaurants, sports stores and other little stores. We have a nice little downtown square, we call it Heritage Square. In the summer, they have movies, music and artwork. There’s a lot going on and the downtown area is especially cute for visitors to come to.

It looked nice too. You also have something called FUTS. Can you tell us what that is?

Flagstaff Urban Trail System is a good-sized trail system. It’s an urban trail. Most are gravel and some are paved, but if you don’t want to do the big huge wild adventures and you want to go for a little bike ride, a run or walk in and around town, Urban Trail System is huge. It’s nice and it’s right behind my house. That’s fun.

It sounds like the whole town. Have you ever been to Moab? Is it like that vibe where everybody’s outdoorsy there? What’s the scene? What are the people like? Who’s attracted to go to Flagstaff?

It is a lot like Moab in that sense. The Moab crowd is maybe a smidge younger because we have all ages and generations here. Although, we do have a big university population, so we have a lot of young people here. Anybody who can’t tolerate the higher altitude, they tend not to stick around. It is a vibrant and moving community. There are lots going on for the size of the town. It is because we’re the hub of Northern Arizona, not only for activities but healthcare and shopping and stuff like that.

I think the population was somewhere around 75,000. Does that sound correct?

Adventures In Flagstaff Arizona: If you were at a low altitude desert with a lot of heat, you would want to carry a gallon a day.

That’s about right. There are some outlying areas that aren’t incorporated in the city. I would say 100,000 might be a little more accurate as far as the field goes.

That’s nice because it’s small enough that it’s a small town, but it’s large enough that you can have enough population to support the cultures and the restaurants and all that, which is nice. Let’s drill down a little bit deeper into some of the activities. Let’s start with my favorite, which is hiking. Tell us about hiking in the area.

The mountains, the San Francisco Peaks, there are lots of trails around and over and through there. You’ve got a lot of hikes there. Most, I would consider day hikes. The unfortunate thing about the Flagstaff area is that we don’t have a lot of natural running water sources, so it’s sometimes hard to find the natural springs or water sources you need especially in the mid-summer, but that’s a big hiking area. The Grand Canyon is not far away. There are lots of good day hikes and overnight hikes there if you plan in advance. Down in the Sedona area, there are lots of day hikes and there are also overnight hiking possibilities too.

How far is Sedona from you?

Sedona is probably about 45 minutes south of Flagstaff, depending on which part of Sedona you want to go to. The part that we like the best is more on the west side of Sedona. From where we live, we take about 1.25 hours to get to the trailhead.

In my research, I put together a list of twenty popular trails in the Flagstaff area. I’d like to go over a couple of them with you, if you can tell us a little bit about them. The first one I’d like to talk about is one called the Kendrick Peak Trail.

That’s the one that takes you up to Kendrick Peak and gets to the real height to the mountain. I think it goes up to 12,000 feet or beyond. That’s a popular trail in the late spring and early summer, depending on the snowpack. Later in the summer, it can also be popular. You have to watch out for lightning because we get some afternoon rain showers and lightning here.

That was on my list to ask about because when you were in your monsoon, you get a daily thunderstorm. For those of us that don’t have that as part of our normal risk factors that we need to be aware of. Tell us about lightning safety. What do the locals do? How do you plan your days knowing that you’re in your thunderstorm season?

The monsoon season usually starts in early to mid-July. Typically, the morning is clear and then it clouds up in the afternoon and then we might get a thundershower and rainstorm. It tends to clear up again in the late afternoon and evening. Lately, it hasn’t been quite as predictable as that. I think there’s some global climate change stuff happening, but you have to work around the lightning and you want to be safe. There are lightning strikes every year here. I would prefer to go out super early and be back early, so I’m not up there when the clouds start rolling in. If you’re going to be up in the mountains.

What time would you recommend people turn back to start heading back down the mountain?

Anytime you start seeing clouds coming in because a huge amount of clouds can be around the corner, around the other side of that mountain and then they will come in fast and you’d be prone to a lightning strike. I’d want to be off the mountain if there are any clouds coming in.

It’s normally cloudless where you are. I always have clouds in my sky.

