West of Winslow ,Arizona is a place called "Meteor Crater". Billboards advertise it for miles. We had driven past it before and wondered what it would be like, assuming it was a cheesy tourist trap.

The above photo shows typical terrain in the area.

The mountain in the background is 40 miles away.

The dark slash is a cloud shadow.

You are facing west and right behind you is........................HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The crater is 3/4 mile across and 550 ft deep. (It was 700 ft deep but erosion has filled the bottom.) A meteorite 150 ft across hit here 50,000 years ago.

There is a small group of people standing on the rim at the right side. I wanted to take the tour but had on open shoes, a no-no.

This is a close-up of the bottom of the crater, showing drilling equipment, plane wreckage, and a cut-out of an astronaut with an American flag.

They drilled looking for fragments of the meteor.

The plane crashed in 1964 when two people flew too low over the rim and were pulled in the crater. They circled inside the bowl, almost made it out but stalled and crashed. Both lived but the wreckage is still in there.

NASA trained their Apollo astronauts here. It was to teach them how to manage the terrain of a crater.


When the crater was first discovered it was thought to be the result of a volcano. Early in the 20th century the meteor theory came about, but it wasn't proven until the 50's.