|
While vacationing in Arizona, my family visited the Meteor Crater located between Flagstaff and Winslow. This was a day trip we took away from the Grand Canyon. Meteor Crater is the site where, scientists estimate, a 150-foot meteor struck the Earth approximately 50,000 years ago. During my visit, I took many pictures of the crater, visitor center, and museum. Some of these are provided below to satisfy some of your curiousity about the site and perhaps motivate you to consider visiting it. It will only take 2-3 hours to view the crater, enjoy the museum, watch the 10-minute documentary movie, look at the astronaut wall of fame, check out the Apollo capsule, and browse the gift shop, but it will be worthwhile. Personally, I learned a good bit about meteors from my visit, marveled at the size of the crater (which is immense), and even found some very reasonably priced items in the gift shop to bring home (items I'd seen offered at much higher prices in other shops in the Grand Canyon area). (If a "Read more" link appears below, click it to see the remaining text and photos of this article.)
Visitors to the Meteor Crater site are greeted by the Visitor Center, gift shop, and museum building: 
Once through the ticket window and visitor center, you can work your way up a staircase to the top rim of the crater, where you'll see a view like this (notice the larger white spot in the bottom of the crater?): 
Here's the detail of the "white spot" in the center of the crater, at 8x magnification from one of the nearest points to it: 
If you look very closely, along the fence you will see a 6-foot tall wooden cut-out of an astronaut and an American Flag. This should give you some idea of the scale of the size of this crater. Notice in the original crater picture you couldn't tell there was an astronaut figure down there! This is a view down the staircase from the rim to the visitor center and museum: 
This is one of a few observation decks around the crater's rim. Notice the telescopes affixed to the platform. 
This is one of those telescopes "up close": 
This is the "house size rock" it shows you, photographed at 8x zoom from the telescope's location: 
In the courtyard of the visitor center is an actual NASA Apollo mission test capsule: 
This is one of the many exhibits in the museum. This particular exhibit is just outside the gift shop: 
This is the largest fragment ever found of the meteor which struck this location 50,000 years ago: 
This is another exhibit inside the museum. Some are "static" like this one, displaying information but doing nothing more. Others are interactive, providing a learning experience while having you "do something" with the exhibit equipment. Some are multi-media, providing video and audio information. 
For more about the Meteor Crater, events, and facilities, visit: http://www.meteorcrater.com/index.htm
Related Blogs:
Related Links:
|
