Has anyone ever gone to Meteor Crater in AZ? I am going to AZ next month and a friend told me to hop off Route 40 and check it out. Is it worth it or just a bunch of hype? Also how far is it from Sedona?

Perhaps it was just the timing in our 1999 trip, but I was not bowled over by Meteor Crater. But to put my experience in perspective, we'd just toured (over several days) Canyon de Chelly, Monument Valley, the Navajo National Monument, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Slide Rock Park, and Sedona. Meteor Crater is privately-owned. Check out its web site at http://www.meteorcrater.com/

I'll agree. It's nothing special and certainly can't compare to the other sites in Arizona and the rest of the Southwest!

We went to Meteor Canyon 2 months ago on our trip to Sedona and it was only a hit with 1 of our family of 5. The others were bored. It's a huge hole in the ground and the information about the impact it had is interesting and the wind can blow incredibly hard as you look over the side, but that's it. It took us about 1 hr. 45 mins to get there from Sedona.

I have seen the meteor from the air (30,000 ft flying from SD to Chicago) and it is incredible. From the ground, it probably loses much of its perspective.

We loved it. The museum visuals and information are in depth. If you have any interest in geology or earth sciences, you will probably like it too. Tour was also interesting; as is history/pictures of its use by our astronauts in training. If you are a PBS or Discovery addict- take the ride.

If you have young kids they might really be amazed! I think I appreciated seeing it a few years down the road. I loved all the strange attractions and motels out that way. Now when it is made reference to I have a visual.

If you go there with no knowledge of what caused the crater, then I suppose it is just another hole in the ground.
But if you go there with a knowledge of some of the extra terrestial impacts Planet Earth has experienced, I think the Arizona crater takes on a much larger perspective. For example, if the bolide that smashed into the Earth in Arizona had been a little larger in mass, would the impact have caused a mass extinction? What if it have been the equal of the Chicxulab impact?
The collision happened only 50,000 years ago. Mankind had appeared by that time. If one species that had been around for 140 million years was done in by the sequela of the Chiculab impact, could not a similar impact have exterminated us?
As you look at the crater let your imagination play a few games.
What could it have done to life on this planet?

Our family enjoyed it (boys 8 & 10). It is something completely unique. However, I wouldn't make a special trip just to see it. Might combine it with Petrified FOrest/Painted Desert or some of the other attractions closer to Flagstaff

Walnut canyon is also out that way, though not as far from Flagstaff as the meteor crater. The Indian cliff dwellings are very interesting. Our kids enjoyed both Walnut canyon and the Meteor Crater. I was amazed to learn that the geology around my old home town of Des Plaines, IL indicates a meteor hit there years ago.