Day 3 - Meteor Crater and Drive to Sedona AZ

The next morning we got up and after a quick continental breakfast loaded into the van and headed toward Meteor Crater. When we settled for the drive I asked my fellow tour members if I'd seemed snippish toward Travis Walton the night before and they said no, that I seemed just genuinely curious and didn't see where Walton would have taken my question offensively. Ah well. I let the matter drop.

At Meteor Crater I was again introduced to a vastness of the desert that took my breath away. What was funny, too, was the fact that one of the reasons why my wife didn't come on this trip was because she said, "There is nothing out there except dirt and a big hole in the ground." Although she was talking about the Grand Canyon her words were not lost on me as we saw Meteor Crater for the first time. The museum at the crater was pretty impressive but, only Van, Tony, and I took the tour around part of the rim. The tour was interesting and we got some pretty good, scenic shots. While on the rim tour Tony walked with me and asked me about what had happened with Travis the night before (he'd heard me comment about it in the van.) I explained that I think Walton mis-interpreted my question and took a bit of offense to it. I told Tony that I just chalked it up to a conflict in personalities and little more.

The remains of the only cabin on the rim of the crater. The cabin was used for a variety of purposes until it was burned down by some workers. The high-velocity winds of the area did the rest. (Curtesy TST.)

Click here for my online album of Meteor Crater and Sedona.

Again there was little UFO connection with Meteor Crater but it was an astronomical event and a very good stop. Once back in the car we were heading to Sedona and I must say everything you've heard about the natural beauty and majesty of the place is 100% true. It took my breath away just driving there through Oak Creek Canyon, and once we arrived at Sedona and saw the Painted Desert I was in love. The Southwest Mecca of New Age'y'ness Sedona also has a blend of old Western American style that I think my wife and kids would have enjoyed. To me the scenery was better than any beach I'd been to.

After we arrived and settled in our hotel we had a little bit of time before diner. Tony drove us back to the shopping strip of Sedona for a little time there and while walking among the quaint little shops and touring businesses a small rain shower rolled in. It rained a good 10 minutes but when it was done the residents and tourists of Sedona were treated to a majestic double rainbow the likes of which I have never seen in my life. It arched over one side of the valley, a full rainbow so striking even I, with my mild color blindness, could clearly see the colorful bands. The scene literally brought tears to my eyes but then, I realized, they probably do this type of thing for all the tourists. I figure the rainbow is actually created by some illusionary device that they turn on once in a while just to impress people! (I'm being sarcastic, of course.)

The double rainbow over Sedona. I'm typically not very spiritual or religious, but this was something stunning to see and experience.

That night we had a small sky watch. It was a bit of a bummer for my first watch in Sedona because it was really cold outside. Myself, Van, Bonnie, and Linda were joined by two other people, a young man and woman who Tony had arranged to guide us through the skywatching process. Tony, himself, had to drive into Sedona for some batteries for two pair of night vision goggles he'd brought. According to our sky-watch guides (Jeff was the guy, I believe, but I never caught the name of the girl), aside from looking for actual flying saucers you want to look for high-altitude objects moving across the sky. Many of these objects were probably satellites but satellites move the same path and direction every time (east - to - west like the sun, I believe) and they do not turn, so with this criteria in mind we kept an eye out for objects moving in different directions or objects that turned. 

We actually saw some objects that fit these standards. We saw high-altitude lights that would bank or sway. Objects that blinked out of existence and such. It was interesting but, for me, it was still just lights in the sky. I wanted to see a physical craft and that wasn't in the stars, that night. Off to bed and a full day in Sedona tomorrow.

Side-note: I was researching the claim that all satellites travel in the same direction across the night sky and this claim is false. Only geosynchronous satellites travel east-to-west. Depending on their mission parameters, satellites can and often do travel in various directions, including pole-to-pole. The reason why I thoroughly looked into this question was because I was sitting on my back patio last night around 10:15 pm and observed a very bright-but distant light traveling directly over my zenith in a path from south-west to north-east. The light was extremely bright but not flashing as the lights from an aircraft would. After researching satellite flight paths I realized what I was observing was, indeed, probably just a satellite.