Flagstaff, Arizona, Friday 28th August

We were up early for a long drive day, up for a breakfast at 6am and we left the Grand Canyon National Park before 7am which musy have been an achievement in iaelf.. We drove across the plateau through a thinly forested area at an elevation of over 8,000 feet.

We drove straight through Flagstaff out towards Winslow. There is a meteor crater in the desert that wasn’t on our schedule. We are all scared of Zoe so I got the short straw to research the crater location, entry costs, opening times etc whilst in Vegas and I emailed her to add it to the schedule. It was put to the vote as a small detour and by a thin margin it got added to the schedule.

The crater is the largest in the world located between Flagstaff and Winslow. There is a slight rise out of the plain but when you get to the rim there is a 550 foot deep circular hole. It is about 10,000 years old and was originally 700 feet deep but sandstorms and rain are gradually filling it in. The museum is interestng and has a selection of exhibits such as the Apollo test module.

Panoramic picture of the crater, curtsey of David.

L to R Sigi, Paola, David and me.

The bottom of the crater.

The land surrounding the crater is just flat and featureless.

 A view of the side of the rim.

 The bottom of the crater.

We returned to Flagstaff so that the cook group could do some shopping and for all of us to look around the older part of the city. Whilst we were doing this Betsy was undergoing her Department of Transport certification similar to a British MOT. Seb had been working on her for several days and she passed so we could continue our trip.

We got back on the truck for the long drive down to Phoenix.

Long drive days can be monotonous but you make yourself as comfortable as possible, read a book, sleep or put your feet up.

For a bit of light relieve we played volleyball in the back of the bus with a beach ball, with Steve pictured holding the ball.

We got our first sight of giant cacti, Saguaro, silent g and only two syllables, growing wild in the desert at the side of the road.

Phoenix is a major centre and capital of the state. The roads were five lanes wide and we were driving during the Friday evening rush hour but the High Occupancy Vehicle or HOV lane reserved for vehicles with two or more people was virtually empty and we passed loads of traffic.

Our camp site was Lost Dutchman National Park, next to Lost Dutchman Goldmine plus several other gold mines. I would have loved to visit them but our schedule was already stretched to fit in the meteor crater and the next day we were due to visit another national park and camp at a camp ground boasting a lake in which to swim and considering the high temperatures, this was a greater priority than yet another hole in the ground.

The name comes from a story about a German immigrant, Jacob Waltz, Dutch being the English for Deutsch who was found dead in the desert with saddle bags full of gold suggesting that he had a mine somewhere in the Superstitious Mountains but had kept it's location a secret from everyone else. There are several variations of the story and several mining companies have sought to rediscover this rich gold mine but with various degrees of success.

There was a great sun set and a great moon rise although my camera didn’t do justice to the reality but Paola got some good photos.

 Whilst the sun set in the west, the moon was coming up behind the hill to the east.