Arizona Route 89A

If you should find yourself tooling around Northern Arizona (not a bad thing), you might visit Flagstaff (a lovely town, see the Lowell Observatory) and then want to go down to Sedona. Sedona is charming and has some spectacular scenery. Well worth the visit.

Looking at the map to figure out how to get from Flagstaff to Sedona, you’ll see that you need to go south on Arizona Route 89A. This turns out to be a beautiful drive, high country forest, clean air, and so on. But in the middle of it, sandwiched between two long, more-or-less straight stretches, you’ll find this:

Photo: Google Maps

I was curious about what that big knot-like structure was there in the middle of the highway. Turns out, if you’re driving a semi it’s your worst nightmare. (Stay on I-17 to the east!). But if you’re on a motorcycle or driving a convertible, it’s a great stretch of twisty-turny switchbacks as the highway descends pretty much straight down a cliff face, over the Mongollon Rim and into Oak Creek Canyon.

We were driving the convertible that day. It was glorious!Oak Creek Canyon is obviously is not quite as deep or as wide or as spectacular as the Grand Canyon seventy-five miles to the north. Then again, you don’t get to drive down the cliff face into the Grand Canyon.Off at the other end of Oak Creek Canyon, or at least where that canyon has widened out a couple of miles, you’ll find Sedona.

Go see the Grand Canyon. Then go see Flagstaff. There’s a great Mexican restaurant we found in Flagstaff that was featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives“. Then go down to Sedona. Just make sure that you take a little extra time on the way to enjoy this particular stretch of Arizona 89A.

We recommend the convertible rather than the semi!