Since I arrived in Flagstaff late last night, I wasn’t too picky about where I was going to sleep. I found a quiet, dark, neighborhood street to pull over on. Little did I know that everyone that lived on the street would be up and about by 6am? I crawled out from the back of my car and into the driver’s seat and made my way to a Denny’s to have breakfast and send some emails. After breakfast, I would go and have a look around.
The first thing I wanted to see was the Arizona Snowbowl, just seven miles north of Flagstaff. There was about a six mile, 2,200’ uphill drive to get to the base elevation of 9,200’. The Snowbowl is located on the San Francisco Peaks, part of the Coconino National Forest. The mountain range was formed by once active volcanoes that are now extinct. There was a nice view from the base overlooking the western side of the largest contiguous Ponderosa Pine forest in the continental US. But what was even nicer to see was the two snow capped peaks! Surprisingly, it snows an average of 260 inches here in this part of Arizona, not much less than many Colorado resorts.
From the Snowbowl, I was back in downtown Flagstaff (elevation 7,000’) in about twenty minutes. I parked my car a few blocks from the main section of downtown and walked around for an hour or two, stopping occasionally from store to store. It's a nice town with lots of shops, pubs and eateries. The weather was very comfortable for a place considered a high altitude semi-desert. I got to travel, even though only for a short bit, on the famous Route 66. Flagstaff is about 150 miles north of Phoenix an 80 miles south of the southern rim of the Grand Canyon.
From Flagstaff, I needed to make a decision about where I was going to go next. Logistically, it probably would have made sense to drive the 80 miles north to the Grand Canyon, but I have a cousin, Kevin, who lives on the outskirts of Phoenix, in Cave Creek. Kevin was scheduled to be traveling in the next few days so I figured now was the best time to go south and see him and his family, Heidi, William, Henry and 7-week old Caroline.
It was about a two hour drive from Flagstaff to Cave Creek. Most of the drive was pretty baron and hilly, with brush and small, Prickly Pear cacti covering the landscape. A little over half way to Cave Creek the scenery changed and it all happened right around “Kid Chilleen’s Badass BBQ Steakhouse” on I-17. 
Could it be the sauce? It was here that the Prickly Pear cacti grew to about three times their original size and the, up until now non-existent Saguaro cactus, became over abundant. The Saguaro cactus is one of the defining plants in southern Arizona and western Mexico. They can live to be 200 years old, 40-60 feet tall and weigh up to 4,800 pounds! I also noticed the first palm trees of my trip.
I arrived at Kevin’s house at 5pm. I had dinner with Heidi, William and Henry while Caroline napped. Kevin came home around 10pm after a marathon shift at the hospital and we stayed up talking until about midnight. His next shift started in only six hours. Let's hear it for our doctors!
Mileage Update: 4,845.1
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