July 19 – We had planned to visit Glen Canyon Dam, which was a relatively short (50 mile) detour, but were stymied when the only connecting road for miles around turned out to be closed and the detour was 150 miles each way! The primary road follows a fault line and in February giant fissures opened up in the pavement and the road still hasn’t been repaired – see article:
Change of plans… Consulting our handy US Road Atlas we saw that we could shift from a dam day to a crater day with stops at both Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and Meteor Crater.
The former is a cinder cone that erupted 900 years ago covering the surrounding area with lava and ash. It’s part of a volcanic hot spot with many cinder cones, one of which we hiked.
The latter is the best preserved and first identified meteor impact site in the world. It’s run by a private enterprise rather than the park service so admission is somewhat steep. But the exhibits are well done and the intact crater is a rare sight to see. The kids enjoyed a meteor impact computer simulation and we all learned about US efforts to prevent future meteor impacts.
We had dinner in Winslow AZ on historic Route 66 – we had forgotten the Eagles’ lyric about “standing on a corner” but the locals were all too happy to remind us. Well-fed and stocked with groceries, we headed to our campsite at Homolovi Ruins State Park, arriving too late to really see our surroundings.
Day 21: Jacob Lake AZ to Homolovi Ruins State Park AZ (with 2 crater side trips) – 245 miles.
Howes' Doings 
I hope you dined at the old railroad hotel in Winslow. It was excellent when we stopped there.
At the risk of sounding like a MA liberal crank: how did a private company get dibs on the Meteor Crater? Is it all private land or did the state government sell it off to the highest bidder? Grrrr…..
@Cambias – We dined at a Mexican restaurant. But thanks for the recommendation for the next time we visit!
@Thornton – Interesting story: the land was bought by a mining guy back when most people thought it was a volcanic crater. He spent a lot of time and money trying to excavate the large iron meteorite he imagined lay buried underneath (turns out the meteor was vaporized on impact, so he had no luck). Eventually, his kids managed to get scientists interested in researching the crater, and Gene Shoemaker finally proved the impact origins. Based on that work they have since identified others, but Meteor Crater was the first, and has been in private hands since before it was established fact.