Meteor Crater is the Arizona impact site located near the historic Route 66 corridor east of Flagstaff.
The crater formed about 50,000 years ago when an iron-rich asteroid struck the Colorado Plateau. It is approximately 1.2 kilometers wide and about 170 meters deep, making it one of the best-preserved impact craters on Earth. The crater is also known as Barringer Crater, after mining engineer Daniel Barringer, who argued that it was produced by a meteorite impact.
The site became a major tourist attraction during the automobile age because of its accessibility from highways crossing northern Arizona. It is near Interstate 40 and the historic Route 66 alignment, but the crater itself is not a town or a section of roadway.
Sunset Crater is a different volcanic feature north of Flagstaff. The Painted Desert is a broad colorful landscape farther east, so neither is the impact crater associated with this roadside attraction.