Latest / Arizona Unscripted / Episode 7: 🌵 Arizona Unscripted - Life on the hill!
Transcript
- Arizona Unscripted: Welcome back to Arizona Unscripted. The area this is the podcast all about Arizona. Everything about Arizona, the people, the places, the great things to do. I'm your host, Bart, alongside with my wonderful co-hosts, including Diane, here in Gym. And from time to time we'll be joined by special pop-in guests from communities all across the Grand Canyon State. Arizona Inscripted again is all about Arizona. It's people from small towns to big cities from hidden gems. Our goal is simple to celebrate what makes Air Arizona unique while bringing together voices from every corner of the state. Whether you're a lifelong resident, a newcomer, or just someone who loves Arizona, we hope you'll feel right at home. So grab a cup of coffee or some cool drink. Sit back and join us as we explore the people, places, and stories that make Arizona one of the most fascinating states in America. Welcome to Arizona Scripted. And with that Diane, good to see you. You too, Bart. ⁓ so awesome. It's not too not too hot today though. I'm feeling pretty good right now. So although I'm I'm ⁓ I'm sitting in a cool area. Well I will tell you, ⁓ here in Bullhead City, we are so grateful that the temperature has dropped a little bit. We're at a hundred and fourteen this week. So we're about a hundred right now, which is much better. My gosh, that's gotta be hundred and fourteen's not too bad though, I guess. It's not Now I've got my eyes on Cocanino County because ⁓ Laura keeps inviting us to come up. So definitely have Coconino on my get away from the heat here. Hey Laura. Hi, how are you? Great. It's good to have you here with us. You gotta come up to the cool pines of Flagstaff. We're hovering right around ⁓ mid seventies right now. It's beautiful. Amazing. Yep. We love it up here. It's great place to ride your motorcycle. I've been up there several times on my bike and it's beautiful up there. Yeah, I got to fall in and visit Laura this weekend and it is gorgeous there right now. ⁓ I love it. Outdoor recreation of all kinds is our specialty up here in the Ponderosa Pines. I think we're going to focus on Laura's place right now because it sounds nice and cool and beautiful and all that. And ⁓ and Laura, tell is there like are there like special roads and places, you know, to To travel off-road a bit. All right. Well, first of all, let's start with the fact that this is the centennial anniversary of the mother road, which flies right through Flagstaff. In fact, I think we have the largest, longest contiguous section of the original Route 66. ⁓ interesting. Okay. So it's a great place to take a road trip. And then if you're of a mind, there's all kinds of Forest Service roads all over Coconino County. Of course, we're we're heading into fire season now. So there are very strict fire restrictions, no campfires, don't throw your butts out the window. ⁓ we really have to take care of it. This is the this the the largest contiguous Ponderosa pine forest in the world. So lots to see and do up here in northern Arizona and Coconino County. My gosh. Now, if you if you're driving through the Ponderosa fine, they have they must have trails right through the pine forest, or you can go through there and hike or whatever, right? You can go. ⁓ There's a an extensive trail system around here for both hikers and mountain bikers and runners. In fact, it's one of the most popular places, I think, in the world for long distance runners to train. They love the trails up here. They're super comfortable. They like, they say they like that that sort of crispy, gentle ⁓ lava cinders. The red the red cinders from our San Francisco peaks, which Soar up to be the tallest mountains in ⁓ in Arizona at a something almost 12,000 feet and was once much taller than that. It was once when it before it blew, it was one huge peak, probably 18,000 feet. ⁓ but now it's it's our San Francisco peaks, and there's lots of hiking and ⁓ beautiful things to see up there. And if you're if you're not a hiker, it's a beautiful drive. ⁓ as somebody said, people like to take their motorcycles, there's off-road vehicle. Effort you know, places out here as well. It's is saying that Jim's for everyone. Jim, have you been up there to motorcycle around? It sounds like you have. I mean, I've went from Page coming out of Page. It's a beautiful scene coming down that hill into to f ⁓ Flagstaff and around that area. It's ⁓ just great, great place to be. And it's nice and cool in the summertime. So it's a great place to come up there. Is there is there camping and stuff around too, Laura? I mean places for people to camp overnight. Yeah. ⁓ all kinds of camping in in the Forest Service. It's free for up to two weeks. So you got there's designated camping areas. So you can't just reform it anywhere you want. Right. So you have to stay within the designated areas and that's just to control things around, you know, human habitation in our forest. But but it's free, whole saying it's free. Is that free? Okay. So this is another this is your national forest. On our so on our mission to help people in Arizona with with cost of living. This sounds like a great thing to do. Get