April 14th - Wow, that's a big hole in the ground.

Today we’re heading off 66 to make an overnight stop in Sedona. But first, we made a stop at Meteor Crater Natural Landmark. This is an impact crater formed 50,000 years ago by a 160 foot wide asteroid made out of nickel-iron. The impact of the asteroid caused a hole a mile-wide and 550 feet deep. That’s one big hole! It is estimated that the meteor struck at over 26,000 mph causing it to almost completely desegrate. Because of the dry Arizona climate and the shape and lunar-like landscape, NASA has used this site to train all the astronauts since the 60’s. The most recent trainees were the astronauts from Artemis ii mission. It was amazing standing on the rim and looking at how huge this crater is and knowing it was created by something as small as 160 feet wide. Just imagine the massive force behind it when it entered the earth’s atmosphere.

We departed the crater and set our sights south for an overnight in Sedona. The drive on 89A was spectacular, we left the desert terrain and traded that in for the Coconino Forrest and higher elevations. The road was windy and surrounded by beautiful sandstone spheres and breathtaking red rock views. The route led us to downtown Sedona, which was too busy and too commercial for our liking. Don’t get me wrong, the surrounding views are so pretty, but I don’t think they can cram one more store, restaurant or art studio along this route. It was crazy!

We checked in to our hotel and were happy to have the view of one of the cliffsides. We unpacked a bit and headed out to The Hudson, a restaurant that boasted great views and delicious food, and it lived up to the hype. We had a nice night, meet some fun people and enjoyed an exciting basketball game, anyone catch the Hornets win over the Heat? A nail biter for sure.