Meteor Crater is a 50,000 year old meteorite impact crater privately owned by Barringer family in Arizona. The crater is 3,99ft wide and 570ft deep in the almost barren desert. Earlier known as Canyon Diablo crater it is a National Natural Landmark and also a popular tourist attraction. Since there is no vegetation cover the crater can be viewed very clearly.Visitors are charged an entrance fee ($16) by the Barringer Crater Company to see the crater. Worth a visit if you are near Flagstaff or you are driving on I-40 near Winslow.
After almost a daylong visit to Petrified Forest National Park I was out at around 4:00PM. And so I thought of visiting the Meteor Crater nearby. Nearby- so I thought. Somehow it had registered in my mind that it was just 35-miles from Chambers, but it was so from Flagstaff. I drove about 50-miles and couldn't find the whereabouts of the crater. Wondering where this place was I saw a billboard saying-the crater is another 50-miles away! I felt stupid but, then thought of going. And after some more distance another hoarding says closing time of crater is 5:00PM! I thought it was a crazy idea to speed but, still I went on. I reached the place right at 5:00PM. I was given 20-mins to see the crater. By the time I reached the crater by taking the elevator and climbing few more stairs I had only 10-mins.
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| Holsinger Meteorite- the largest piece of 150ft meteor that created the crater |
It was real stupid of me to drive 200-miles RT to see a privately owned property just for 10-mins paying $16!! I am not saying that the crater is not worth but, I could have easily visited the crater later in my trip when I was at Flagstaff!! Well, mis-adventures happen!! It was so exhausting after almost a full day out under the hot sun in the national park, driving 100-miles dreading a speeding ticket and then running up stairs to see the crater. I just stood there at the upper viewing deck puffing audibly to see the big depression in the ground. There is lot more to see and learn about the crater, geology, space etc at the visitor center. I preferred to stand there and just look at the depression in the flat desert while I tried to get my breathing normal. I had another 100-miles drive back to the Inn.
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
I have been to this crater long time back, probably 7 years back or so. I am glad I visited this place. I remember seeing through some telescope of some kind at a human figure in the middle of the crater. It looked so tiny!
ReplyDeleteYeah, it is a special place! But, the way I visited was one of a kind! I didn't have time t look through the telescope :)
DeleteThe crater looks beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYep, aerial view is superb!
DeleteI've been fond of travel too much & I mostly like to read about female travel tips like such a big happening. I've never been Crater ever but as I accepted its seem such a beautiful as you've captured the best way & I'm waiting to your next post about female travel. Thanks for share!!
ReplyDeleteThaks Seema. Glad you like my blog!
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