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Rather than show pictures of todays landmarks (which you can find aplenty on Tave’s blog, and in my Flickr Stream when I get a fresh quota in a week or so), I thought it would be nice to show this picture of Octavia looking out towards the San Francisco Mountains through a “window” over the entrance to the Crater.

Regarding the crater itself, I was surprised to find how many connections it had with the US Space Programme — a childhood obsession of mine. As Earth’s best preserved impact crater, it was used to train moon astronauts how to move around and collect samples in a crater as well as testing for the spacesuits that were eventually used in the famous moon-landing. It is also being used to help develop an eventual human expedition to Mars, which I hope will begin to reinvigourate the hey-days of the space program since Bush’s 2004 Renewed Spirit of Exploration announcement, hopefully leading to enough government funding to fulfill NASA’s plans.

The history of the site is fascinating, and despite my sadness at the desecration of this Native American holy ground by Daniel Barringer (who’s family still own the crater), was brought to life by our animated Navajo tour guide, Gregory Long.