Today's theme: Big holes in the ground

I continued west on I-40 today crossing into Arizona this morning after driving through some storms over the continental divide. Thunderstorms with lots of lightning at 8am seem strange to me. You can watch storms develop way off in the distance out here and they become as much a part of the scenery as the landscape itself. It usually doesn't take long to drive through them and the lightning is impressive.
The first hole in the ground today was the Meteor Crater near Winslow. I skipped the guided tour but did hit the observation viewpoints. It's a big hole :) Some interesting stuff in the museum too but pretty much an in and out stop. Oh, one thing to mention though, the altitude. I'm not sure where I picked it all up, I know I was around 4k ft at White Sands and last night I thought the car wasn't running right and I checked and I was still well over 6k ft. Today going up and down all the stairs at the Meteor Crater at around 7k ft had me wiped out quickly. It'll be so nice to get into Death Valley with some nice, dense, atmosphere :)
From the crater I hopped back on 40 west for Flagstaff and then 64 north to the second big hole for the day, the Grand Canyon. I knew it would be packed since it's Memorial Day weekend but the drive into the park was ridiculous. I was almost ready to turn around and have a nice day off at the hotel but I kept heading east and the crowds thinned once I got away from Mather Point. The rest of the viewpoints were busy but there was still lots of parking and when I hiked way out to the edge there were very few people. You've got to get close to the edge at the Grand Canyon, if you stay up by the parking lot and fence you're missing out. Besides, it's always fun to go climb over rocks :)
I headed all the way to the east entrance and got gas because I was getting pretty close to empty and then hit all the viewpoints on the way back. I spent quite awhile at The Grand Viewpoint, just hanging out with my legs dangling over the edge. I had a hotel booked in Flagstaff 90 minutes away so around 5pm I headed out.
Flagstaff seems pretty nice but
tomorrow I'll be rolling out north for the next stops, this will be as far west as I get for awhile as I'll be heading back east and up and around Utah's Canyonlands. I think I've got about a week left on the road now and still a bunch of stuff to see.

Grand Canyon pictures