It's a really big hole in the ground - Meteor Crater
Written: May 18 '04 (Updated May 25 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: one of the best preserved & easily accessed meteor craters in the world
Cons: the museums a bit tacky, prices are high & you can't get into the crater
The Bottom Line: see the damage that rocks from space can cause, wonder what larger impacts in the past were like and ponder what the future holds for us
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| jps246's Full Review: Barringer Meteorite Crater |
The Barringer Meteorite Crater, located about 20 miles west of Winslow, Arizona is a stark reminder of the disasters that can befall the Earth and a great place to see what happens when a meteorite slams into the planet.
Basics
One of the best preserved and most easily accessible meteor craters on Earth, Meteor Crater is only about 50,000 years old and records the impact of a 150 foot wide meteor that was traveling at about 40,000 miles per hour. The resulting crater is about a mile wide, almost 600 feet deep and the rim rises almost 150 feet above the surrounding plains.
The main destination for visitors to Meteor Crater is the visitor center/observatory/museum that has been built on top of the craters rim. It is located off of Interstate 40 at exit 233 – from where a small road winds across the plain to the crater and the visitor center.
The crater is open year-round and in the summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day) from 7 in the morning to 7 in the evening. For the remainder of the year, except Christmas, the park is open from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon. On Christmas, the park is open from noon to five (though, don’t ask me who would go and visit meteor crater on Christmas day – I guess you could beat the crowds).
The park is busiest on weekends, but throughout much of the summer there are often large crowds visiting the crater. The visitor center is quite large and can handle a large number of people without seeming too crowded. Tour-bus operators run trips to the crater, as do school groups and other organizations, so at times, large groups may suddenly appear. Generally though, there is enough room in the visitor center, museum and the observatory areas to enjoy your trip to the crater.
Beyond the visitor center, there is a “rim” walk, which is a guided tour along a section of the crater’s rim. This trip is included in the price of your admission and is available between 9:15 at 2:15 each day. There is no public access to the crater beyond this rim walk and no one is allowed to the base of the crater.
How’s it set up?
Once you get to the parking lot for the visitor center from the highway, you pay your admission (which 4 years ago was about $15 a person (for adults – but honestly, it’s fuzzy in my head and their website gives no pricing information) and then you proceed into center. The visitor center itself is broken down into a museum area, observation areas and finally the requisite gift shot and restaurant.
My feeling the entire time I was in the museum was that it was just somehow slightly tacky – I almost felt guilty dragging my partner through the place – considering I was the geology nut and he was just there to see the big hole in the ground. The museum focuses on meteorites and space and while the exhibits were interesting and educational, but they were quite old (circa the 70’s maybe?) and while not out of date, they weren’t what you would expect to find for exhibits nowadays. There’s no interactivity and little to no information on current research on meteorites and space travel. Children that were there with their families seemed slightly bored while the parents tried to read the displays and the kids just wanted to move on to the next exhibit. There is a movie theatre in the museum that shows a movie on meteors and meteorite impacts twice every hour.
Beyond the museum and its exhibits, there are four different locations to view the crater, both indoors and outdoors. These viewing areas include telescopes that allow you to see distant points on the far crater wall or down at the very bottom of the crater. Those with a fear of heights should be prepared because some of the platforms project over the edge of the crater and it is quite far down beneath you.
At this point, visitors can sign up for the rim walk, which takes you about a 1/3 of a mile around the rim (which is really not that far) and which lasts for about an hour and a half. The hike is lead by a guide who will explain what you are seeing as you travel along the rim.
If you decide you don’t want to go on the hike, or you already have, the rest of the visitor center is filled with the gift shop. The shop is typical of any gift shop you will find at a tourist destination. Shot glasses, mugs, pencils and just about anything else kitsch abound, but if you look hard enough, you can find some interesting books on geology, or the history of the crater. Prices are expensive, like any place like this. Food is provided by a Subway sandwich place where the prices are slightly higher than you’d find at other Subways.
What else is there?
