There was a grand staircase with about half the normal tread rise leading to a theater where a movie depicting the meteor strike could be viewed. We opted instead to see the real thing, and when we walked out of the building the enormity of it brought a gasp. Or, in my case, the enormity plus the altitude. The rim is maybe about 700 feet or better above the surrounding landscape, but it is a good 1,000 feet above the center of the crater. The other side of the rim was far enough away to be just on the edge of hazy, even in the clear desert air that day. The interior was bowl shaped, without very much debris lining the inside. Near the top, the jagged rim edges had immense slabs of stone turned up on end, probably not much changed since the immediate aftermath of the impact.
We had learned from some of the exhibits that the meteor itself, probably made up of iron and nickel, was in a molten state when it hit; and that on impact, it splattered rather than drilling into the bedrock. Some of the rim rocks were pockmarked, said to be from globs of superheated metal that vaporized the surface of the rock before themselves vaporizing into the atmosphere. Rocks in that condition have been found as far away as Canyon Diablo near Two Guns. Suffice to say, it was a bad day in Black Rock when that hunk of interstellar metal made landfall.
Yet another stairway (huff, puff) led to the high point of the rim, with an observation deck and telescopes. Our cameras had sufficient zoom power that we didn’t need the scopes, and the view inside and outside of the crater was far and away worth the price of admission. We lingered a while and soaked in the wonders of this beautiful and terrifying place before starting back on the journey.
