Discovering Prehistoric Sites On The Mother Road

This is an excerpt from my new blog, Route 66, The Mother Road, a guide to road tripping onAmerica's Main Street.

Mistakenly, on past trips down U.S. 66, I passed Meteor Craterby, thinking it to be like a snake farm or alligator wrestling ring-type attraction. On our third familyroad trip on the Mother Road, I acquiesced to my wife's requests, and we pulled off the I-40 at exit233, made a short drive over an expanse of desert, and arrived at a first-rate National Park-like, butprivately operated, Visitor's Center, complete with a fascinating museum and movie theater.Especially after driving across the flat expanse of desert, the crater is awe-inspiring, which is evenmore incredible, considering this is a small one as craters go, although it's the best preserved inexistence. If you still don't believe that it's worth a stop, consider that it seems like the kind of thingthat you only want to see once, but the combination of museum, visitor's center and gift shop make'sit worthy of becoming a regular stop for our family.

The other great thing about Meteor Crater is that it sets the tone for the suprisingly rich geologichistory and artifacts that are found in this part of Arizona and New Mexico. In a day or so, we'll bestopping at the Dinosaur Museum in Tucumcari, NM, so a walk through the very scientific, but alsovery entertaining, Meteor Crater Museum, serves as an orientation to the experiences that lie justahead as we travel east on America's Main Street.

Although it's difficult to capture themassiveness of Meteor Crater in photos,this picture shows that even a kid that goes to Disneyland half a dozen times a year finds this stoprich in wonder.

In the next installment, we'll be driving about another 30 miles or so before stopping at one of ourfamily's favorites, Jack Rabbit Trading Post; then, on to Petrified Forest.