North to Flagstaff

The day after Christmas, we took a nice vacation to Flagstaff, Arizona. From Yuma, it's just over five hours away, but we took a scenic route, making the trip much longer. It was a beautiful day for a drive through Arizona, and we saw many different sights. We were really excited to go back to Flagstaff, as we'd stayed overnight there on our move. Flagstaff was our last stop on I-40; five days of driving I-40 straight through, and then Flagstaff brought about I-17 into Phoenix, I-10 west to Quartzite, and Hwy 95 down to the Proving Ground. We fell in love with Flagstaff on our move and were anxious to go back. This trip didn't disappoint us.

A little info about Flagstaff and its terrain-Flagstaff sits at over 7,000 feet in the mountains. The tallest peak in Arizona at the Arizona Snowbowl is also in Flagstaff, and it sits at 12,000 feet. It's a great place for skiiing, which we love, but with baby on board, no skiing this year :( Yuma sits just above sea level, so the elevation change alone is significant. Then, lets talk about weather...Flagstaff has NORMAL weather! Snow and everything!!!!! Flagstaff looks like a town in New England, especially something in Maine. Pine trees are everywhere, and with a college there, it's a great college town.

We had a wonderful time and look forward to making this an annual winter trip.

The drive to Flagstaff is not just a gradual jump in altitude. As you drive, you go from a couple thousand feet to seven and back down over and over. We discovered the snow line was at 6500 feet, as you can see we're almost at that here on our drive.

This is outside of Prescott, Arizona, a very nice town we came across. Prescott is north of Phoenix, and we were grateful to the Target in Prescott for having winter boots in stock! Yuma didn't have any, so we were glad to find some.

Dropping slightly in altitude, around 5000 feet-this is the view going into Sedona, Arizona, one of the homes of John McCain. We looked for him, but we didn't see him. Sedona is just north of Prescott and is 30 miles south of Flagstaff.

More views from Sedona...there was no snow here because the altitude was lower.

After we left Sedona, we had a 30 mile drive up to Flagstaff, and it was like this the whole way. Actually, we got into a lot more snow than this, but a huge thumbs up to ADOT, Arizona Dept. of Transportation. They rock at plowing roads, and all roads we traveled were in great shape. We were so glad to see trees!!!! What a difference from our desert in Yuma!

After a night's stay at our hotel, we woke up to these temps...it was -2 degrees, and this was around 9:00 AM!!!!! We loved it!

As you can see, Flagstaff had a TON of snow. They had almost two feet on the ground. This is the Kohls parking lot, which was across the street from our hotel. The parking lots were extremely icy, and watching some of the idiots who thought they could drive on ice, try to drive on the ice, was priceless.

From Flagstaff's downtown, this is a view of the Arizona Snowbowl, the mountain at 12,000 feet.

Arizona Snowbowl from Flagstaff