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FLAGSTAFF — I trekked the wildlands of Northern Arizona for years — never bothering to visit a long-fizzled-out volcano called Red Mountain.

It sounded like small potatoes compared to climbing nearby 12,633-foot Humphreys Peak or marching through the mighty Grand Canyon.

My mistake.

A recent ramble to the Red Mountain cinder cone, about 30 miles northwest of Flagstaff, put me smack in the middle of a mesmerizing landscape of soaring stone.

It's a magnificent place that kind of sneaks up on you.

The easy 1.5-mile trail to the site begins in a pretty but mundane piñon-juniper woodland. Later, it dips into a bland sandy wash before squeezing between slopes of black volcanic cinders.

Then — bam! — you step into a grand natural amphitheater hemmed with sheer geologic splendor.

The back wall of the amphitheater juts up in a nearly vertical 800-foot wall of rock. Elsewhere around its gracefully arcing perimeter are towering pillars of stone, cliffs, crevices, niches and narrow passages in the rock. Tall ponderosa pines add soothing hues of green and shade to the amphitheater floor.

You might feel you're standing in the core of the volcano here — but geologists have determined that the center of the eruption was some distance away when the volcano blew some 740,000 years ago. The amphitheater apparently formed after the eruption and was gradually enlarged by erosion.

"Look at this place! Look at this beautiful place!" raved hiker Mike Barr of Flagstaff when our paths crossed at the site one day recently. "I'm so glad I moved to Arizona."

To reach the trail to Red Mountain, take interstates 10 and 17 to Flagstaff. Then follow U.S. 180 northwest about 30 miles to a turnoff for the trailhead near Milepost 247. Continue about a quarter-mile to the trailhead parking area.