There’s a difference between the clouds that produce the thunder and lightning storms, the big cumulus clouds versus a little cloud cover. It’s typically a blue sky here. We get a lot of sunshine days here.

I want to backtrack when you talk about not a lot of water. Since there’s not a lot of water and you’re at altitude, can you talk a little bit about how much water you need to be packing with you when you do hike?

We’re at high altitude desert. If you were at a low altitude desert with a lot of heat, you would want to carry a gallon a day or something like that. Up here, it’s a little less because it has a cooler temperature, but if I go out for a 2-hour hike, I take at least a quart with me. Sometimes a quart-and-a-half. It can be a lot of water. It depends on you and what time of day you start. When I hike, I like to start fairly cold so I’m a little chilled and then you warm up. As you warm up and start sweating, I start taking off layers then I feel I sweat a little less and maybe need a little less water, but be careful with the water here and how much you drink. You should drink quite a bit, especially with the altitude and the climate.

It means you are dry too and you don’t even realize you’re sweating sometimes because it evaporates. I know from things I’ve studied about dealing with altitude, which I have some issues with, is that if you keep yourself well-hydrated, you have fewer symptoms as well.

I find that I do drink a lot of water or tea. When I visit family out in your area, I keep drinking the water and then I keep going to the bathroom and everybody thinks I might be diabetic, but I’m like, “I’m used to so much of drinking the water.†It’s a good habit to get into.

There’s one more thing I saw on the Kendricks Peak Trail that when the view’s nice and clear, you can see the Grand Canyon from the peak.

Yes, you can.

That’s cool. That was one of the more strenuous hikes on my list and easier wellness called the West Fork Trail.

Staying active makes the trip more fun. Click To Tweet

It is down in the Sedona area. That’s a hike where you’re in the water quite a bit. You’re in the water and narrow canyons of Oak Creek in Sedona. I haven’t done much of that. I’ve done a little bit and then we hit the cold water and I didn’t want to do it anymore but it’s a popular hike.

Another difficult one is called the Bear Jaw Abineau.

That’s a nice loop hike. It’s around nine miles and correct me if I’m wrong, 1,500 to 2,000 feet elevation change.

It’s considered the hardest on my list of twenty.

It’s a nice day hike. It takes you from the forested floor and then you get up close to the edge of treeline or maybe slightly above treeline and often even in the middle of the summer, you’ll hit a snow patch because that’s on the Northside of the mountains, the San Francisco Peaks.

Let’s talk a little bit about the pines. You have a special pine tree there and one of the largest tracks of the continuous forest of that. Can you talk a little bit about that?

We have a huge track of ponderosa pine trees up here. They are huge, beautiful trees. We’re surrounded by them. They do forest and log them. They’re a wonderful tree, but they are prone to burning so fire danger in the summer is something we all need to be careful of. We don’t light fires in the forest.

I did read that the Forestry Service is starting to do controlled burns again. We do those here.

We’ve done them for quite some time and there are some going on nowadays. They try to time it with the weather and the wind. We do get them and that’s good. They are starting to do more with thinning and culling out the forest, which makes for a lot of times prettier bike rides. You could get a little more depth when you look through the forest. You can see the animals better. The deer and elk or whatever you’re looking at.

The ponderosa pine is known for being a tall tree with a super straight trunk. In fact, those are often used as ship’s mast back in the day. It’s also how the town of Flagstaff got its name. It’s a fun story. The city got its name after the ponderosa pine flagpole that was made by a scouting party from Boston that was celebrating the United States Centennial on July 4th, 1876. They also refer to this as the Second Boston Party. That’s a cool story. Any of your favorite trails that we should be covering as well?

The Kachina Trail and it’s also up at the Kendrick area. That’s a beautiful trail. There’s a lot of fern on the trail with certain seasons. The Schultz Pass Trail System is fun. That’s quite close to my house. That’s my go-to for mountain bike riding here.

That is a good segue into mountain biking. Tell us about the mountain biking scene out there.

