Visiting Meteor Crater: Arizona's Giant Impact Site Near Winslow

Driving east on Interstate 40 past Flagstaff, the landscape flattens out into wide open grassland and juniper scrub. It does not look like the kind of place where something dramatic happened. Then you turn off at Exit 233, follow a quiet road south for a few miles, and walk out onto a deck overlooking a hole in the ground so big that your brain has trouble making sense of it. That is Meteor Crater, and it is one of the strangest and most impressive stops in all of Arizona.

About 50,000 years ago, a chunk of nickel-iron roughly 150 feet across slammed into this spot at tens of thousands of miles per hour. The blast carved out a bowl about a mile wide and more than 550 feet deep, and it is still one of the best-preserved impact craters on Earth. In this guide I cover the science and history, what is included with admission, the tour options, practical tips for planning your visit, and how to fit the crater into a bigger Northern Arizona road trip.

What Exactly Is Meteor Crater?

Meteor Crater, also called Barringer Crater, sits on the Colorado Plateau between Flagstaff and Winslow. It is privately owned and operated as a visitor attraction, which is why you need a paid ticket and why national park passes do not apply here. The site includes the crater itself, several outdoor lookout points along the north rim, and a large visitor center with a museum and theaters.

The numbers are hard to picture until you stand there. The crater is roughly 3,900 feet across, more than 550 feet deep and about 2.5 miles around the rim. Twenty football fields could fit on the floor, and the rim rises well above the surrounding plain because the impact pushed and flipped the rock layers upward.

How the Crater Formed

The object that made the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite traveling fast enough to release energy many times greater than an atomic bomb. When it hit, most of it vaporized or shattered. The shock wave blasted out millions of tons of limestone and sandstone and flung debris across the surrounding landscape. Rock layers around the rim were folded back on themselves, so in some spots older rock now sits on top of younger rock.

Fragments of the meteorite, known as Canyon Diablo meteorites, were scattered across the plain. The largest piece found at the crater, the Holsinger Meteorite, weighs 1,406 pounds and sits inside the visitor center, where you are allowed to touch it. Putting your hand on a piece of space rock that slammed into Arizona long before people lived here is one of those little moments that sticks with you.

A Long Argument Over Its Origin

For years, many scientists thought the crater was volcanic. That made sense, since the San Francisco volcanic field around Flagstaff is not far away. In the early 1900s, a mining engineer named Daniel Moreau Barringer became convinced that the crater was made by an impact, and that a huge mass of valuable iron must be buried beneath the floor. He spent decades and a fortune drilling for it.

Barringer never found the giant iron body he was looking for, because most of the meteorite had vaporized on impact. But he was right about the cause. Later research, including the discovery of high-pressure forms of silica in the 1960s by scientists including Eugene Shoemaker, confirmed that the crater formed from an impact. That work helped launch the whole field of impact science, and it still shapes how we study craters on the Moon and other planets. The Barringer family still owns the crater today.

The Apollo Connection

Because Meteor Crater looks so much like the lunar surface, NASA used it to train Apollo astronauts in the 1960s. Crews practiced geology fieldwork, sample collection and moving around in rough terrain here before heading to the Moon. The visitor center displays space artifacts and an Apollo capsule, and the guides love sharing stories about astronaut training on the crater floor.

What Is Included With Admission

General admission covers quite a bit. According to the official ticket page (https://meteorcrater.com/info/general-admission/), your ticket includes:

• The Discovery Center and Space Museum, with hands-on exhibits about meteorites, asteroids and impact science

• The COLLISION! 4D Theater experience

• The IMPACT! Theater, with a short film about how the crater formed

• Four outdoor lookout points along the rim with railed viewing platforms

• Guided rim tours, an easy 30 to 40 minute walk along part of the rim with an expert guide

There is also a kids area called The Blast Zone, a gift and mineral shop and a coffee house with drinks and grab and go food.

Current prices listed on the official site are $29 for adults ages 13 to 59, $25 for juniors ages 6 to 12, $27 for seniors 60 and older, $25 for veterans and non-active duty military, and free for kids 5 and under and for active duty U.S. military. Tickets bought online are good on any date, never expire and are non-refundable. Prices can change, so check the ticket page before you go.

Hours

Meteor Crater is open daily from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. On Thanksgiving Day it closes at noon, and it is closed on Christmas Day. The official visitor info page (https://meteorcrater.com/info/) has the latest hours and phone number. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, so if you are driving in from out of state, double-check the time difference before you plan your arrival.

