Flagstaff

Access to lots of hiking, running and mountain biking trails along with good brew pubs and coffee shops are among the assets that Outside magazine recognized when it picked Flagstaff as one of its Top 8 Best Towns. 

The mountain town also has a lively music scene at the historic Orpheum Theater, Monte Vista and Weatherford hotels, and the Museum Club roadhouse on Route 66 in East Flagstaff. The Zoo, as it is known, started as a taxidermy museum in 1931. It has been serving up cold beer and honky tonk music since 1936. But it closed in 2025 and is for sale.

Northern Arizona University has about 30,000 students who keep things lively in town. There's an  annual homecoming parade showcasing the giant logging wheels once used by lumberjacks to move ponderosa pines from the forest to sawmills. The town's population is closing in on 80,000.

The Weatherford and the Monte V hotels are hubs of downtown with rooms, restaurants and music. We also like the Motel DuBeau, a 1929 motor court  south of the tracks on Phoenix Avenue at Beaver Street. It's one of the oldest Route 66 motor courts.

Macy's coffeehouse has been a fixture on South Beaver Street for more than 45 years. Across the street is Beaver Street Brewery, the town's first brew-pub.  It opened in 1994  in a former Food Town grocery store built 47 years earlier.

It has been joined by Flagstaff Brewery, Lumberyard, Mother Road, Historic, Wanderlust and Dark Sky breweries. 

​Speaking of dark skies, Flagstaff was designated the first International Dark Sky City in 2001 for its strict outdoor lighting code.  The restrictions date  back to 1958 in a gesture to protect night-sky viewing at Lowell Observatory on the city's  Mars Hill. Lowell offers variety of tours.

 The planet Pluto was discovered at Lowell in 1930. However it was downgraded to a drawf planet in 2006.  

Randall Wilson at the Museum of Northern Arizona's Navajo Festival of Arts.

Flagstaff's Museum of Northern Arizona focuses on the Colorado Plateau with exhibits and festivals celebrating the art and culture of the Hopi, Navajo and Zuni people. 

​Hiking the trail to the top of Arizona on Humphreys Peak at 12,633 feet is a bucket-list challenge best accomplished in early summer and early in the day before thunderstorms and lightning threaten.

​Other hikes include the Fatmans Loop Trail on Mount Elden, the Kachina and Weatherford trails into the Kachina Peaks Wilderness, the Inner Basin Trail in Lockett Meadow and Kendrick Mountain Trail northwest of Flagstaff. 

​The Arizona Snowball offers gondolas rides up the ski slopes in the off-season in addition to offering skiing and snowboarding, typically from November to late spring. 

​Pickleball courts are available at Bushmaster Park, 3150 N. Alta Vista Drive, in East Flagstaff. 

​Founded: 1882
Elevation: 6,905
​Population: 77,539

Sunset on Kendrick Mountain after a monsoon soaked a road in Kendrick Park. (Photo by Austin Corbett)

Museum Club on Route 66 opened as a taxidermy museum in 1931.

A street trio plays for tips on San Francisco Street downtown.

Construction started in 1894 on Northern Arizona University's first building, now known as Old Main. Classes did not begin until 1899.

Hotel Monte Vista and the Weatherford Hotel are the historic anchors of Flagstaff's vibrant downtown. (Austin Corbett photo)

A student created Louie Lumberjack in 1968.

Santa Fe Railroad built this brick depot in 1926.

A traveler named Blue outside the train depot.

This boarding house, built in 1926, was closed for decades before it was revived in 2014 as a cafe on South San Francisco Street. (Austin Corbett photo)

Kachina Trail is a popular local hike through a forest of ferns, aspens, Douglas fir and Ponderosa pines. The trailhead at 9,500 feet is near Arizona Snowbowl.

Hikers in Buffalo Park on a chilly May morning. Hiking, mountain biking, trail running and skiing are staples of Flagstaff's lifestyle.

Percival Lowell established his observatory on Mars Hill in 1894.

In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet Pluto at Lowell.

San Francisco Peaks after a winter storm blanketed Flagstaff. The city averages more than 100 inches of snow annually.