It’s a big scene. There’s a lot of mountain bike riders out there. In fact, I would say the Schultz Pass Trail, there are walkers on it, but you don’t want to be out there on the weekend or when there’s a mountain bike race. That would be uncomfortable, but during the weekdays, it’s great. There is a lot of mountain bike riding people here. It’s quite a mecca for that. Not maybe quite as big as Moab, but we’ve got the higher hills and we’ve got lots of climbs. We’ve got downhill riding and some nice traverses to see the country.

It looked like most of the trails were intermediate to expert. Do they have something for beginners like me?

I would say so, but they wouldn’t be called trails. They would be called forest service roads. That’s what I would take a true beginner on. Although there are some easier trails and then there’s always the urban trail system that’s fun and can get you into a lot of different beautiful scenery areas too, but there are some beginner trails, so don’t worry.

I was like, “I read there are 35 or 36 trails. Most of which are intermediate, 6 to 8 of them were experts.†That’s beyond my scope. It looks like a beautiful area to ride.

We also like going down into the Sedona area, which is an hour’s drive away and bike riding down there in the winter or when the weather’s not good here. It will usually be nice down there.

Is that because it’s lower elevation and why? That’s not that far away for it to have such a different climate.

You’re dropping down about 2,000 feet or 3,000 feet depending on where you go. When you get into the Red Rocks and you’re into the sagebrush and more the cactus-type country for the most part. You dropped down in elevation and then it’s a different climate.

You’re a regular landscape then. What do you see when you’re riding around the immediate countryside outside of the main development? What does the landscape look like?

Adventures In Flagstaff Arizona: A lot of times, you get these incredible views when you hit an area where you have no trees around you.

It’s rolling to flat areas and then dropping down into some canyons, arroyos and lots of pine trees. There are some big meadow areas too.

Is it mostly covered in the landscape? Is it sporadic like the cacti further south where you see occasional things? Is it a forest and then meadow? I’m trying to get a picture of what it might look like.

The forest tends to be open so you can see a long way through the forest and the trees are wide apart, especially if it’s been thinned. A lot of times, when you hit an area where you have no trees around you, you get these incredible views. You can see the mountain, you can see other structures or other hills in the distance. It depends on where you’re riding but a lot of times, our rides end in viewpoints so you can get some nice distant viewpoints here.

A lot of the trails on my list too also spoke about the wildflowers. When’s the best time to come see the wildflowers?

Mid to late summer sometimes. A lot of times, our springs are fairly dry and the flowers wait until what we called the monsoon season start in July and then maybe a week or so into that week, we get some beautiful blooms.

Some are known for birding. What would we expect in some of the birding trails?

There’s a wonderful lake south of a town called Mormon Lake and there are a lot of birds out there. Apparently, they have an Asian crane out there. My husband and I tried to see it. It got stuck there. I would go to the water sources for the birds mostly. That would be a couple of the natural and manmade lakes in the area.

One thing that you are known for and in fact, it’s an important part of the US countryside, is your night sky. Tell us about that.

Flagstaff is one of the first dark sky cities in the country, if not the first. We have an observatory here so they’ve done a lot of research into space and the atmosphere. In fact, they discovered Pluto in Flagstaff. There are city ordinances that make us keep our lights lower or dimmer or certain lights aren’t allowed. We have streetlights but they may be dimmer than you might be used to in other places so that the observatory can still see the stars and the nighttime views.

I have a beautiful picture of the Milky Way taken in the Flagstaff area. It’s stunning. It’s one of the most beautiful night sky photos I’ve ever seen. Do you take it for granted or is it something when you go out there and you are like, “Oh my God,†or is it something that you are like, “It’s the night sky again?â€

We don’t take it for granted. We realize what a beautiful place we live in. A lot of times, at sunset we’ll be outside and we watch the stars and the moon come up. We know it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful moment. Some of the best scenes of the dark sky though are when you’re down in the Grand Canyon and all the sidelight is filtered out. That’s amazing.

I know you don’t have a lot of water, but in the area, you do have some rafting, kayaking and even paddleboarding. Can you talk about that?

