Route 66 to Amboy Crater
Dec. 24th, 2022 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalker5 Days in the Desert travelog #4
Amboy, CA - Sat, 24 Dec 2022, 11am
This morning we got out for our first hike of our 5 Days in the Desert trip. After breakfast at Del Taco #3 we headed east on I-15 to the I-40 split. Barstow is actually where Interstate 40 starts— or ends, depending on your perspective. The other end is at the Atlantic Ocean, in Wilmington, NC. Yes, I've been to that end of it, too. I haven't (yet) been to all the parts in the middle, though. It's over 2,500 miles!
East of Barstow I-40 follows the route of legendary Route 66. 66 often runs parallel to the newer interstate highway; in places there's as little as 100 feet separating them. At the town of Ludlow— town is really a generous term, as it's really just an exit with two gas stations and a rundown diner from the road's 1950s heyday that may not even be open anymore— Route 66 forks off to the southeast. We exited in Ludlow and followed Route 66.
Here Route 66 is a single ribbon of blacktop, faded almost to beige from decades of relentless sun, arcing across the desert. Once Route 66 departs I-40 there is nothing around for miles. ...Not that there's much around that stretch of I-40, either! Even towns the size of Ludlow are 50 miles apart. Fortunately it's only another 26 miles to Amboy Crater.
So, what is Amboy Crater? It's a volcanic crater about 250 feet high and 1,500 feet across. It's one of the youngest volcanic fields in the US. Its most recent eruption was about 10,000 years ago.
From a distance it doesn't look like much. Fortunately we're not going to stay at this distance. (The cone's about 1 mile away.) We're going to hike right up to it.
Keep reading: Hiking the rim at Amboy Crater
Amboy, CA - Sat, 24 Dec 2022, 11am
This morning we got out for our first hike of our 5 Days in the Desert trip. After breakfast at Del Taco #3 we headed east on I-15 to the I-40 split. Barstow is actually where Interstate 40 starts— or ends, depending on your perspective. The other end is at the Atlantic Ocean, in Wilmington, NC. Yes, I've been to that end of it, too. I haven't (yet) been to all the parts in the middle, though. It's over 2,500 miles!
East of Barstow I-40 follows the route of legendary Route 66. 66 often runs parallel to the newer interstate highway; in places there's as little as 100 feet separating them. At the town of Ludlow— town is really a generous term, as it's really just an exit with two gas stations and a rundown diner from the road's 1950s heyday that may not even be open anymore— Route 66 forks off to the southeast. We exited in Ludlow and followed Route 66.
Here Route 66 is a single ribbon of blacktop, faded almost to beige from decades of relentless sun, arcing across the desert. Once Route 66 departs I-40 there is nothing around for miles. ...Not that there's much around that stretch of I-40, either! Even towns the size of Ludlow are 50 miles apart. Fortunately it's only another 26 miles to Amboy Crater.
So, what is Amboy Crater? It's a volcanic crater about 250 feet high and 1,500 feet across. It's one of the youngest volcanic fields in the US. Its most recent eruption was about 10,000 years ago.
From a distance it doesn't look like much. Fortunately we're not going to stay at this distance. (The cone's about 1 mile away.) We're going to hike right up to it.
Keep reading: Hiking the rim at Amboy Crater
