Leaving behind the red rock of Sedona, we drove past Flagstaff toward a big hole in the ground. Meteor Crater is reportedly the best preserved crater formed by a meteor strike anywhere on earth. More than 50,000 years ago, a huge iron-nickel meteorite, about 150 feet wide, hit the area in the Arizona desert with a force of 150 atomic bombs. The resulting crater measures 550 feet deep and almost a mile wide. About half of the meteorite’s bulk is thought to have vaporized during its descent through the atmosphere, while the remainder was mostly vaporized upon impact.
Early on, geologists thought the crater was formed by volcanic activity. Daniel Barringer was one of the first to suggest that the crater was an impact site, and his family filed mining claims and purchased the surroundings in the early 20th century. Barringer was convinced the bulk of the meteor was still lodged somewhere within the crater and had he been right, he could have found a lode worth more than $1 billion in 1903 dollars!
He spent three decades looking for the meteor, drilling holes in various locations but never found his prize.
Nonetheless, word spread about the meteor attracting visitors, who invariable got lost or got stuck in the crater and had to rescued by workers from a nearby ranch. Eventually, the ranch approached the Barringer family about building a museum onsite and turning the crater into a tourist attraction so they could control access to the site. The Barringers agreed and still get a cut of the $29 entry fee.
While the cost of admission is pricey, the museum does a nice job of explaining how the crater was formed and some of the history of human interaction. Admission also includes a free tour along the crater rim. Unfortunately, the trail from the rim to the crater floor is no longer open to visitors.
The crater has also been instrumental for researchers to understand how such craters are formed and clues to look for in other craters around the world that would demonstrate a meteoric formation. The crater holds the minerals coesite and stishovite, rare forms of silica that can only be created when quartz-bearing rocks have been severely shocked, such as by lightning, a nuclear explosion or an impact event. Those minerals are now used to identify other impact craters.
The impact of the meteorite actually flipped the layers of the earth on this site like a hinge. So at the rim, the top three layers of sediment are in reverse order from the surroundings.
The museum includes a lot of interactive displays, and shows both a movie about the formation of the crater, and a Disneyesque ride that simulates what it would be like to travel in space to destroy a meteor heading toward earth. The chairs tilt and shake. It’s a lot of fun.
The crater is just outside Winslow, Arizona, so we had to stop by to take our photo on a corner and pay homage to the Eagles. The town leans heavily into its rock-n-roll notoriety.
Winslow was a thriving town in northern Arizona just off Route 66 until the 1970s, when I-40 bypassed the community. Many local businesses disappeared, as travelers stopped at the Walmart and McDonald’s along the interstate instead of passing through the town. The town residents sought to create a rebirth by taking advantage of its mention in the 1972 Eagles song “Take It Easy.” They formed The Standin’ on the Corner Foundation which opened Standin’ on the Corner Park in downtown Winslow in 1999. A statue of Glenn Frey, the Eagles bandmember who co-wrote the song with Jackson Browne, was added after singer died in 2016.
The corner now has a big mural with the name of the town, and some faux windows in which the reflection of a flatbed Ford is visible as you take your picture. We dutifully snapped our photos on the corner, and then crossed the street to the RelicRoad Brewing Company for dinner.
As we sat outside enjoying our meal, a steady stream of tourists stopped by the corner. A bar across the street pumped out non-stop Eagles hits. The Foundation has clearly achieved its goal.
From Winslow, it’s less than an hour to Petrified Forest National Park. We stopped at a campground just outside the entrance and headed into the park. As is our habit we stopped at the visitors center first and watched a movie about the park. Usually those movies are excellent at explaining how the park’s features were formed and some of the history of the site. This one was less interesting, focusing more on the connection between the land and the Native Americans that still live in the region.
We hopped on the Giant Logs Trail, just behind the visitors center, and saw the namesake logs close up. The petrified wood here was formed when large trees fell into river channels some 225 million years ago, and were buried by sediment containing volcanic ash. The groundwater dissolved the silica from the ash and carried it into the logs, where it formed quartz crystals that gradually replaced the organic matter. Traces of iron oxide and other substances combined with the silica to create varied colors in the petrified wood. The petrified wood still looks like a log, but with deep red, orange, green and white color. And of course it’s hard as a rock.
After the Giant Log Trail, we hiked out to the Agate House, an eight-room pueblo built out of petrified wood sometime between 1050 and 1300. It must have been the envy of all their neighbors, because it still looks like something Tiffany would have built. The current structure was reconstructed on the original foundation using the original materials in 1930.
With a couple of short hikes under our belt, we spent the rest of the day driving the park road, stopping at the scenic overlooks along the way. The walk to the Blue Mesa was simply spectacular, with rocks colors you wouldn’t imagine existed in nature.
The road cuts through the national park south to north, crossing historic route 66 (marked by a rusting Studebaker) and ending up in the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is one of the most remarkable vistas we’ve seen. It reminded me of the first time I saw the Grand Canyon — it’s just hard to believe it’s real. Spanish explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado traveled through these badlands in the 1540s, and called the multi-hued expanse of pigmented rock “El Desierto Pintado.” The name stuck. The mesas in the regions are striped in layers of pink, orange and purple mineral deposits.
The same process that provide silica for the petrified logs in area has provided the color, while the forces of erosion created the badlands topography
As the sun set and lit up the colors of the Painted Desert, we turned around and headed back through the park to our campsite. Petrified Forest National Park can easily be visited in a day, but it’s a day you won’t soon forget.
Days: 101
Miles Traveled: 12,895
Next stop: Canyon de Chelly, Arizona
