Hikes in Flagstaff where bikes are not allowed

In 1891, America’s first Chief Geologist, G.K. Gilbert — working for J.W. Powell, of Grand Canyon fame — rode his horse through the forests of the San Francisco Peaks. He was surveying volcanic cinder cones and lava flows, trying to determine if the same processes produced (the unhappily named) Coon Mountain on the plain east of Flagstaff.

Gilbert’s odyssey began when he heard a lecture in Washington, D.C. about meteorites near Canyon Diablo and the mysterious crater-like feature called Coon Mountain. He decided to apply a new scientific concept called the method of multiple working hypotheses. Noting the hundreds of volcanic vents in the area, he hypothesized Coon Mountain had a similar origin. Alternatively, he hypothesized, the structure was produced by the “collision of a star.” Gilbe