Meteor Crater, AZ

Thousands of years ago, a meteorite the size of an olympic pool was zooming through space. It then fierly crashed on Earth, creating one of the best present examples of a meteorite on the planet. Beyond Meteor Crater in Arizona, the desert expands in all directions. Not far away is Route 66. Appreciate the desolation and vastness of these lands, live the legend of the Mother Road!

We started this trip driving from Las Vegas, Nevada. Later, passed the very famous Hoover Dam and Lake Mead. Soon after, entered Arizona, and a few hours later we arrived at Kingman, where we merged on Highway 40, on what used to be part of Route 66, a legendary road that crossed eight states in the United States from Los Angeles, California to Chicago, Illinois. All walks of life have traveled through here, the road is mentioned in countless songs, and has been featured in many movies across decades. It has many names, including the Mother Road. A historic road that connected east and west before the interstate highways did.

Every now and then, while driving, we would see a classic car, a Chevy Nova, or a Cadillac. An “MC” or motorcycle club would be also riding next to us.  We passed the city of Flagstaff and the terrain went from mountains to flat land. The road, the desert, the sunset colors!  About 40 miles / 64 km. later, we turned to what would be the highlight of this trip. First sign we saw, we included a picture here 🙂

After a short drive through a narrow road, we arrived at the visitor center’s site. We paid an entrance fee, and then we walked a trail without really being able to notice anything but the desert around us. Then we started climbing what seemed to be a rim of some sort. Once we made it to the top, the view just took our breath away! The huge crater would expand deeper and farther than we thought! A dark blue sky contrasted the ground below. Is hard to explain the feeling of awe that this place gives you! We kept  imagining over and over the moment when it was created.

According to NASA Earth Observatory (2021), the impact took place about fifty thousand years ago, and the meteorite was between 30 and 50 meters across. The impact explosion had the power of hundreds of atomic bombs. The whole crater, about 3/4 of a mile / 1.2 kilometers in diameter, contrasts against the terrain around it. Truly a memorable sight, almost as incredible as my son’s look when he first saw it. You have to then go back to the visitor’s center site, where you can see (and touch!) a piece displayed from the original iron meteor.

We drove back into the Mother Road to the town of Winslow, a classic stop. It was a nice walk! We had dinner there, then headed back the way we came from.

Fun (even sad) story:

Worth to mention a great example of the power of weather on your travel plans, sometimes 🙂 : On the way back, we headed north, toward the Grand Canyon National Park and its village (still in Arizona). After driving for hours, we finally made it, but weather was not exactly ideal. We stayed there for over two days. Bitter cold and snow, all mixed with fog made just impossible to get not a nice, but just any view of the natural wonder. After a discouraging forecast, we finally gave up and headed back to Vegas. Lesson learned: You can’t always get it all right!

References:

-NASA Earth Observatory. 2021. Meteor Crater Arizona

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148384/arizonas-meteor-crater

-Route 66 Chamber of Commerce. 2021. Exactly where is Route 66?

http://route66chamberofcommerce.homestead.com/Whereis66PAGE.html