Meteor Crater

Another BIG national park that we had not seen yet but were hoping to was the Grand Canyon.  Because snow was in the forecast at Grand Canyon on Tuesday, we needed to get to our campground in Williams, Arizona, about 50 miles south of Grand Canyon by Sunday so we could do a day trip to Grand Canyon on Monday.  Also, we wanted to stop and see Meteor Crater just south of I-40 near Winslow, Arizona.  With a long driving day ahead of us, we got away from Cortez around 8 am.

As we headed south through Colorado and into New Mexico, we could see big lone rock formations sporadically across the landscape.

Once we reached I-40, we headed back west and entered into Arizona again.  Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, so we gained an hour when we crossed the state line.  Keeping up with what time it is can be challenging!

We turned off south at the exit for Meteor Crater and drove out the lonely 2-lane road to the crater. 

Meteor Crater is privately owned and the entrance fee is $16.  After parking the motorhome with the Honda in tow, we walked up to the museum outside the crater. 

(Below information was taken from signs within the museum and the information brochure.)

Approximately 50,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickel meteorite approximately 150 feet across took 10 seconds to burn its 100 mile course through our atmosphere before impacting the Earth.  The meteor was estimated to be traveling about 40,000 mph and struck with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT.  To get an idea of the speed, the meteor could have passed over New York City 5 minutes after being sighted in Paris, and then impacted the earth in Arizona just 3 minutes later.

The meteor was estimated to have weighed several hundred thousand pounds and contained enough iron-nickel to produce about 42,000 automobiles.

The impact site (or crater) is almost a mile across, 3 miles in circumference, and 550 feet deep...or as tall as a 60 story building.  The crater could accommodate 20 football fields on the floor of the crater with 2 million spectators on its sloping sides.

In other words, this crater was HUGE.  It was so big, I couldn't get it all in one picture with my camera.

I was able to take a panoramic picture of the crater with my Droid smartphone.

               
Way down at the bottom of the crater near the center,

we could see an astronaut and American flag through a stationery telescope.

Can you see him at the bottom of the crater?  (Try enlarging the picture.)

 

The height of the walls of the crater demonstrates the force of the meteor's impact.

Can you see our motorhome with the Honda in tow out in the parking lot?

Meteor Crater is the world's best preserved meteor impact crater site. 

After seeing Meteor Crater in person and this aerial picture inside the museum, we tend to think that the Upheaval Dome we just saw a couple of days ago in Canyonlands is probably just a salt dome evolving on the surface.   What do you think?

Meteor Crater:

Upheaval Dome:

We would have liked to have stay there a little longer but it was getting late in the day and we still had another hour or so to drive to Williams, Arizona.

As we headed west toward Flagstaff, we could see the mountains surrounding Flagstaff in front of us.

We pulled into Grand Canyon Railway RV Park, got set up, and took a quick walk around the campground.

Tomorrow:  Grand Canyon!