Canyon Diablo

Canyon Diablo, formerly written Cañon Diablo, is a canyon in northern Arizona, about 30 miles east of Flagstaff, cut into the Colorado Plateau as an incised meander. It runs 81 miles and lies within both Coconino County and the Navajo Nation. Parts of it carry an ephemeral stream and act as a tributary of the Little Colorado River. Archaeologists have found evidence of settlement by the Desert Archaic peoples and by the Sinagua in the twelfth century, and several Old West towns, among them Canyon Diablo and Two Guns, were established on the rim in the nineteenth century and later abandoned. Three bridges now span the gorge: a railway bridge built in 1882 for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, carrying the southern route of the first transcontinental railroad through Arizona and rebuilt in 1947; a former road bridge that once carried Route 66; and the bridge that now carries Interstate 40.

Where it is

Canyon Diablo is a canyon near Winslow, in Coconino County. It is one of the canyons in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Canyon Diablo, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikidata(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.