Southwestern RV Trip – Days 48-49, Meteor Crater, Winslow, Sedona

It was finally warm and sunny on Tuesday and the road up to Flagstaff was open so it was a good day to check off a bucket list item and visit Meteor Crater and then go on into Winslow for lunch – it was about a three hour round trip drive up I-17 onto the 7000’ Colorado Plateau then east on I-40.  Heading toward Flagstaff, we got a good view of the San Francisco Peaks and Humphrey’s Peak which is the highest natural point in Arizona at 12637 ft.

The Meteor Crater is privately owned and was a first class tourist stop with a very nice visitors center containing a short movie, a museum, a gift shop and of course the crater. 

The impact crater created by the 150’ wide meteor traveling at 29,000 mph is 4000’ across, 560 ‘ deep and has a berm 148’ high.  The event happened about 50,000 years ago and is the best preserved impact crater on earth.  Web shots.

The meteor was destroyed by the impact and this is the largest of the pieces found – it is primarily iron with nickel and traces of many elements.

When standing at the craters edge, it doesn’t look as big as in the overhead view but 20 football fields will fit in the bottom and stands with seating for 2 million people could be built around the sides.

From the crater, we drove a little further east to have lunch at the RelicRoad Brewing Co. in Winslow, AZ which just happens to be just across the street from “the corner”  - Eagles song Take It Easy says “standing on the corner in Winslow, AZ."  According to our server, this song has brought a lot of visitors to town and a local man seated next to us said when he was young the normal thing for kids to do was go to the movies then go stand on that corner, so the song line could have been about him. 

For lunch, we began with an order of their homemade onion rings then Bev ordered the Philly Cheese Steak, I had fish tacos, and Cindy got the chicken sandwich - Bev and Cindy had the unique homemade potato chips.

We all thought the meals were very good and would eat there again.

Above is downtown and the three main sources of income for the town are tourism, railroads, and a nearby state prison.

On Wednesday, the girls went back up to Sedona with the main purpose of visiting AmitabhaStupa and Peace Park for Cindy who is into all sorts of meditation.  The stupa is one of the oldest forms of sacred architecture on earth, dating back to the time of the Buddha, 2600 years ago. Stupas are mostly found in the East, where Buddhism first took root and flourished. They are indeed rare in the West.  Here are a few pics from her.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

2/26 – 2/27/19 event date