The town itself is an interesting place, prettily situated in the heart
of the San Francisco uplift and surrounded by a pine forest.
Its hotels, business houses, lumber mills, and residences denote thrift.
On a neighboring hill is the Lowell Observatory, noted for its many
contributions to astronomical science.
[Illustration: San Francisco Peaks.]
Eight miles southwest from Flagstaff—reached by a pleasant drive along a
level road through tall pines—is Walnut Canyon, a rent in the earth
several hundred feet deep and three miles long, with steep terraced
walls of limestone. Along the shelving terraces, under beetling
projections of the strata, are scores of quaint cliff dwellings, the
most famous group of its kind in this region. The larger abodes are
divided into several compartments by cemented walls, many parts of which
are still intact. It is believed that these cliff dwellers were of the
same stock as the Pueblo Indians of to-day and that they lived here
about 800 years ago.
Nine miles from Flagstaff and only half a mile from the old stage road
to the Grand Canyon, upon the summit of an extinct crater, the
remarkable ruins of the cave-dwellers may be seen.
The magnificent San Francisco Peaks, visible from every part of the
country within a radius of a hundred miles, lie just north of Flagstaff.
There are three peaks which form one mountain. From Flagstaff a road has
been constructed up Humphrey’s Peak, whose summit is 12,750 feet above
sea level. It is a good mountain road, and the entire distance from
Flagstaff is only about ten miles. The trip to the summit and back is
easily made in one day.