Tour Options Beyond the Basic Visit

Guided rim tour (included). If you only do one thing, join a guided rim tour. The guides explain how the south wall was uplifted, how rock layers were lifted more than 250 feet above their original level, and why this crater matters to science. Details are on the guided tour page: https://meteorcrater.com/attraction/guided-rim-tours/

Full Rim Hike. For more adventure, the Full Rim Hike circles the entire crater. It is about 2.5 miles and takes roughly three hours, with stops at viewpoints, historic sites and astronaut training areas most visitors never see. It runs Saturdays at 9:00 AM, costs $55 per person including admission, and requires advance registration. It is best for experienced hikers with good boots. Sign up here: https://meteorcrater.com/event/full-rim-hike/

Crater Floor Tour. The crater also offers a guided VIP hike down roughly 550 feet to the floor, where you can see an old mine shaft, a steam boiler and an astronaut marker. It is strenuous, costs $125 including admission and normally runs Saturday mornings. As of this writing, though, floor tours are temporarily paused while the astronaut trail is restored, so check the floor tour page before you plan around it: https://meteorcrater.com/event/vip-floor-tours/

Outside of these guided options, you cannot hike into the crater or wander the rim on your own. Access is controlled to protect the site and keep visitors safe.

Visiting With Kids

Meteor Crater is a great family stop, especially for kids who are into space or rocks. The Blast Zone gives younger kids a hands-on area to burn off energy, the 4D theater is a hit with most ages, and touching a real meteorite tends to impress even bored teenagers. Kids 5 and under get in free. Before you go, it helps to talk about the difference between a meteor, a meteorite and an asteroid, so they can spot the answers in the exhibits. Hold small hands near the rim viewpoints, even with the railings, and plan snack and bathroom breaks around the visitor center, since there are no facilities out on the rim tour. A small notebook for sketching the crater is a fun way to keep them engaged.

Best Time to Visit

Fall and spring are ideal. Meteor Crater sits more than a mile above sea level, so it is far cooler than Phoenix in summer, but the high desert sun is intense and there is very little shade on the rim. Summer mornings are comfortable, while afternoons get hot and stormy during monsoon season.

Winter can be beautiful and quiet, but it is often cold and very windy. The wind is the thing most people underestimate. With nothing around to block it, gusts sweep across the plain and over the lookout decks. Bring a jacket even if the forecast looks mild.

Morning and late afternoon also give the best light for photos, with long shadows that show off the shape of the crater walls.

Tips for Your Visit

• Plan on one to three hours. One hour covers the lookouts and a quick museum walk. Two to three hours lets you add a rim tour and the films.

• Wear good walking shoes. The paths are railed and the main lookouts are accessible, but you will still be on your feet a lot.

• Bring water, sunscreen and a hat. The rim is fully exposed.

• Bring binoculars. Spotting the astronaut marker and old mining equipment on the crater floor is half the fun.

• Buy tickets online to speed up check in. Since online tickets never expire, there is no risk if your road trip plans shift.

• Use a wide-angle lens or your phone's panorama mode. The crater is too big to fit in a normal photo.

• Stop for coffee. The on-site coffee house is a nice break after time out in the wind.

Getting There

Meteor Crater is at Exit 233 on Interstate 40, about 45 minutes east of Flagstaff and about 20 minutes west of Winslow. From the exit, a paved road leads about six miles south to the visitor center. From Phoenix, plan on roughly three hours of driving via Interstate 17 and Interstate 40. Gas and food are available at the exit and in Winslow.

Build a Northern Arizona Road Trip Around It

Meteor Crater fits perfectly into a bigger loop through Northern Arizona. Head east about an hour and a half on I-40 to Petrified Forest National Park, where fossilized logs sit among the colorful badlands of the Painted Desert. I wrote a full guide here: https://www.greenthumbhobbies.com/post/petrified-forest-national-park

Heading west, Walnut Canyon National Monument sits just outside Flagstaff, with cliff dwellings tucked into limestone ledges: https://www.greenthumbhobbies.com/post/walnut-canyon

Farther south, Montezuma Castle near Camp Verde is an easy stop on the way back to Phoenix: https://www.greenthumbhobbies.com/post/montezuma-castle

In Winslow, you can also stop at the famous Standing on the Corner park on old Route 66 and grab lunch before heading home.

Is Meteor Crater Worth It?

Admission is not cheap, and if you are only stopping for a photo it may feel steep. But if you give yourself time to watch the film, join a rim tour and really take in the view, it is worth every dollar. There are very few places on Earth where you can stand on the edge of a near-perfect impact crater and understand exactly what happened there. For families, science lovers and anyone driving across Northern Arizona, it is a stop you will remember long after the road trip ends.