Day 52: Drive to Flagstaff

1 Comment August 3, 2011

This morning around 10am, we left the house to head north to Flagstaff. Instead of a boring drive down the interstate, we followed back roads, which took us through the countryside and past many mountains. Along the way, we moved from city to desert, and then from desert to forest. The northern forest is still arid, but the entire area is far greener, mostly covered in grass and thinly spread pine trees. The drive took about four hours, but we stopped several times for pictures and for lunch. There were scattered storms about, so we were hoping they would move off soon.

Four Peaks Mountain near Phoenix.

Packed parking.

It was mid-afternoon by the time we got checked into our hotel. The storms were moving off, but we did not want to run into any of them, and we did not want to run into sunset. Thus, we decided to go do a short hike or two. We headed to a hotel that my grandparents had stayed at before, which had a hiking trail behind it. It was a two mile hike, probably the tamest of my trip so far. It surprised my grandparents as well, as the hike had been through a forest. It turns out that last year there had been forest fire, which destroyed much of the forest. As a result, most of the area had been logged, leaving only sporadically placed pines. Though the hike was short and flat, the weather was awesome, about 72 degrees Fahrenheit.

My grandmother hiking.

The forest had burned.

Enjoying the view.

We finished that hike quickly, so we then headed over to Sunset Crater, a few miles up I-40. Sunset Crater is a fairly small mountain compared to others near Flagstaff, but it erupted about 1000 years ago, leaving a landscape of volcanic rock. Our hike there was also a short loop, but it was much more interesting. We walked across the volcanic rock, going near the crater. The rock reminded me a lot of the rocks on the Big Island of Hawaii. There were also several dead trees that were very interesting. Their trunks twisted around in a spiral, and they fit in well with the barren surroundings.