out your your tent. Yeah, it's a two week it is a two week limit. So we we know you want to stay all summer. ⁓ and you can, but you have to move your campsite every two weeks. So it's a little nomadic in that regard, but hey, what the heck, right? That's right. Get a new new experience. Now is there is there is there water nearby when you're camping? Are these like you bring everything in or how to bring everything in. Bring everything in, take everything out. This dispersed camping is does not provide water or toileting services. You, you know, you take you you bag everything back out. So don't leave any of your waste, either human or paper, behind. Don't burn your waste. There's as again, there's no campfires. I cannot stress that strongly enough. We are we live in a land where wildfire ⁓ dictates our every move and thought. Yeah. And we are recovering nicely from some a couple of major fires a few years back. And we ⁓ we're we're excited to see what happens in monsoon season because we know that this post-wildfire flood mitigation, which was a cooperative effort of the county and the city of Flagstaff ⁓ to take care of our lands post-wildfire so that we wouldn't get these horrific catastrophic flooding in our neighborhoods outside of town. So ⁓ we're excited that that's all in place and ready to go. We're ready for monsoon season. Wonderful. And then and does that also include like people bringing ⁓ campers and things like that? Is that also allowed? Yeah, there's places for campers and places for tents. And ⁓ there's a brand new RV campground that's set up right in the middle of town, off right off Route 66. And ⁓ they're advertising like some more night and all kinds of fun things. And so yeah, there's lots of great places to stay, sort of vintage historic, ⁓ mid-century modern hotels like the Americana and High country motor lodge. I mean, it's just it there's just really truly there's something for everyone up here. And I cannot stress enough how much if you if you want to know Arizona, you need to come up north. Check it out. And of course, there's a you were mentioning before we start the show, there's a great place that for people to go have ⁓ some some food at too. ⁓ yeah. I I would go straight to Heritage Square, right downtown, which is a pedestrian little square and historic with all kinds of you know black. brass plaque informational things and so a little bit of artwork and some pagodas of shade. And right around the in the alleyway there is the crepery, which is owned by a couple of local women. And they they ⁓ turn crepes by order and only in summer and only for four days a week, Thursday through Sunday. And they make them up fresh and delicious. There's the sweet side and savory side and then you can take your crepe and go sit in the shade and watch what's going on in Heritage Square. And it could be movie night, it could be swing dance night, it could be spin cycles. There's just all summer long there's stuff going on in the square. It's it's and it's free. Fun. Free fun for families. But not the crepery. The craper, you gotta buy those. Sounds I love crepes. Well I tell you, it sounds like I I just can't can't believe it. All those activities there. I mean, and do the tourists know about this or is it kind of a secret, hidden little gem there? You know, I think people are starting to catch on. So we do get crowded in the summer. Our our Fourth of July parade will host probably 25,000 people, which is a third the size of our whole town. so you know, that but there's lots of hidden gems up here. So of course there's all the national monuments, Sunset Crater, Wapaki. ⁓ Walnut Canyon is a must, 20 minutes outside of Flagstaff, Easy Rim Trail, or if you're intrepid, you can take the 139 stairs down to the cliffhouses below. Wow. ⁓ but yeah, there's ⁓ you know, really truly this is in my opinion the most beautiful place on earth. It's the most beautiful place in Arizona, and I love Arizona. ⁓ but from the from the spines to the pines, ⁓ There's 18 different biodiversity zones between Phoenix and Flagstaff. So it's really I I think people don't know all of that and they don't know all the little special like Lowell Observatory. We're an international dark, we were the first international dark sky city. ⁓ and we have Lowell Observatory here where Pluto was discovered. ⁓ we say open air deck. Okay. Okay, so there's an open air deck up there where you can sit in a heated seat. And the planetarium is the actual sky. So when they point the laser up, it's at the actual stars and planets in the sky. It's extraordinary. How fun. ⁓ now is it how where is that located again? In what's this is in Flagstaff up on Mars Hill. Mars Hill, okay. And how do we k how's the town keep that light down where it's like, you know, it doesn't need a dark city? There's our special rules or something? Yes, ordinances. ⁓ yeah. So all lighting has to face downward, all our street lights are amber, special bulbs. You're not allowed to project all kinds of lights around your house. You're supposed to keep it, you know, keep it dark, which is good for all of us. And no UFOs landing or anything like that, right? Well, you never know. Might as well keep an eye on the sky and see. It's a big universe. ⁓ That's