My Adventure to Meteor Crater.....

Last September, the wife and I took a vacation to Arizona. It was a replacement for an anniversary cruise that was cancelled due to Hurricane Irma. There were definitely no tropical breezes in Arizona. Phoenix was fun to visit, although it was truly hot as hell. The red rock of Sedona was spectacular. The Grand Canyon was, well, the Grand Canyon. To me it's so hard to comprehend what you're looking at, it almost looks fake. But there was one other place we visited that was very memorable.

Meteor Crater - in the middle of nowhere.

I knew that if we got a chance, I would want to visit Meteor Crater. Maybe you have never heard of Meteor Crater, but I bet you've seen a picture of it somewhere. It is a huge crater, just like you see pictures of on the moon. It was formed 50,000 years ago by a meteor impact. The result was an explosion that was equivalent to 20 million tons  of TNT. That's not a typo. What you get is a huge hole.

I knew I wanted to visit, but to be honest, I didn't mention it to my wife until the day before we went. I wouldn't think this would be her cup of tea, (so to speak.) "Where is it?" she wanted to know. Oh, just east of Flagstaff, I replied. Flagstaff,  is a nice town in northern Arizona that is considered the jumping off point to the Grand Canyon.

Meteor Crater as seen from space.

Meteor Crater is located about 35 miles east of Flagstaff. Take I-40E to exit 233. Then take a right turn down the access road. In about 5-10 more miles you will reach the visitor center. The land in this part of Arizona is extremely flat, bleak, and desolate. No trees, little vegetation. Did I mention flat? It's so flat I think you can see the curvature off the Earth. This place gives the words "remote" and "isolated" a whole new meaning. How remote? Even though it's been there for 50,000 years, it wasn't discovered until about 1870. Some employees that work there actually have apartments at the visitor center. It would be too far to commute!

My wife was driving that day and she kept saying, "This better be worth it," during the trip there. As we approached the visitor center you could see the rim, but not into the crater itself. The visitor center was very nice with an introductory movie about the history, a gift shop, and even a Subway restaurant. But finally it was time to view the crater. "It's just out those doors", they told us. "Better hold onto your hat. It could be windy."

A very windy place!

They weren't kidding. This was undoubtedly the windiest place I have ever visited in my life. Apparently there were gusts over 65 mph while we were there, and they had to close an observation spot. Maybe it's because it's so flat in this area. There is literally nothing to block the wind for tens of miles. It's so windy I could barely hold onto my phone to take pictures.

The crater itself is about 1 mile across, and about 2 and a half miles in circumference. It looked like - well, a crater on the moon! A giant hole in the middle of nowhere. You don't actually go down into the crater. One of the guides mentioned that there is a big rattlesnake population in the crater. Maybe so. But I call BS on that one. What would they eat? Rocks?

In the end, Meteor Crater is a very interesting place, and I'm glad we went. The Mrs. even liked it too. (Sort of.)

Meteor Crater is also just west of Winslow, Arizona. That was another place I wanted to visit. Just so I could take a picture of myself standing on a corner there. Maybe a girl would slow down to take a look at me, like in the song! But I didn't want to press my luck.

How big is it? It could hold downtown San Francisco.