Flagstaff & Painted Desert

Flagstaff and the volcanic, Puebloan country around it, and the Route 66 towns of Winslow and Holbrook on the way east to Petrified Forest National Park.

Interstate 40 crosses this region from west to east, as Route 66 did before it, and the old highway turns 100 on November 11, 2026. At the western end, Flagstaff sits at about 7,000 feet in ponderosa pine forest below the San Francisco Peaks, whose Humphreys Peak, at 12,637 feet, is the highest point in Arizona. The city lies inside the San Francisco Volcanic Field. The National Park Service counts around 600 volcanoes in northern Arizona, and the youngest, Sunset Crater, erupted around 1085. People farmed the country around it afterwards, and the pueblos they built are now protected at Wupatki, north-east of the volcano, while older cliff dwellings line Walnut Canyon east of town. Thirteen federally recognized tribes are traditionally associated with these three Flagstaff-area national monuments. East of Flagstaff the land drops into open grassland and badlands. Meteor Crater, a privately owned impact crater about 50,000 years old, lies off I-40 at exit 233. Winslow, the next town, is a railroad town remembered for a line in the Eagles song "Take It Easy", and Homolovi State Park, just outside it, protects villages that the Hopi regard as part of their homeland. Holbrook, the Navajo County seat, is the nearest town to Petrified Forest National Park, where Triassic logs lie among the banded hills of the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert itself covers about 930,000 acres, from the east side of the Grand Canyon to near St. Johns. By road, downtown Flagstaff is about 149 miles from Phoenix Sky Harbor, and Holbrook is another 90 miles east. Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time all year, but the nearby Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time, so from March to November its clocks run an hour ahead. National Park Service visitor counts for 2023 to 2025 peak in spring and early summer: Walnut Canyon is busiest in April, Wupatki in June, and Petrified Forest in June, followed by May, with January and February the quietest months. The monsoon season runs from June 15 to September 30 and usually reaches northern Arizona in early July, bringing afternoon thunderstorms and the risk of flash floods.