And we're off! We left the Grand Canyon in a snowstorm and driving through Flagstaff I was wondering if we should even stop at Meteor Crater because visibility was so low. But fortunately it didn't take long after leaving Flagstaff for the weather to clear and it was a beautiful day (even though it remained super windy). Because it was still cold and windy, they weren't doing the rim tours normally offered at the crater, but we still found ways to fill our time there. We watched the short film, looked at the exhibits (well done), and went to the viewpoints outside to see the crater.

The crater itself is impressive - it is 3/4 of a mile wide, 2.4 miles in circumference, and 550 feet deep (it was originally 700 feet deep after impact and before erosion). The crater was initially thought to be a volcanic crater, which is a reasonable assumption given its location near the San Francisco volcanic field. Eventually it was determined it was an impact crater, supported by examination and identification of the rocks in and near the crater, the presence of shocked rocks, and the discovery of coesite and stishovite. These are high pressure polymorphous forms of silica formed by extreme pressure (300,000 psi).

Scientists think it was likely a collision that occurred in the asteroid belt that sent an iron-nickel meteor hurtling towards earth. Before impact the meteor was about 150 feet long, weighed several hundred thousand tons, and was traveling over 26,000 miles per hour. Upon impact most of the meteor vaporized or melted and the largest fragment recovered is on display in the museum. The Holsinger Meteorite is three feet long and weights over 1400 lbs (!). The impact was equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT, displacing 175 million tons of limestone and sandstone and leaving behind spherules beneath the crater floor.

I wasn't sure what to expect visiting what is essentially a "big hole in the ground". We ended up spending close to an hour and forty five minutes at Meteor Crater and enjoyed our stop there; it was a cool site and a good start to our trip. Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch in Winslow and were off to our next two destinations: Homolovi State Park and Little Painted Desert County Park. "Homol'ovi” is Hopi for “Place of the Little Hills” — the traditional name for Winslow, Arizona. We visited the Homolovi II site in the park to learn about the ancestors to the Hopi people that migrated through this area in the 14th century before settling in the Hopi Mesas north of the park. It is believed the pueblo here had between 1200 and 2000 rooms and some ruins can be seen today (along with many potsherds). The site is near the Little Colorado and I was surprised to learn they grew cotton. I also liked learning about piki bread and the specific stones used to make it.

Twelve miles north of Homolovi State Park on US 87 is the turnoff to Little Painted Desert County Park. It would be more accurate to add "abandoned" to the name as it is no longer a maintained park, however the views are still really nice, especially for how easy it is to access this point. It was a great overlook of a small section of the Painted Desert, although the pictures look flat since we lost the light when we arrived there (it definitely looks better in person!).

We had previously toured Petrified Forest National Park and didn't have time to revisit the park on this trip, but we did have time to stop in Holbrook. And there are two things Holbrook has plenty of: Route 66 kitsch and petrified wood. Rainbow Rock Shop was closed, so we just snapped some pictures with the dinosaurs outside and drove down the road to the Wigwam Motel. In the 1930s and 1940s Frank Redford built seven Wigwam Motels across the US and today three are standing and operating (two of them on Route 66). I like how they have old cars parked outside. We took a few pictures outside and took a look around their small "museum" (really a room with some cool petrified wood specimens, old pictures/memorabilia, and Native American artifacts).

Last stop in Holbrook was Jim Gray's Petrified Wood Company. Norah loved rocks when she was little and we still enjoy visiting rock shops, so it wasn't a surprise that we ended up spending nearly an hour and a half here. There is a large private collection on display, well organized shelves full of petrified wood, rocks, and fossils; multiple, tempting jewelry cases; and a big rock yard. We spent a long time perusing the piles in the yard and digging through the picture sandstone bins looking for our favorite pieces. We decided that this was the rock equivalent of thrift stores. We had a good time!

Finally it was time for us to make the last leg of our drive to Springerville, AZ. We had not been in this area of the state before and I liked the drive with the White Mountains in the distance. Unfortunately we didn't have time on this trip to explore the White Mountains .... next time!