This morning we left Lyman Lake State Park for a short drive to Holbrook, Arizona. We pulled into the KOA at Holbrook and went downtown. We toured to ‘Historic Navajo County Courthouse’, which now is the tourist booth, museum and family courthouse. The place was full of history from the old jail to the law books on the courthouse floor. No pictures because I left my camera in the motorhome but this photo is off the web www.legendsofamerica.com/AZ-NavajoCourthouse.html .
Meteor Crater
In the afternoon we went 60 miles west and arrived at Meteor Crater. This photo was from the Honda CR-V.
We first set out to see the crater.
The crater is 1.2km across, about 0.2km deep and the circumference is about 3.8km. The theory today is that about 50,000 years ago a huge iron-nickel meteorite or a dense cluster of meteorites, estimated to have been about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, traveling at 40,000 kilometers per hour, struck the rocky plain with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of TNT.
Teri is again attempting to take home the largest fragment of this meteor.
In the 1920’s Daniel Barringer started drilling in the crater in hopes of finding the meteor. In 1929 the funds were exhausted, the drill bit permanently stuck and the drill cable broke. Here is all that is left from the drilling on the crater floor.
We then toured the museum and watched a short movie. The crater and surrounding land is privately owned and the admission price reflected that. This was a $15.00 per adult tour. Glad I saw it once, but I think once is enough.
Wildlife on the trip:
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