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| Hotel Monte Vista, now 98 years old, sits in the center of the historic downtown district of Flagstaff. I thought the sign quite unique and deserved to be photographed. (click any image to enlarge) All images made with a Fujifilm X100VI from JPEG files. |
It is an easy drive from Monument Valley to Flagstaff, Arizona. Less than three hours on all secondary roads, the kind I like best when I travel. There are two aspects of driving in the western United States that I enjoy—very little traffic and the vast open scenery that allows one to see for miles in all directions.
The purpose of our Flagstaff visit to was have lunch and spend some time with my only cousin on my father's side of the family and her husband. They live in the area and we don't see them nearly as often as I would like. We had a very nice visit.
During our visit, we strolled around the historic downtown district. We just casually walked around with no destination in particular. Just spending time together and talking.
Being an aficionado of railroads, one of the things I like about Flagstaff is the visitor's center combination with the Amtrak station. Flagstaff is on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad's mainline and freight trains roll through town seemingly every 30 or so minutes. Amtrak's Southwest Chief stops in Flagstaff twice per day as well.
Of course, I had a camera with me. In this case, my Fujifilm X100VI. I made a few casual 'snapshots’ of some of the buildings, etc., but nothing notable. That said, I thought I would share a couple with you. Nothing special, just some random subjects that caught my eye.
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| The Weatherford Hotel built in 1897. |
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| It was the rotating barber's pole that first attracted my eye to this scene. |
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| This is the second pay telephone I've seen on this road trip. I couldn't tell you how many years before this that I had seen one of these. Men only? Hmmm. |
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| I always like looking at these kinds of billboards to see what has been posted as well as for unique patterns, colors, shapes and textures of the old, decaying papers. |
Flagstaff is the terminus of our western journey. We now start the long drive east, all the way back to southeastern Virginia. So far, the weather has been perfect. I mean perfect. The great weather won't continue as we drive east, however. Stay tuned!
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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The Weatherford has quite a history. Zane Grey wrote some of his novels there; hence the Zane Grey Bar and Ballroom. Henry Taylor and his wife Sam Green have devoted decades to restoring what was once a pretty ramshackle structure to something really special. When we lived there, Charly's was a bar heated by a woodstove stoked by an old barfly in return for free beer. Now it's a fine dining destination! Alisa and I loved the years we lived in Flagstaff but, as is so often the case, will never be able to go back....
ReplyDeleteThanks for the history lesson. Very interesting. I wish I would have had more time in the downtown to explore and learn more about the history of those places. ~Dennis
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