We have the Grand Canyon. My husband and I have made 8 or 9 private trips in the Grand Canyon. We take the paddleboard down once in a while. On the calmer water, I can manage that. Some people are good and can do the whitewater on paddleboards but I’m not that good. There are lots to do in the Grand Canyon. I know you had an episode on that between the rafting, kayaking, paddleboarding, I’ve even seen canoes down there which is rare though. That’s close and we’ve got a couple of lakes in the area that you can go out to and do more paddleboarding or canoeing. The closest is probably called Lake Mary. It is an extra reservoir for the city of Flagstaff water supply. That’s common to see people out fishing or paddleboarding or canoeing out there. Down south of us near Sedona, there’s the Verde River, which is a small river, but you can kayak on that and there are some nice day runs. There are longer runs where you can make some overnight trips.

If you’re flying in, can you rent the equipment there so you don’t have to haul your gear?

You can. I know you can rent standup paddleboards and kayaks and everything. There are bike shops for bike rentals. You can run everything here.

Speaking of rental, it sounds like we probably need to rent a car as well.

Renting a car would be a good idea unless you want to stay downtown, I would rent a car definitely because most people want to go to the Grand Canyon. There are shuttles and whatnot to go there, but then you’re limited as to what parts you can see and how long you can stay.

Same for the trailheads too, I’m assuming for the local hiking.

A lot of the trailheads you’d want to have a car. Maybe a little bit of high clearance depending on the trail you want to go to.

You have been a resident for a long time and I want you to share some secrets of places that visitors would never know about unless you told us where to go.

Flagstaff is one of the first dark sky cities in the country, if not the first. Click To Tweet

One place we took our children when they were little, a cute little place is called Viet Springs. It’s a short two-mile hike in and you go through a beautiful forest of aspen and pine trees, then you come to a little water source, a spring. It’s a great place to have a little picnic. It’s off of our Snow Bowl Road. That’s up in the mountains. It’s a wonderful place for spring, summer, or fall.

This is also an important Native American area. Can you talk a little bit about that? What should people do if they come across some artifacts or whatnot?

Let’s talk about the artifacts. First of all, artifacts are great and it depends on where you are. If you are somewhere out in the wild in a non-restricted place, a lot of times you can pick up the artifacts, look at them, but then put them right back where you found them. Don’t try to organize them or put them all in a place that other people can see. Put it right back where you found it. In the Flagstaff area, we have several national parks and monuments in different places that are a little more organized and more interesting because they have that organization. My favorite is Walnut Canyon, which is east of town by 15 to 20 minutes. They have a nice day walk there where you can see cliff dwellings and Indian structures as well as a lot of native plants and how native life was 800 years ago. In the south of town, we have a cliff dwelling set in a large cliff, which is rare to see other than Mesa Verde National Park, which is several hours north of here.

Are there any good museums that would help be interpreted for us so we know what we’re seeing?

The Museum of Northern Arizona, which is near where I live, is a great place to go and get a good sense of what is in the area. A lot of Native American history and culture are there as well as natural history. It makes a good half-day trip to understand the area.

Are there any things about Flagstaff in the area that I should have asked you about that I haven’t?

If you’re thinking you’re coming to Flagstaff and it’s going to be warm and hot like Phoenix, be a little more prepared. A lot of people come up, go to Phoenix or something for spring vacation and then they want to come to Flagstaff for a day trip or Grand Canyon for a day trip. They dressed in shorts and a sweatshirt. Don’t do that. Wear a little bit more, especially in the spring, our weather cannot be shorts and sweatshirt weather.

That’s important because that’s a big mistake people make a lot of times by not being prepared. For me, anytime I go to the mountains, I want to have layers because the weather can change. All of a sudden, a storm rolls through and you’re going to get cold and wet. I like to have extra clothes in my pack.

Some people think they’re coming to the Flagstaff, to the Grand Canyon area. I’ve heard this before, “We’re not going to go to Colorado because that’s high elevation.†We’re about 2,000 feet higher than Denver. If you have any issues with altitude, be aware of that and take it easy a little bit, so you don’t get in trouble health-wise.

Antelope Canyon is a little bit out of the immediate range. Let’s talk about that. How far is it and what is it?

