I made a Photo Roulette posted about this particular trip, but after going through more photos I decided to flesh it out more under Tales from the Travel Archives.
A little back story, I was born and raised in Ohio so I’m no stranger to winter snow, but at this point I had been living in Yuma, Arizona for over 10 years. In Yuma, it is rare to get rain let alone snow and in those years we never came close to snow. I had a friend named Scott who had recently moved to Flagstaff to complete his studies at Northern Arizona University and after a few months he invited me to come up for the weekend. I had been to Flagstaff multiple times but always in the summer, but after some reassuring from Scott that it hadn’t snowed, I accepted his offer.
Day 1 February 18, 2011
So I made the 5 hour drive up to Flagstaff and to my surprise I didn’t see any signs of snow.
That night we ventured to Downtown Flagstaff to check out some bars and on the walk back we were greeted by a few snowflakes dropping from the sky. But looking back at a photo from that night, why would I expect the worst.
Day 2 February 19, 2011
The next morning we were greeted by a few inches of snow layered on my car, but we decide since we were hungry snow wasn’t going to stop us.
After breakfast, we decide to head out to Wupatki National Monument even though the storm clouds gave no indication of breaking up. So after heading out of Flagstaff, we realized that the storm was just getting started. With the conditions deteriorating quickly, we pulled off the road into a shopping center to plan our next move. The white out conditions combined with my realization that desert tires don’t mesh well with snow meant we were stuck. When you’re sitting in a Subway store and you look out to see a postal worker putting chains on his tires, you know you’re screwed. But to our salvation, we saw three large snow plows from Arizona Department of Transportation go down the road in the direction of Flagstaff and we realized this was our only chance to make it back to town. We slowly, but steadily made our way back to Flagstaff. We were grateful to make it back to Scott’s neighborhood, but unfortunately Scott lived up a hill. Just another obstacle, but my Grand Am with its useless tires could barely make it on a level street, so I parked it by a curb hoping it wasn’t a tow away zone. For the rest of the day, we adventured around Flagstaff by foot as the snow continued to come down.
(In May of that year, we did make it to Wupatki. That was when I realized it was a 37 mile drive from Flagstaff. We were lucky to make it as far as we did, but there was no way we were making it there that day.)
One plus of the trip is that I found the Downtown Diner which I go to this day whenever I visit Flagstaff. But usually the view from there doesn’t look like this one.
Day 3 February 20, 2011
On the next day I was supposed to drive back to Yuma, but sections of the main roads out of Flagstaff (I-40 and I-17) were closed. So I had to make the call to my boss in sunny 70 degree Yuma and tell him that I was snowed in and wouldn’t be able to make it to work on Monday morning. So with another full day available, we continued to explore snowy Flagstaff to the best of our abilities.
On this day we trudged through the snow and made it to Flagstaff Brewing Company, where I had a very flavorful burger. Probably not the best for a first date in case you make it there. The Stank Burger which had whole roasted garlic cloves, swiss cheese, and onion rings.
Day 4 February 21, 2011
Luckily by Monday morning the roads were reopened. So after eating breakfast at the Galaxy Diner, it was time to dig my car out of the snow. The first half hour involved us moving the snow with the only tools we had at hand, frisbees. But that is a long story. After a half hour of little to no progress, a couple worker showed up to shovel on the sidewalk and noticed our struggles. So out of sheer pity, they loaned us a shovel without us asking. If you saw a couple guys digging out a car with frisbees, you would probably pity them too.
After all the work was done I carefully hit the road towards Yuma. I was very nervous driving with the possiblilty of black ice on the road, but I still stopped at a scenic overlook before getting away from the snow.
I made it back to Yuma in one piece and made a vow that I would only go back to Flagstaff during the summer. In that weekend, Flagstaff received 22 inches of snow, which isn’t a lot if you’re prepared, but when you’re not prepared it might as well be ten feet of snow.
So as a public service announcement to my readers that have never been to Arizona, there are two parts to Arizona. First there is the southern part that has two seasons brutally hot and mild and then there is the northern part that has all four seasons including snowy and cold winters.
