Aug 10, 2026

59 Miles of Urban Trail: 9 Best FUTS Routes With a Dog, Ranked by How Far They Get You From Traffic

The Flagstaff Urban Trails System is 59 miles of pathway, and the maps do not tell you which parts run beside a highway. Nine routes ranked for a dog on a six-foot leash.

Luis ZamoraCo-founder of PetCompass; Dog Dad to Banzo and Tuck

Flagstaff, Arizona10 min readThings to DoPet Care & Services

Flagstaff has a network most cities its size would envy, and almost no visitor uses it. The Flagstaff Urban Trails System, said aloud as "foots," is about 59 miles of non-motorized shared-use pathway threaded through the city, with a master plan aiming at 130 miles eventually.

About half of those 59 miles are paved in concrete or asphalt. The other half are hard-packed aggregate. Both are fine for a dog.

What is not equally fine is where the trail runs. The city's own descriptions make this obvious once you read them properly: a large share of FUTS is sidewalk-style path running alongside a busy road, and the rest crosses washes, canyons, mesas, and forest. Those are two completely different walks for an animal on a six-foot leash, and the maps do not distinguish them.

So this is the ranking that matters. Nine routes, best to worst for a dog, judged by how far they get you from moving cars.

1. Buffalo Park Loop, also called the Nate Avery Trail

2.0 miles. The city calls it Flagstaff's most popular trail, with gorgeous 360-degree views from the top of the mesa. Discover Flagstaff lists it first among dog-friendly outdoor spots, at 2400 N. Gemini Road.

Why it wins. It is a genuine loop on open mesa grassland, so no road-crossing, no traffic noise, and no backtracking. It connects directly to the Arizona Trail and into Coconino National Forest, so you can extend it without ever touching pavement.

The trade-off. Most popular means most popular. Expect other dogs, runners, and pushchairs at weekends. If your dog is reactive, come early.

2. Sinclair Wash Trail

6.0 miles, the longest single trail in the system, following Sinclair Wash through what the city describes as varied landscapes and open areas.

Why it ranks high. Six miles of continuous corridor means you can walk out as far as your dog wants and turn around, with no route-planning and no traffic decisions. Wash corridors sit below street grade for much of their length, which drops the noise considerably.

Watch the monsoon. Washes are drainage channels first and trails second. July through September, do not walk a wash corridor with a storm building.

3. Karen Cooper Trail

3.6 miles, paralleling the Rio de Flag from downtown to the Cheshire neighbourhood.

Why it works. It is the practical one. You can start it from downtown, which means you can walk your dog from a coffee stop rather than driving to a trailhead. Three and a half miles of water-corridor greenway is a serious amount of walking to have available on foot from the middle of a small city.

Pair it with a patio. Downtown is where the dog-friendly taprooms are, covered in Flagstaff breweries and taprooms ranked by how dog-friendly they are.

4. Ponderosa Trail

2.6 miles following a greenbelt of open space and parks through the Ponderosa Trails neighbourhood.

Why a dog likes it. Greenbelt means grass and trees rather than kerb and gutter, and the route strings parks together, so there are natural stopping points with shade. It is quiet residential rather than commercial, which means fewer delivery vans and fewer dogs behind fences.

Two shorter trails connect here. Wild West Trail at 0.6 miles meanders through the east side of the same neighbourhood, and High Country Trail at 0.5 miles follows the street of the same name. Both extend the walk without adding traffic.

5. Bow and Arrow Trail

0.9 miles, following the Bow and Arrow Wash in the bottom of a scenic canyon.

Why it punches above its length. Being in the bottom of a canyon is the most complete separation from traffic on this list. Under a mile, so it is a first-day walk or a last-walk-before-the-drive-home walk, which matters given how much altitude and dry air take out of a dog on arrival. See what altitude really does to your dog in Flagstaff.

6. Sunset Trail

0.6 miles along the rocky escarpment on the west edge of McMillan Mesa, which the city notes for great views.

The short, high-payoff option. Six-tenths of a mile for an escarpment view is the best ratio in the system. It sits on the same mesa as Buffalo Park, so the two combine into a longer morning.

Rocky escarpment means rock. Check pads afterwards, particularly on a soft-footed dog that normally walks pavement.

7. Arizona Trail, Flagstaff section

3.9 miles through the middle of Flagstaff, forming part of the 800-mile national scenic trail running from Mexico to Utah.

Why it is here rather than higher. It is a superb piece of trail and a genuine novelty, since few cities have a long-distance national trail running through them. But the urban section crosses the city, so it meets streets. The landmark Matt Kelly Urban Trail Bridge carries it over Cedar Avenue, which tells you what the alternative would have been.

Best used as a connector. Join it from Buffalo Park and head north out of town rather than walking the urban middle.

8. Switzer Canyon Trail

1.5 miles, paralleling Turquoise Drive and climbing McMillan Mesa to Buffalo Park.

A climb with a purpose. It is the walking route up to the mesa, which turns Buffalo Park into a longer outing without a second car journey. The road-parallel section keeps it out of the top half of this list.

It is a climb at 6,900 feet. Take it slowly with a senior dog, a flat-faced dog, or on your first day in town.

9. Tunnel Springs Trail

1.8 miles, a steady climb through forest on the south face of Mars Hill.