Antelope Canyon is about 2 to 2.5 hours north of here up near a town called Page, Arizona. It is an amazing slot canyon. You have to hire a guide to take you in. I think they’re Navajo guides and it’s not expensive, but it’s an amazing experience to super-narrow beautiful colors. You get to spend an hour or two in there, I highly recommend it. If you’re going up there from Flagstaff, on the way there’s a place called Horseshoe Bend where you get an overlook of the Grand Canyon or the upper reaches of the Grand Canyon, which is also an amazing little day hike. Any of those things show you the desert southwest is amazing.

I know that it’s popular to go to Antelope Canyon. Is that something you need a permit or a reservation to do?

Different people say different things. We went up and we didn’t have a reservation. Maybe it wasn’t this peak season. Other people said, “You have to have reservations.†I don’t know. It depends on the season you’re going. Be aware you should not go if there’s any chance of rain because it has been flooded in the past and people have died due to the flash flooding that we have in the desert southwest. You can call them and I’m sure you can find this link online and see if you do need reservations.

There might be a thunderstorm north of you that you’re not even hearing that all of a sudden rain is coming down that canyon. That’s why the risk of flash floods could be dangerous sometimes. That’s probably why they have a guide there and they’re probably communicating with the guides. Somebody’s aware of these things to let people know, I imagine, but you still can be caught flat-footed if you’re in that canyon, you can’t climb up.

There’s a number of slot canyons and other narrow spots where you don’t want to take any chances. We had a permit to hike in Paria Canyon, which is a little further away on the border of Utah and Arizona. At the last minute, we canceled because it was snowing in Bryce Canyon, which is a long way away, but that all feed into that one slot canyon we were going into.

It is better to be safe than sorry. I appreciate you coming on the show, Jenny. We enjoyed having you and whenever you do some exciting travels, we want to hear from you. Do you have anything planned coming up?

I’m going back to Portugal in the spring. Maybe we’ll meet up.

When are you going?

Probably in mid-March.

Same here and where are you going?

Adventures In Flagstaff Arizona: Some of the best scenes of the dark sky are when you’re down in the Grand Canyon and all the sidelight is filtered out.

Down to the Rota Vicentina.

We did a show on that. I’m going to be doing the Portuguese way from Porto to Santiago.

Are you going to be taking the coastal route or the inland route?

That’s probably going to depend on the weather and the people that I meet along the way. I might even do a little bit of both ways because, apparently, you can. I’m going to be backpacking it with no previous reservations. I’m going to have a lot of flexibility. This is truly going to be winging it long-distance walk. How long were you planning to hike?

We’ll see what time we can take off work, but we’re hoping for about two weeks.

Be sure to report back and let us know how everything goes and I appreciate you coming on the show.

You’re welcome. Thank you.

—

After learning from Jenny about Flagstaff, I’m going to make sure that I make it to Flagstaff whenever I do my cross country. My hope to see all the national parks and the whole van or camper thing that I hope to start when I finally officially retire from my rentals, but that whole area sounds appealing to me because when I think of Arizona, I think of Tucson and Phoenix. I forget that they have these mountains. I’m a mountain girl. I love all that. I’m super excited to get out there and see it for myself. I hope you’ve enjoyed the show and also consider putting Flagstaff on your list. You can also download the free travel planner. If you’re one of my newsletter subscribers, in the once a month email, you’ll get that automatically when that comes out. You can always email me at Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com and we can take care of it that way as well.

I’d like to ask you to please share the show and also to my companion Adventure Travel Show Podcast with your adventure friends. That’s the biggest compliment that you can pay me and it makes me feel good when I get a little dopamine hit when I see the numbers go up. That’s a great way, if you’re enjoying the program, to pay it forward a little bit and make me feel good about what it is I’m doing here. I spend a lot of time doing it. I hope you’re getting a lot of value out of it. If you are, I also appreciate an email and let me know what you like and also what you don’t like about the show because this is a show for you. I hope to see you next time on the show and back again with a new episode. Until then, adventure on.

Important Links:

• Banff – past episode
• Episode – Grand Canyon: Whitewater Raft the Colorado River past episode
• Show – SW Portugal Rota Vincentina Walking Holiday past episode
• Kit@ActiveTravelAdventures.com
• Adventure Travel Show Podcast

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