Meteor Crater, Arizona with Humphrey's Peak, 40 miles distant in the background.Meteor Crater, Arizona with Humphrey's Peak, 40 miles distant in the background.

This image of Meteor Crater in Arizona is one of my favorites, mostly because of how it happened.  I was flying eastbound over Arizona, returning home from a long project in California.  With Thanksgiving approaching I was anxious to get home, and thinking mostly about hoped for tailwinds, favorable routings, and making time.  Not until passing south of Flagstaff did I remember that Meteor Crater should be somewhere up ahead.  I hadn't planned to see it, and didn't know exactly where it was relative to my course.  While I was scanning the aeronautical chart looking for it, the crater came into view - not only in sight, but ideally situated nearby on the left (pilot's side) of the airplane, and down sun in perfect light.  Without having to move the airplane even a degree from the on course heading, I was able to click away as the crater slid past.  This image is one of the several memorable images from that just-by-chance fly by.  Sometimes you're just lucky, and the image finds you.