Forest, which is the point. Ponderosa shade matters more here than anywhere else on the list, because Flagstaff sits at high elevation under strong ultraviolet and pale or thin-coated dogs burn.

Choose it over the Mars Hill Trail. The city describes Mars Hill Trail, 1.9 miles on the east face, as a steep climb, and Tunnel Springs as a steady one. For a dog carrying a full coat uphill in thin air, steady beats steep.

The nine at a glance

Rank	Trail	Miles	What your dog is next to
1	Buffalo Park Loop (Nate Avery)	2.0	Open mesa, 360-degree views
2	Sinclair Wash Trail	6.0	Wash corridor, open areas
3	Karen Cooper Trail	3.6	Rio de Flag, downtown access
4	Ponderosa Trail	2.6	Greenbelt and parks
5	Bow and Arrow Trail	0.9	Canyon bottom
6	Sunset Trail	0.6	Rocky escarpment
7	Arizona Trail, city section	3.9	Mixed, crosses streets
8	Switzer Canyon Trail	1.5	Turquoise Drive, climbs to mesa
9	Tunnel Springs Trail	1.8	Forest, south face of Mars Hill

The ones to skip with a dog

These are useful trails. They are just not good dog walks, because the city's own descriptions place them directly alongside traffic.

Route 66 Trail, 4.9 miles on the south side of Route 66 from downtown to the far east side. The longest road-adjacent trail in the system.

North 89 Trail, 1.1 miles along the west side of Highway 89 from the mall area to the city limits.

Country Club Trail, 1.3 miles along the east side of Country Club Drive. Lone Tree Trail, 1.3 miles adjacent to Lone Tree Road. Fourth Street Trail, 0.8 miles along the east side of Fourth Street. Woodlands Trail, 1.1 miles along Woodlands Village Boulevard. El Paso Trail, 0.3 miles through the mall commercial area.

All of these do exactly what they were built to do, which is move people across town without a car. None of them is a walk your dog will remember.

Rules that apply on every FUTS trail

Leashes. Discover Flagstaff is explicit that dog owners need to keep their dog on a leash. Animal control in the city is handled by the police department's two Animal Control Officers, with High Country Humane contracted for management services, reachable on 928-526-0742. The city's Animal Control page has current contacts.

Clean up. Non-negotiable on shared-use path, and particularly on wash corridors that drain into the Rio de Flag.

FUTS is non-motorized and shared-use, which means cyclists at speed on the paved sections. Keep the leash short on the concrete and let it out on the mesa.

Carry water for the dog. There is no reliable water on these routes, the air is dry, and Discover Flagstaff puts the summer average high at only 73 degrees, which is exactly the temperature at which people under-pack.

Get the map. The Flagstaff Urban Trails and Bikeways Map shows paved and unpaved trails, trailheads, steep grades, bus stops, and parks. It is available free at city facilities and the Visitor Center, and digitally through the Avenza Maps app.

If something goes wrong, know where you are going before you need to. Flagstaff's emergency veterinary cover is real but not continuous, which is covered in emergency and after-hours vets in Flagstaff.

What changes in winter

FUTS does not close, and that is worth saying, because visitors assume a mountain town shuts its trails.

The paved half stays usable longest. Concrete and asphalt get cleared or melted off faster than aggregate, so in the days after a storm the road-adjacent trails you would normally skip become the only ones that are walkable. That is the one week of the year the Route 66 Trail earns its place.

The unpaved half turns to mud, then ice. Flagstaff averages 108.8 inches of snow a year. Aggregate holds meltwater, refreezes overnight in a town where early morning lows run 30 to 40 degrees below the afternoon high, and becomes genuinely treacherous for an older dog. Boots and a headtorch change the calculation, and the whole winter kit list is in rules for a winter dog trip in Flagstaff.

Short winter days push walks into darkness, which in a certified dark-sky city is less of a problem than it sounds. Night routes are covered in dark-sky night walks you can do with a dog.

Frequently asked questions

How many miles of urban trail does Flagstaff have? About 59 miles of Flagstaff Urban Trails System pathway, roughly half paved in concrete or asphalt and half hard-packed aggregate. The master plan targets 130 miles in total.

Are dogs allowed on FUTS trails? Yes, on a leash. Discover Flagstaff states that dog owners need to keep their dog on a leash, and owners are expected to clean up.

What is the best FUTS trail for a dog? The Buffalo Park Loop, also called the Nate Avery Trail, at 2400 N. Gemini Road. It is a two-mile loop on open mesa with 360-degree views and connections onward to the Arizona Trail and Coconino National Forest.

What is the longest FUTS trail? Sinclair Wash Trail at 6.0 miles, following Sinclair Wash through varied landscapes and open areas.

Which FUTS trails should I avoid with a dog? The road-adjacent ones. Route 66 Trail, North 89 Trail, Country Club Trail, Lone Tree Trail, Fourth Street Trail, Woodlands Trail, and El Paso Trail all run alongside traffic by design.

Are FUTS trails paved? About half. The city states that roughly half of the existing miles are concrete or asphalt and half are hard-packed aggregate. The official bikeways map distinguishes them.

Sources

Trail lengths and descriptions are the City of Flagstaff's own. The city publishes an overall paved-to-unpaved split rather than a surface for each trail, so surfaces vary along any individual route. Confirm conditions locally. This article is general information and is not veterinary advice.