Wed - Meteor Crater and the Petrified Forest

Woke at my strangely usual 7:15 and stayed in my car for a half hour for the morning sun to finish melting the frost off my winshield. I do think it was warmer (less cold) that night than in Flagstaff (~5500' vs 7K), so I was glad with my decision. The frost melted just in time to drive about 10 minutes to Meteor Crater to get my ticket just at opening time, 8 o'clock. $15 seemed a little steep, but I paid my fair, quickly went back to my car for a hat and my down jacket (really glad I decided to bring that!). The building was quite nice and I enjoyed the exhibits until the tour of the crater lip started at 9:15. Definitely worth the $15 bucks - Greg the Navajo tour guide did an excellent job. Without the tour, one is forced to only view the canyon from a particular outside area, but with the tour we were able to walk along the crater for a half mile or so. The tour was very good and worth the money. I'm glad I was there early - I think that was the only tour they did that day - very windy! The crater was formed by a 50meter or so iron-nickel meteor about 50K years ago. Considered the best preserved meteor on earth, its still 550 feet deep vs the estimated 700' after the meteor struck. Very cool.

Feeling satisifed with my morning, I then drove to The Petrified Forset National Monument. Quite interesting. The logs were cool but I was particlarly impressed by 100 foot long petrified trees (broken into about 6-8 foot sections of course). Just as nice were the Blue and Red Mesa trails. The blue is on the east side of the road about halfway through, with blue and grey mesas and eroding clay. I made sure to do the ~mile long hike. The red mesa was also very pretty at the north end of the park, though I just took pictures from the car. Overall, a great experience. Started the drive down to Tucson and got about half way before dark fell. Not wanting to miss the canyons at night, I elected to sleep the night and woke up particularly early to start my day. Was on the road at 6:30. Now in Tucson and will meet up with my friend Noreen this evening. For now, I'm going to check out Mt. Lemmon.

Oh, and sleeping a real bed tonight seems like a real treat!