Mistakenly, on past trips down U.S. 66, I passed Meteor Crater by, thinking it to be like a snake farm or alligator wrestling ring-type attraction. On our third family road trip on the Mother Road, I acquiesced to my wife's requests, and we pulled off the I-40 at exit 233, made a short drive over an expanse of desert, and arrived at a first-rate National Park-like, but privately operated, Visitor's Center, complete with a fascinating museum and movie theater. Especially after driving across the flat expanse of desert, the crater is awe-inspiring, which is even more incredible, considering this is a small one as craters go, although it's the best preserved in existence. If you still don't believe that it's worth a stop, consider that it seems like the kind of thing that you only want to see once, but the combination of museum, visitor's center and gift shop make's it worthy of becoming a regular stop for our family.The other great thing about Meteor Crater is that it sets the tone for the suprisingly rich geologic history and artifacts that are found in this part of Arizona and New Mexico. In a day or so, we'll be stopping at the Dinosaur Museum in Tucumcari, NM, so a walk through the very scientific, but also very entertaining, Meteor Crater Museum, serves as an orientation to the experiences that lie just ahead as we travel east on America's Main Street.
Although it's difficult to capture the massiveness of Meteor Crater in photos, this picture shows that even a kid that goes to Disneyland half a dozen times a year finds this stop rich in wonder.
In the next installment, we'll be driving about another 30 miles or so before stopping at one of our family's favorites, Jack Rabbit Trading Post; then, on to Petrified Forest.
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