Down near the highway exit, there is the Meteor Crater RV park, which provides 77 RV pull-through camping spaces with utilities. The campground also has handicapped accessible restrooms and showers, along with a recreation room (with some video games and stuff), playground, laundry, country store and a mobile gas station that includes a Subway shop (do you get the feeling that Subway is sponsoring Meteor Crater?).
Things to know
Meteor Crater is out in the arid, desert plains of Arizona and therefore temperatures and weather conditions can vary tremendously. While most of the exhibits and visitor center are inside, some of the observing platforms are outside, as is the rim hike.
Summertime temperatures can get exteremly hot while temperatures in the spring and fall are more mild - but can easily get into the 80s and higher on some days. In the winter expect colder temperatures and it does snow occasionally. It's generally always fairly windy and there is little to no shade when you are outside.
People should be wearing comfortable clothes and good walking shoes if they are planning on going on the rim walk (it's basically a flat gravel path, nothing challenging). You should also have some water with you.
What I liked
The star attraction is the crater itself – everything else is really just extra on top of that. When I visited, I hurried through the museum to get observation platforms and I wasn’t disappointed. The crater itself is big – you feel like a little ant on its side and it’s simply amazing to think that all it took to excavate this tremendous hole was a chunk of nickel-iron about 150 feet across. Tons of rock were simply evaporated or ejected beyond the crater, layers of those same rocks are twisted and folded and pieces of rocks and minerals heated and even melted are scattered throughout the area.
I stood for a long time simply staring and snapping picture after picture. The scale and size of the crater is breathtaking and makes the trip out to this desolate plain in Arizona worth the trip.
The rim hike is alright – though it is way too short. For such a huge crater, walking a measly 1/3 of a mile along the rim is like stopping at one view point on the Grand Canyon and saying you’ve seen the whole thing.
The museum was okay – like I said up above, the whole time I was like “well this kind is kind of tacky,” with the Styrofoam exhibits and plaster planets. The best exhibits were the simplest that simply showed off items and provided descriptions – when they tried to get fancy, that’s when things entered tacky land. I learned a few things here and there, but it turns out my partner really enjoyed this part of the crater – he was eagerly going from exhibit to exhibit and asking me questions. I think this is where the exhibit probably is best – if you don’t have a background in earth sciences or space sciences, you’ll probably think it was great, if not – you’ll probably be like “oh jeez, what’s this?”
I found a book that was worth purchasing at the gift shop and we did enjoy a sub from Subway in the little outdoor park they have next to the visitor center.
What didn’t I like?
Like I said, the museum caters to people with little to no background in earth science or space science. For those of us with that background there will be some eye rolling with some exhibits and in general, you’ll probably rush through the museum to get to the observation platforms.
With the crater itself – after a while it’s just a big hole in the ground. Because there are only a limited number of observation platforms and the rim hike is so short – you quickly realize you’re not going to see anything different from what you are seeing – and it’s disappointing. There’s no opportunity to explore the crater or get to the floor of it, which is what I really wanted to do. I understand it’s probably insurance and liability issues, but I would think that standing at the bottom of the crater and looking up would be a great experience and well worth the trip down.
The price was a bit high (I can remember being like “it costs that much”) for what you got with no access to the crater beyond the designated observation platforms and rim hike. However there aren’t very many places in the world where you can see any kind of meteor crater so close up, so they have sort of cornered the market and can probably charge what they want.
Final Thoughts
You’re not likely to run across such an accessible, large, fresh and easily viewed meteor crater anywhere else in the world – and thus, Meteor Crater is a one-of-a-kind destination. The ticket prices might be slightly high, the exhibits can be a little tacky, you won’t have access to much of the crater, and you’ll be subjected to the typical tourist stuff, but Meteor Crater is a destination that is worth visiting.
In the end, you simply can see with your own eyes the tremendous damage that rocks from space can cause and it can cause you to wonder what larger impacts in the past were like (for example, the large impact that hastened the end of the dinosaurs) and ponder what the future holds for us (and makes the disaster movies seem a little more real).
Other Flagstaff, Arizona area attractions
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument / Walnut Canyon National Monument / Wupatki National Monument
Travel Magazines
Travel & Leisure Magazine / Budget Travel / National Geographic Adventure / Outside Magazine / National Geographic Traveler
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Mar - May
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