Apollo Capsule at Meteor Crater National Preserve
Remnants of Daniel Barringer's house on the edge of the crater.
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument
From 1963 through the late 1970, astronauts scheduled for Apollo missions to the moon were trained at Meteor Crater because of its similarity to craters on the lunar surface.
50,000 years ago, an unbroken plain was stretching here. Suddenly, out of the northeastern sky, a pinpoint of light grew rapidly into a brilliant meteor. This body was probably broken from the core of an asteroid during an ancient collision in the main asteroid belt some half-billion years ago.
In less than a few seconds, a crater 700 feet deep and over 4000 feet across was carved into this once-flat rocky plain.
Dany standing on the edge of the crater...
Daniel Moreau Barringer, a Philadelphia mining engineer, had become interested in the site as a potential source for mining iron. He spent the rest of his life attempting to find what he believed would be the giant iron meteorite, unaware it had undergone total disintegration during the impact...
Dany posing in front of a replica of the inside of the crater.
Wikiup Kabin, our home for two nights !
As recently as the mid-1200s, families lived, worked and played inWalnut Canyon's cliff dwellings. Tending crops on the rim, traveling to gather food and collecting water from the canyon bottom were part of a daily routine.
It may have been difficult to live here, constantly negociating this rugged terrain, but the canyon was known as a place of abundance, given its wealth of plant and animal life and the presence of water (a creek flowed intermittently through the gorge).
Charlie's Bar on Roux Street.
