Monday April 22, 2019

Road video and map – Holbrook to Williams, AZ

Today was mainly a driving day as my vacation approaches its end and I head west towards Vegas but I sought out three attractions along the way.

The first was a brief detour in Winslow, AZ for a photo-stop. Winslow prospered when Route 66 was popular but, once Interstate 40 was built, most people bypassed the town. To encourage more visitors they have combined the revival of Route 66 tourism with the recognition of the town in the lyrics of the Eagles song Take It Easy by building Standin’ on the Corner park on historic Route 66. For those who do not know the song the following lines are relevant:

Well I’m a standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford
slowin’ down to take a look at me

And here’s the photo combining those elements. There were definitely quite a few people attracted here so, I guess, it worked.
I then moved on to my main stop at Meteor Crater. This is the location of a large meteor impact about 50,000 years ago that, because of the lack of rain in the area, is the best preserved in the world. The crater is almost a mile in diameter and about 550 feet deep. Although the property is privately owned they have excellent displays explaining meteors, crater formation and the scientific research that has been done here.

This is a combination of four photos to show the whole crater. Click on the image for a larger version.

The white area you can see near the center of the above image is the site of scientific drilling to study crater formation and the impact on the rocks below. NASA used the crater to train astronauts for the Apollo missions here and the flag and astronaut cutout in the lower right are actual size.
My final target was the San Francisco Peaks Scenic Road which runs towards Grand Canyon from Flagstaff. The road has never fitted into my route before but today seemed like a good time to drive it. Unfortunately it was a huge disappointment. I was driving in the wrong direction to get the best views but I could see that they were just distant views of the peaks. When the road was close to the foothills I was driving through forest and could not even see the mountains.

This view of Humphrey’s Peak, the tallest of the range, was the best I saw all day and this was from Meteor Crater some 43 miles away.