Nothern Arizona: The ancient and unexpected

Humphreys Peak near Flagstaff

Every morning of this spring 2026 western swing, I seemed to chase the full or mostly full moon to the western horizon. 

First, I had to drive through a pummeling rain. The skies opened over Glorieta Pass and poured till Santa Fe. Spring rains have their perks in the desert, as creosote and a rich petrichor scented the Santa Fe twilight. Beyond a green chile cheeseburger, I didn’t demand much of adobe-clad Santa Fe this night, just a five-hour headstart on a sprint toward Las Vegas. The earthy, herbal tones stayed rich into the early hours. 

Smells only went so far. Interstate 40 wears on drivers, thanks to its near-endless stream of semis. Funneling cargo from the Port of Los Angeles to the rest of the country, the road frequently turns into a wall of trucks. 

Elevation shifts I-40 in Arizona from high desert into more montane ecosystem past Flagstaff, with pine forests and small towns. 

When the highway essentially turns into rubble near the Las Vegas turnoff at Kingman, Arizona, one cannot say farewell to the infernal road fast enough. The best of Kingman was Andy Devine Avenue, named for the character actor from westerns including Stagecoach and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, who hailed from the northwest Arizona town. Kingman was the last Arizona town of the trip (plus the many barren miles toward Hoover Dam), but many stops preceded that turn. 

After Holbrook, distance gets measured less by mileage and more by proximity to Humphreys Peak, the tallest mountain in Arizona and heart of the San Francisco Peaks, largest of the region’s dormant volcano. Its snowy heights gleamed from more than 100 miles away. Before an eruption 400,000-plus years ago, Humphreys Peak might have ranged up to 16,000 feet high. 

At Winslow I made a brief stop for coffee and to see the street corner. GPS almost took me back of out town, as Winslow’s main business district is laid out on two one-way streets. In the coffee shop across from the street corner, the clerk let me look at the Diebold bank vault near the counter. I found that just as interesting as the monument to the Eagles. 

Winslow’s other famous tourist stop was easier to pass. The famous meteor crater seen in the movie Starman lies outside of town – old advice from a friend once again filled me ears - “They charge you $30 to look at a hole in the ground.” 

Despite the nearness of Arizona’s signature natural feature, my plans focused on northern Arizona’s lesser-known National Park Service sites. I would save the Grand Canyon to enjoy with someone. The smaller monuments were more my speed on this trip. 

The Flagstaff area served up a trio of related national monuments – Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater Volcano, and Wupatki. 

Main settlement above Walnut Canyon

 

Walnut Canyon walls

In retrospect, I would have started with Wupatki and finished with Walnut Canyon. The dramatic, innovative community citadel built into the rise above Walnut Canyon had few rivals. The road takes you to a visitor center that gives up no secrets. The trail to the cliff dwellings descends from there on a series of stairs. A second, steeper trail travels to the canyon bottom, and I didn't have time for that. 

The main collection of dwellings sits on an outcrop above Walnut Canyon. These ancestral peoples carved their homes from the cliff walls, creating a village almost impervious to attack. Other dwellings were carved from the canyon walls. In the main village area, some dwellings were accessible to visitors. 

 The Sinagua people (Spanish for “without water” owing to the dry region) occupied Walnut Canyon for about a century more than 800 years ago before migrating out. They farmed above the canyon and hunted game below their settlement while trading with both local and far-flung tribes. 

The steep hike to the dwellings was worth the time, as the morning sun demonstrated why its former residents build the homes where they did. It’s an ingenious way to settle a difficult place, even if it just thrived for a short time. 

A short drive along the eastern edge of Flagstaff brought me to Sunset Crater Volcano. Despite my expectation that it would be a relatively similar experience to Capulin Volcano and the northern New Mexico field of extinct cones. 

Sunset Crater and its nearby volcanoes are relatively young and considered dormant, but not extinct. Sunrise last erupted 1,000 years ago, which the nearby peoples would have witnessed and had their lives upturned. 

Sunset Crater

 The people settled around the volcano were forced to flee, although it had an unexpected benefit for the Wupatki people in the volcanic ash enriching the local soils. The ponderosa pines run tall here, with large groves that frequently blocks of Sunset Crater. Unlike Capulin, no trails access the Sunset Crater or its cone. While not expected to erupt again, the volcano field feels more akin to the formations and black rock of Craters of the Moon in Idaho. 

Even at 1,000 years old, the lava flows feel contemporary. Wildflowers grow from the dark soils and lava formations. Few people journeyed past the national monument eastern boundary, where a scenic drive connects to Wupatki National Monument via Coconino National Forest. I expected the same crowds I saw at the visitor center but had the scenic drive to myself until the Wupatki border. 

Leaving the volcanic field, the road soon crests and reveals unexpected views of the Painted Desert. I had no idea it was so vast, but the desert runs across Navajo Country from northwest from Petrified Forest from the eastern edge of the Grand Canyon. I sat for a while and watched its quiet expanse. 

Coming to Wupatki, I saw a visitor center up the road but a much older structure to my north. I aimed there first. Set upon a patch of flat rocks, the rust-colored Wukoki Pueblo rises from the plain. 

Wukoki Pueblo

The Wupatki Pueblo, the monument’s largest, is built in the same red style as Wukoki and stands behind the visitor center. Other pueblos sit further out, including the Lomaki and Box Canyon residences that sit on the ledge of a canyon. A crossroads for millennia, Wupatki has reveal ample evidence of trade, including shell necklaces and the skeletal remains of a macaw, which is native to Mexico. 

While the culture that built the pueblos dates back 800-1,000 years, the region’s role as a crossroads goes back 13,000 years. Only when overfarming drained the soil of nutrients did the Wupatki culture move on.  

Wuptaki Pueblo

Below Humphreys Peak and serving as the Grand Canyon’s gateway, Flagstaff has remained the same crossroads as the region was for its Native residents. I was glad to see the Native role in shaping the region is so integral to its character. The ancient settlements and slumbering volcanoes combined to provide a 1,000-year view of changes in Arizona’s north country. 

While this was my first time near Flagstaff in 22 years, the crossroads of northern Arizona seems a place worth landing again. 

Humphreys Peak from the north.