Flagstaff Hikes

Some tourists think of Flagstaff as a dinner stop on the way to famous attractions like the Grand Canyon. Sometimes tourists discover, even by accident, that Flagstaff itself has famous attractions like Lowell Observatory. When you learn that Flagstaff sits amid North America's largest ponderosa forest and largest continuous volcanic field and sits beneath Arizona's highest mountain, it figures that Flagstaff should also offer some natural wonders and hiking adventures. For a long time many of these natural wonders and adventures remained hidden, even from residents. Some people lived in Northern Arizona for many years and never realized that these places even existed. Then along came the Mangum's hiking guide. The Mangums are an 1800s Northern Arizona pioneer family, and they know the region like no outsider can. Out of decades of exploring and hundreds of hikes, this book offers the best hikes. Many of these hikes have never appeared in any other guide book. The Mangums have also packed this book with historical nuggets to help you appreciate what you are seeing. For example, they tell you how A-1 Mountain got its name (it wasn't named for the steak sauce) and who built some pioneer cabin and when and why. Their obvious love for this region includes the belief that hiking isn't just about gonzo athletics but about the appreciation of nature and the discovery of history. I've just finished seven days of using this guide book to find out-of-the-way spots, and I found their directions and trail data and maps and, most important, their sense of which places are worth discovering and why, to be quite reliable. By the way, the two one-star reviews of this book are so silly, so over-straining to find bogus complaints, so over-eager to sell you "the other book," that you have to wonder about their motives.

This book covers the basics for nearby day-hikes and contains interesting historical points as well. The driving directions are good, but keep in mind that many forest service roads are not annually maintained, so they may not be entirely accurate due to changing conditions. Milages are tricky when your are hiking up and down, so use your best judgement. I can also recommend their Sedona day hikes guide.

We found this book to be extremely helpful as we were new to the area and weren't sure where to go. The maps were very detailed and precise. The descriptions helped us choose which hikes would be of greatest interest to us. Definitely a book to buy!