true. It's gotta be. And I've been seeing like a meteor shower. It's got to be amazing, right? Have you guys seen meteor showers? Have you any anybody here seen a meteor shower? Have you learned? Remember that song that John Denver sang, I've seen fire in the sky? Yeah. He wrote that about a very special meteor shower. I think it was the Perseids. And it might have been, ⁓ my God, it was in the 70s. I was a girl. And my dad woke us up to come out and watch. And it was like the sky was raining fire. They were just shooting, but you could just shoot down like rain. Hmm. That's what that song's about. And I was there in Flagstaff in my backyard. Gosh, where do you where would you travel outside Flagstaund? Like you don't need to travel anywhere. Sounds like everything is Well, the Grand Canyon is an hour and a half away. Sedona is an hour away. Oak Canyon. You've got yeah, yeah. Yeah. Flagstaff is the hub. If you want to visit northern Arizona, stay here and take your day trips. Jim, have you ⁓ have you had any plans come ⁓ in in recently to go back up there and check out the the driving? Yeah, when it gets a hundred and twenty degrees around here, I like to go up there and spend a few days riding the motorcycle around, watch looking at all the pine forest, man. You smell that pine and driving through the forest on a motorcycle. It's really special. Wow. That's the good stuff. That's the good yeah. Is relaxing. ⁓ it's gotta be. Yeah, it's gotta be. Well, so Laura, but there's gotta can't it sounds like paradise, but there must be some issues going on there we need to help with. What's what's going on on there? Is there like water issues or what's happening there? Well, I'll tell you, number one is absolutely water. We're living in a historic drought. So, you know, everybody needs to conserve and be careful about water. And we also need to be really aware of the choices that we're making around growth and industry. And so ⁓ here in Flagstaff and across Coconino County, we're really thoughtful and need to be around water use. And there's a lot of people who feel that giant AI data centers are a bad idea for this high desert country because of the water use. We're looking really carefully about the Colorado River rights, and we're very fortunate because our, you know, indigenous water rights take precedent precedence. And so We have that going for us in Kokino County, which is one third indigenous residents. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. So of course, water is a really important issue. And just like everywhere else, affordability, right? Like it's very expensive to live, particularly in Flagstaff. So affordable housing, ⁓ good transportation. We have a great bus line and they're moving more and more over to electric buses here in Flagstaff, and that's great. So Yeah, growth and managing that is a a really big issue here. Yeah. So where do families go to the to live that if new families come into the area, that where would they go? Would they is there certain areas of town? Yeah, you know, ⁓ a lot of people are moving to Belmont, which is probably I might be 20 minutes out of away from Flagstaff. On the way to Williams, people live in Williams. People live in Winslow and work in Flagstaff because it it's so hard to find affordable housing here. But we have a really great ⁓ Group on city council and mayor now who are really focused on affordable housing. And we have a some really strong organizations here in town who are working on that situation. So we've approved ADUs and middle housing, and there's a lot of ⁓ cooperation between some local ⁓ builders and the city to actually build a series of little tiny houses that people can get into very affordably. And then after a number of years, they they can move on because they've built equity because they're that house. And then they take their equity, they move on to the next level, and somebody else can come into the little starter house. So we have high hopes for that program. That sounds like a great program because that gets that's the it's the entry entry entryway into the community basically. Yeah. Right. Wow. What you think, Diane, about that? What's your what's your thought? I love that idea. I know so much of what we hear out in the community and from neighbors is the affordability issue on housing. And to hear about a community that's actually working on some solutions like that, I think that is absolutely amazing. We really like to keep our people in our communities. So that's a way to do that because if all of our people leave. Right, then we don't have people to help deliver services. So that's amazing. And you miss the joy of running into your child's classroom teacher at Bash's. Right. If your child's classroom teacher has to live an hour out of town, you're not gonna run into them. They're not gonna be part of the community, right? Part of the fabric of what creates connections and community. And is there a I guess they can just look up on somewhere on the web to find out more about that program? Is it like a is it put out by the city council? So I would start with Housing Solutions, which is a local nonprofit organization that's focused on this issue. ⁓ but they can also look at the ⁓ City of Flagstaff website and find