I have an interview in Flagstaff AZ for work and was curious if anyone knows much about the area. I’ve heard the outdoor scene is really nice: mtn biking, skiing, cycling, hiking, etc… I’m coming from San Diego but want something with less traffic (and cheaper is good too). Anyone spent much time there??
My best friend lived there for a couple of years. I’ve spent quite a bit of time there as well.
I love Flagstaff. It’s small, young, and an outdoor recreation wonderland. I think there’s a fairly strong cycling community, and there are tons of places to ride a bike. The elevation will get you coming from sea level, but you’ll adapt.
But who cares about cycling when there’s such incredible rock climbing all around Flagstaff???
Back in high school I used to climb quite a bit of sport, 13b/c redpoint and 12c onsite, so I’d be psyched to have good climbing close and get back into it. Is it mostly bouldering, trad, sport or lots of everything?
“Is it mostly bouldering, trad, sport or lots of everything?”
Yes. There’s the Pit, which is short, bouldery limestone sport routes about 5 minutes outside of downtown. Lots of 12s and 13s (ten 5.11 moves to three 5.13 moves, then a few 5.10 moves to the chains - perfect in my book). Bouldering at The Draw (about 10 minutes from downtown) is awesome - limestone caves. Check out the video Rampage (it’s a few years old, but it has incredible footage of Chris Sharma boulding at the Draw). Then you’ve got more incredible trad climbing than you could ever wish for at the Forks (perhaps an hour south, I believe). Jack’s canyon for hundreds of semi-manufactured (read “comforted”) limestone sport routes is about 1.5 hours away.
Went to school there for 5 years a NAU…go Jacks!
Tons of mountain biking, hiking, camping, rock climbing…basically if you can buy it at REI you can find a place 30-45 minutes from Flag to do it. The roads might leave something to be desired for road biking, and Snowbowl is more “California” skiing then “Colorado” skiing: small resort, crappy years followed by “oh my god” years…AWESOME backcountry though. But its only 30 minutes from town.
Mountain Man tri is held there, never participated, but watched a couple of times, very cool event. Not very many pools. There’s the WALL Aquatic center on NAU campus, and a couple of public pools.
Living is definitely cheaper…and depending on what you want land wise, better. Lots of large plots of land, only 10 or 15 minutes out of the “urban” area. Traffic was bad when I was there (graduated and left in 2000), as there are only two “main” roads east and west, the freeway and Milton. Could be better now, but during rush hour (and its actually just an hour) Milton was a parking lot. A very college town, the population raises and falls drastically when college is in session.
I loved it…under the right circumstances, I would move back in a heartbeat. But be forewarned…I’m a native to good old AZ, and I’m kind of bias to it. Currently living in San Diego too…but prefer AZ.
-bcreager