We chose Meteor Crater RV Park for its strategic placement for what we wished to do. We did not count on it being as windy as it turned out to be! A storm blew in while we were out and we learned an important lesson.
Location, Location, Location
Sure, Meteor Crater RV Park was more expensive that the other campgrounds and RV Parks approximately 30 miles in either direction. I was setting up a home base. Reviews were good regarding Meteor Crater RV Park. It was AT the Meteor Crater – approximately 30 minutes from Homolovi State Park, Winslow Arizona and Walnut Canyon. Settled.
Windy plains of Arizona
Apparently it was monsoon season, albeit a little early. I learn something new everyday. I was not aware a desert, even a high desert had monsoon seasons. Check in was painless, reserving the spot easy online.
The employees were attentive and the restrooms were clean. Like my new friend from Blazin’ Saddles RV Park in Tucumcari said, they were all heading to individual home style restrooms and these were no different.
Each spot tried to have a little shade and due to it being the monsoon season (who knew?) the temperatures stayed in the mid 90’s or lower our entire stay. This facilitated our plans immensely.
First things first
We spent our first evening at the Meteor Crater itself. If you have not been there before it is worth the visit. There are a lot of space facts – super cool, and then there’s this GIANT (over a mile across) whole in the ground where something from outer space smashed a hole in the earth!
NASA trained astronauts there. They pay homage to NASA quite a bit. There is also a kitchy theme park theater ride that helps explain things a little.
It is impossible to capture the size of the crater, but I did try to take some pictures, The windy conditions kept blowing sand around outside the museum complex, but we still had a great time.
Then we scooted back to the trailer and spent the night watching some tv! The cell reception was good enough for our T Mobile Home unit to work and there were over 20 HD channels the antenna just picked up! We watched Wipeout back to back on regular tv, if your curious!
Homolovi State Park
The next day we woke up and the weather was completely calm. We left in high spirits and headed off to Homolovi State Park. There were a few short trails and we hiked them trying to imagine the ancient people that inhabited the land and how they survived.
There are some excavated ruins that you can tour, along with explanatory signs. It was less fun than educational, but we still managed to have a great time. We did get to see some really interesting lizards!
By this time we’d worked up an appetite and headed into nearby Winslow Arizona to grab a bite to eat.
A Flat Bed Ford!
When we reached Winslow, it still was relatively calm with no sign of a storm on the horizon. Keep in mind, you can see for well over 60 miles out there. We had to visit the historic corner. “That” corner, if you don’t know what I mean find someone ten years older and have them grab a tape or record…
We snagged lunch at the Flatbed Cafe. It was pretty good and I am sure we drank our weight in unsweet tea. We wandered around town (it is on Route 66 after all) and took in the sights. My father in law hauled fuel for just under 3 million years for Texaco. This spot was super cool for Ash and I.
Wrapping up the day as it became windy
It started getting windy and we saw clouds on the horizon. We headed back to basecamp to rest for the night (after getting to meet some neighbors as we handled a minor crisis!). We settled in for some more Wipeout, one of Sierra’s favorites, and rested for tomorrow’s activities.
The last one on the list – but certainly not least!
If you have ever been in the Flagstaff area and not visited Walnut Canyon, you are missing out. It has become a bit more “safe” than I remember as a kid and later as a young Marine. However, it is still amazing and breath taking.
Walnut Canyon is cliff dwelling ruins that you can walk through, on the edge of a cliff in a mile long loop. There are a lot of stairs involved, some come prepared. It was probably good that it was not windy this day. There is a great little museum and gift shop too, that explains some of what you are about to experience.
Then you head out on the trail. Once you start looking, you can see cliff dwellings everywhere and start realize this was a bustling metropolis in it’s time.
The path winds through the edges of, and sometimes through, the cliff dwellings themselves. Some are reconstructions and some are as they were found. The park kindly puts signs up asking visitors to not enter these – and there is a heavy Ranger presence on the trail.
It was quite warm, and we could have used it to become a little windy on the way back up. Ash and Sierra have I Phones and the automatic step counter claimed we did over 52 floors!
All together now
We love the desert. There is so much to see and learn.
In this trip, we managed to knock 4 things off our list and interact with some really great people.
- Meteor Crater Natural Landmark
- Homolovi State Park
- We took it Easy at Winslow Arizona
- Scaled cliffs at Walnut Canyon National Monument
We had a great time, but as all good things come to an end – we packed up and continued our journey.
Couldn’t leave you without at least some of the flowers we saw along the way!
2 responses to “4 great things to do if camping at windy Meteor Crater RV Park”
[…] similar to some of the ruins we visited in Homolovi State Park and detail in one of our other posts. Turns out we continue to name things by what we know, and the Spainiards and early Americans were […]
[…] and we really wanted some downtime on this part of the trip. Our last leg was a little bit hectic in Meteor Crater in Winslow, AZ. We ended up skipping going into old town Silver City and did not try to get the […]