From Flagstaff to Kingman, AZ
The mountains that surround Flagstaff rise out of the desert and can be seen long before you get there. As you go up in elevation, it gets cooler with large Ponderosa Pines and green pastures. Flagstaff is a medium sized town with lots of restaurants, lodging, and things to do.
Riding south on highway (89A) you’ll ride through alpine valleys before you go down in elevation rapidly as you make the hairpin turns that drop you into the canyon. The red rocks of the canyon and the lush green of the plants contrast each other. Continuing along the river into the town of Sedona, you’ll see monolithic red rocks that surround the town.
Sedona is a fun town to spend some time in with its many restaurants and shopping. Other fun things to do are jeep tours of the surrounding canyon lands, or visit the slickrock slide in the river on a hot day.
Heading south on (89A), you’ll ride into the valley before you start up the mountains into the town of Jerome. This little town is built into the side of the mountain with tight switchbacks, as the road turns back on it’s self. While in Jerome, stop in at the Spirit Room for a beer or listen to the band on Saturday afternoon, and tell the owner you heard about it on our website.
Continuing on (89A) south, the road has many twists and turns as you make your way over the mountains toward the town of Prescott. We stayed with friends in Prescott Valley and had a chance to visit Whiskey Row in downtown Prescott on a Saturday night, where we had some great food and danced to live music into the night.
Leaving Prescott on W. Iron Springs Rd. (CR-10), it’s not long until you’re back into the high desert, where there’s very little traffic and winding roads for about 23 miles until you come to the junction of route (AZ-96). Right on the corner is a little restaurant and bar called Kirkland Junction, where you can find the owner Herb, cooking thick juicy steaks on his huge rock BBQ pit.
Cold beer and great food was just what we needed before we traveled through the Weaver Mountains with it’s rugged rock formations and huge Saguaro cactus. Route (AZ-96) has tight turns and great scenery as you make your way to the junction with highway (AZ-93). Although this road is a major highway we didn’t experience much traffic and the road was smooth with a higher speed limit. The scenery was beautiful as the sun was setting and we rolled along on the Joshua Forest Parkway toward Interstate 40. It was just a short time on the interstate until we reached our destination in Kingman
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