Just a few miles west of Winslow is the Meteor Crater, a place that has fascinated NOS for years. We had driven by it some eleven years before and he wished for us to stop and explore it. Now was the time to do just that. The night before I had browsed through Roadside America’s reviews of the place and saw that some travelers had groused about having to pay an admission fee to see a big hole in the ground. But as we drove the eight miles from I-40 to the visitor center, it began to be apparent that this was a Big Deal.
The road rises to the parking lot which is still well below the crater rim. An imposing brick structure, newer and cleaner than just about anything we had seen in the course of the trip at that point, was stairstepped on the hillside leading toward the main building. The museum and gift shop are housed in that building. At the lowest point of the complex there is a ticket booth - admission is $15 American per adult - but in our estimation it was well worth it. As we found, there is more to see there than just the remains of a prehistoric divot.
We climbed stairs, stairs and more stairs to get to the lower level of the center. The enclosure has a monument to space explorers, and one of the original Apollo boilerplate test mules is there with a mannequin seated in the center of the three-seat capsule. To the left is a wall commemorating those who have participated in the U.S. space program, and to our rear was a rectangular hole in the brick wall that at first looked like a painting of the desert. In fact it is a glassless picture window on the land northwest of the crater, looking toward Flagstaff and Humphreys Peak.
The gift shop is strategically located just to the inside right of the front door. Souvenirs of all sizes - and prices - were available, but most amazing to me was the poster of the Mercury 7 astronauts (not for sale), autographed by all of them. Real. Live. History.