information about what's going on with Yeah. Because for I mean obviously our audience covers the whole state of Arizona so and beyond. So we want people maybe to look at those programs. Maybe they can adopt them in their areas too. We'd be great to help help out other areas. We all do better when we all do better. That's right. That's right. Absolutely. And then ⁓ on our library tour, is there anything special about is there a library? It's like stuff. ⁓ so this is my hometown and I grew up here. And so and I'm a big reader and I used to spend days at the library. That's now become the Theatrico's Playhouse, which is a lovely little local theater organization. Okay. And there's a new well new to me. beautiful library right downtown just across from city hall it's made of malt malpie ⁓ rock which is our local ⁓ indigenous rock and it's big beautiful space we've had quilt shows hanging in there we've had they have a whole section that's ⁓ renting equipment and experiences. So you can rent a telescope, you can rent fishing poles, you know, you can rent, you know, a s a sewing kit. And so that's really great. And there's a community meeting room in there. And it's just a a really wonderful place. On the other side of town, the east side of town, there's Eastside Library. And that's been a really important community meeting space with a very large community meeting room and that's been really well used. By various organizations across town. So I mean the kids go there to study and read after school. It's yeah, we we love our local libraries. I mean, such a great research, those are great resources for especially for affordability, keeping people, you know, within the situation to today's climate, so to speak. Pardon the point. Right. Right. In these tumultuous times. ⁓ free, free Wi-Fi, you know, and you can sign up for your time on the computer so people can go in there and apply for jobs. Wow. Right? Everything's online now. They can research. Places to live and go. And so ⁓ you know, it's just it's just a really critical use. Great, wow, great. It gets a lot of great use. Yeah, great way to save money. And I'll and then one last thing, the the movie nights, those sound really fun. ⁓ that's the city of Flaxtep does that. And so, ⁓ and I I believe that I it might also be true that Cochina County, ⁓ I believe Cocino County also supports that program. They do. So it's a collaborative effort. And so on Friday nights in the summer. There's this beautiful square in the middle of town, as I told you, downtown. And there's sort of amphitheater seating. All right. And a little stage area. And it's right behind Babbitt's trade. We used to be Babbitt's Trading Post. Now it's Babbitt's Department Store. It's where I did all my shopping when I was a girl because it was the only department store. And they They they run movies. So ⁓ one night they did cars in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the mother rugs. You know, so every every Friday night's a different theme and different organizations around town help support that. And then they table also. So you might have the Boys and Girls Club with a table down there at movie night so the kids can find out how to get signed up for programs. It's just it's wonderful. They call it stars under the stars. Again, it's free. Bring your family, bring a blanket, bring your chairs. Cause otherwise Do they allow food and drink down there? Can you bring in ⁓ yeah. There's Alejandro's restaurant if you want Mexican food. There's the crepery. There's shift kitchen if you want to go fancy. There's ⁓ urban pine for little sandwiches. So yeah, totally. You can bring your own food or you can buy food downtown. Nice. That's all people are thinking about. ⁓ Yeah, I love how you have this whole other perspective. The Lemon Ruby. We gotta explore more about Jim's Jim's travel. I'm opening my mind. ⁓ Well, there's two. There's the Mont Vista, which is haunted, ⁓ and it's still open. And there's the Weatherford, which is I think more of a hostel youth a hostel now, but they there are rooms there as well. Right downtown. I wanna go to a haunted hotel. The Mana Vizer baby. All right. So I'm gonna come see you to cool off and we're gonna have good food and I'm gonna stay at a haunted hotel. No, you can be my guest. I have a guest room. Are they are they are they nice ghosts though? Are they nice? Are they like you know Well, you know, I think anytime there's a ghost, there's a tragic story behind it. Otherwise they would leave peacefully. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you being on here, Laura. We hope that you will be back again in the future. We are trying to plan out some road trips ⁓ across Arizona and we really love to hear the local perspective. And I know that we've got Monica here. ⁓ we are going to have Monica as our guest for our next podcast. ⁓ and Monica's in La Plaza. So thank you all for being here today, Laura. Thank you for sharing flag with us. ⁓ everybody was saying flag and I was like, I don't even know what that is, but that was flag stuff. That's the cool people's term. So thank you very much for that. We will have you back again in the future and we appreciate you all being here today. Lots of fun. Come on up the hill anytime.