Just a few notes about my trip across the US, on my way to visit St. Louis, my sons and a few friends at Christmas. But first, one fun memory from California:
While I was visiting my sister Karen, we went for a horseback ride. We used to ride fairly often up in Griffith Park when we were kids. It had been decades since we had gone riding together. So this was an unexpected treat.
part of the ranch grounds
Not far from her house is a road that switchbacks up the side of a mountain. A road that is visible from the freeway. It was just a point of curiosity until we found that it was the road we needed to use to reach the stables. The ranch where the stables were located was a good distance up the mountain. There were also more than just a stable up there. There were several nice sculptures scattered about the grounds, along with accommodations for group gatherings and lots of interesting buildings and antiques, etc.
buggy ride anyone?
sculpture
It was a group trail ride (three others besides us) but it was a fun and scenic ride. The young lady that led the group was quite knowledgeable about the area and the ranch. She told us about a cave on the property and that at one point the property was occupied by a man who was hiding from police. He and his family lived there undetected for several years, while the ranch was being fought over by several heirs after the previous owner passed away. He even raised his kids up there! The view from the top was great and a wonderful time was had by all.
Karen (on right) and me
I finally left Southern California two days after Thanksgiving, planning to drive as far south as possible without adding too many miles to the journey, hopefully avoiding the worst of the winter weather. Hah!
Things started out fine. A little on the cool side, but nothing major. I chose interstate 40 to cross California into Arizona. On my second day of travel, I left the interstate in order to drive a section of route 66. It turned out to be rather slow going as parts of the route are poorly maintained and only driven by people like me who grew up knowing the county before there were many interstate highways.
The road was cracked, bumpy and really only barely there. A lot of the bridges appeared dicey at best and were not rated for a lot of weight. The posted limits indicated that I could cross safely, but the appearance of some of the bridges said otherwise. Still, no mishaps and all was well.
I took a short detour to visit the Amboy Crater. This is an ancient volcano that hasn’t been active in a really long time (about 10,000 years). But the signs of its past activity are all over the desert floor. Old lava flows are visible for miles and miles. The volcanic rock is more common than sand in this area. The crater itself isn’t hard to reach, just a walk across the desert floor on a semi-marked trail of about a mile and you’re there. At the base anyway. The climb to the top is a little more difficult. It’s very steep and the trail is littered with loose rock that rolls easily under your feet. Going up isn’t too bad, coming down (particularly with a dog that likes to pull at his leash) is somewhat more hazardous. I lost a little skin on the palm of one hand before deciding that the dog didn’t really need to be on a leash right then. At least not until I was off the steepest areas!
inside the crater
Amboy Crater
The easiest access to the top of the volcano is on the backside (as seen from the parking area.) An explosion created a breach on that side of the cone. So the 250 foot tall cone is reduced to a mere 80 foot climb–pretty much straight up. Once at the top, there are trails leading all around the edge, as well as one leading inside. The crater itself is 1500 feet across and consists of coaxially nestled cinder cones formed during four different periods of volcanic activity.
crater breach
Once inside the crater, the bottom is flat and a bunch of people have placed rocks spelling out their names or initials. So much for “leave no trace”, but at least they used natural materials, just rearranged the rocks that were already there. A sign in the parking area suggested that it would be wise to only try climbing up to the crater in the fall and winter. Summers being rather brutal in this area. So my visit was perfectly timed. Well, almost perfect. Spring, when the wildflowers are in bloom, would have been more beautiful, but I wasn’t planning to wait around until then.
desert floor, volcanic rock
desert plant
It was a lovely and peaceful hike and a very interesting site.
After I left Amboy, I continued on to Arizona and spent the night somewhere outside of Kingman. I had planned to finish crossing Arizona the next day, but I got side-tracked by a meteor crater somewhere east of Flagstaff. It was interesting, but kind of pricey for looking at a really big hole in the ground. This section of Arizona is at a pretty high elevation, so it was wickedly cold with a biting wind. Thus, even after spending the money, I didn’t feel like standing on the rim for very long.
meteor crater, light spot is mine shaft
The crater was formed about 50,000 years ago when an iron-nickel meteorite, estimated to be 150 feet across, slammed into the earth with an explosive force greater than 20 million tons of dynamite. It left a bowl-shaped cavity 700 feet deep and 4000 feet across. Put in relative terms, twenty football games could be played on its floor at the same time, while two million spectators watched from the sides of the bowl. If the Washington monument were placed on the crater’s current floor, the top would be at eye level. So, big and deep.
crater with person for scale
When the crater was first written about, it was assumed that it was of volcanic origin. Not until 1902, when a mining engineer named Daniel Barringer became interested in it, was the hole finally attributed to a meteor impact. Mr. Barringer was convinced that the meteorite was iron and that it was buried beneath the crater floor. He formed the Standard Iron Company and placed mining claims with the federal government. This gave him ownership of the crater. What he didn’t know was that the meteorite had disintegrated on impact. There was no large mass of iron to be recovered.
old mine shaft in bottom
So, after more than 26 years of digging, drilling and exploration, there was no money left for further exploration and very little iron had been recovered. He later leased the land to a cattle ranch that formed a separate corporation to utilize the site for tourism and scientific exploration. NASA has even used it to train astronauts, particularly those who would be collecting samples on the moon from similar craters there!
It was actually a rather interesting place with viewing platforms, a theater showing films related to the crater and educational areas, as well as the obligatory gift shop. If it hadn’t been so late and cold I might have spent a little longer looking at the exhibits. But I was hoping to drop to a lower elevation for the night and find somewhat warmer temperatures (yeah, right.) I did get as far as Winslow, Arizona where I looked for the “Standing on the Corner” statue (a tribute to an Eagles song that talks about doing just that), but didn’t find it. Of course, it was getting dark by then. The good news is that I found it the next morning before I left town. The bad news is that there was no place close by where I could park so that I could take a picture. Oh well, at least I saw it.
I continued east and the day became quite windy. Which frequently means a change in the weather. That afternoon I got a call from my sister who told me that there was a mean cold front heading my way that was forecast to go all the way south to Dallas. And that’s exactly what it did. And why there is an earlier post about being trapped in the ice in Texas.
Now it’s January, and I’m on the Alabama/Georgia border in a Corps of Engineers campground called Cotton Hill on the shore of a large lake that would be pretty if it weren’t so darn cold! It rained the first two days of my stay. The sun came out on the third day, but it barely got above 40 with an icy wind. Tomorrow is supposed to be better and Sunday is scheduled to be in the low 60’s. I was supposed to stay until Tuesday, but the forecast for Monday night is a low in the low teens. I’ll be leaving Monday morning is the hope of finding somewhere with warmer temperatures to spend the night…..
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