This morning we hung around the hotel catching up on some computer-aided activities before leaving for Meteor Crater. The crater is only a few miles west of Winslow, so it didn’t take long to get there. The Visitors’ Center is a few miles off the highway and runs through a cattle range. We had to stop a couple of times for cows to decide which side of the road they wanted to munch on.

There is a very good museum that explains meteors and what happens when they crash into the earth. The main attraction, of course, is the hole one 160 ft. dia. meteor created. The hole is enormous.

From the crater we headed east to Holbrook, where we had lunch and made final plans to visit our friends in Silver City, NM. Our route to Silver City took us down the east side of Arizona on the Devil’s Highway. The highway got it’s name for the former designation of AZ Route 666. It’s now US-191.

Again we dealt with the totally unexpected cool temperatures and rain. It was raining in Alpine, AZ when we started south on the DH. Twenty miles later the sun came out and the temperatures. moderated.

The highway is about 70 miles long and has one curve after another the entire way. Vehicles over 40 ft. in length are prohibited from using the southern 50 miles. We stopped at the turn-around for long vehicles.

I haven’t been to the Tail of the Dragon, yet, but I’ll bet it pales in comparison to this highway. There is very little time to see the surroundings. The process of riding this road is this: Read the curve, Select the gear, Slow, Look, Lean, and Roll. Repeat hundreds of times.

At the southern end of the highway are the towns of Morenci and Clifton. In between the two towns are copper mines. We passed one that made Meteor Crater look like a toe print. Click on the following picture to see the panoramic view of one of the mines.

At one point near the mine Beth came over the crest of a hill and into a huge mud puddle. She and the bike got caked. I was able to slow a bit, but still took on quite a bit.

We decided to book a hotel room in Safford, AZ, and arrived shortly after dark. The first thing we did before checking into the hotel was find a car wash and get rid of most of the mud.

Tomorrow we head for Silver City.