Kayenta to Flagstaff, AZ

Published April 20, 2011 | By Bill Schrull

Today, we traveled from Kayenta, AZ near Monument Valley to Flagstaff, AZ. Kayenta is on Navaho Nation land. The hotel we stayed in (the Kayenta Monument Valley Inn) is tribal owned and operated. It was a great place that I’d recommended to any travelers in the area. Along the way down to Flagstaff we visited Sunset Crater National Monument. It’s actually a part of the national park system, but I guess it is small enough in size that they list it as a “monument”. It was certainly worth the visit. Sunset Crater is an extinct volcano cone. Much of the mountains around Flagstaff are extinct volcanoes, including Humphrey’s Peak, which is the highest mountain in Arizona (elevation 12,637 ft/ 3852 meters). The Crater is located east of Flagstaff in the mists of a beautiful Ponderosa Pine forest. It’s interesting to travel through the forest as you can see that much of it was hit by a forest fire a few years back. I remember the news reports back then about the fires near Flagstaff and the concerns there were about them getting to residential areas as well. What is amazing to see is how the forest rejuvenates and recovers from the damage. Martin, Cathy and I hiked through some of it to get to the top of a hill to get a view of the surrounding nature. After that we moved on to view the Wupaki pueblo ruins. These are pueblo’s that date back to 1100 A.D. It was fascinating to imagine how people lived in these dwellings back in those days.

Tonight we are staying at an old style, downtown hotel called the Hotel Monte Vista. It’s a quaint old street corner hotel that is surrounded by several blocks of stores, boutiques and local eateries. Even has a guitar store, which Martin made a “bee line” to as soon as we got checked in. Me? I just walked around town and then hung out at the railroad station. The busiest freight line in the USA goes through this town, with trains going in either direction every 20 to 30 minutes. Basically, lots of containers that come in through Long Beach, CA end up on trains passing right through Flagstaff, AZ heading to Belen, New Mexico and beyond. I love big freight hauling trains. Always have, ever since I was a kid. So I sat at the station and watch them go by, listening to and feeling the power of those massive diesel locomotives. I know, it’s odd, but I just love it.

Tomorrow I think we will take in more of the town, do some shopping and then head down to Sedona on our way back to Phoenix. Sorry that our time in this most interesting and beautiful state will be coming to an end soon, but I know we’ll be back again.

Bill