Meteor Crater, AZ

After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed east on I-40 toward the Meteor Crater.

We actually rushed to get there by 4:30pm on Sunday, as it was closing quite promptly within the hour. There were nice about letting us in and told us if we ran we could see the last video presentation of the day.

So there we were running up the stairs just in time to catch a little film about the story of the meteor. The crater itself is really cool, looking down into it you think it's not so big, but they have scopes pointing out features at the bottom that you would have never noticed with your naked eye, so it's much deeper than you might think. The little museum is a little cheesy, but pretty informative and interactive. I would definitely check it out if you're ever passing that way, it was a really good time.

-Kim

On the drive up to the crater, you can see the rim raised just a bit above desert below. Here's a profile view of the crater from about 6 miles away.

If, per chance, Kim and I were traveling by Cessna, the crater would look like this. But, as we all know, our Jeep doesn't fly, so this is a picture of an aerial picture of the crater.

The visitor center at the rim of the crater is an impressive red brick building by Philip Johnson from the 1960s. The site is privately owned, and situated right on Historic Route 66.

I've been here twice before, but I enjoy it more and more each time.

The crater is really, really difficult to capture in photographs from the rim. It's nearly 1 mile across and 550 feet deep. If the base of the Washington Monument were at the bottom of the crater, you would be staring eye to eye with patrons in the top of it from the rim. The crater could fit 20 NFL stadiums in the bottom, and 2 million fans could watch from the crater walls. The scale of this thing is just amazing.

If you can spot a small white dot toward the lower center of this frame, you're looking at Kim standing on an observation platform.

Ah, there she is!

Looking back at the previous pictures, you can see a bit of whitish dirt in the center of the crater. Magnified 48x, we can see a cardboard cutout of a 6' tall astronaut at the bottom. Astronauts from each of the Apollo missions trained at Meteor Crater.

Also, if you remember the 1980s Jeff Bridges movie, Starman, the climax of the film takes place right here at the Meteor Crater!

Here we are enjoying the view and reflecting on what a massive, incredible, special place this is.

We were able to touch this 1,500 pound fragment of the meteor that created the crater. This super dense rock weighs more than a Harley Davidson motorcycle and more than a horse!

Especially after seeing so many shooting stars in Death Valley, the size of the Meteor Crater was quite impressive. Neat place!

:-Dustin