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Meteor Crater, Arizona
Meteor Crater is the best-preserved meteorite crater on Earth. It is located off interstate 40 at exit 233, 35 miles east of Flagstaff and 20 miles west of Winslow, Arizona.
Design Approach & Features
Thousands of tourists visit the crater annually, and a landscape was needed to serve them and enhance the entrance. Challenges have included the climate, which is hot and dry in the summer but cold, with severe winds, in the winter. This condition would affect the plant pallet. Another issue was the amount of foot traffic in front of the ticket booth at the visitor center. A new parking lot was added and a steep bank had been excavated from a loose bank outside of the crater rim. The slope continually eroded, preventing landscape plants from becoming established along the slope.
Our design solution entailed constructing walls from Versa-Lok® blocks to retain the steep slope and prevent visitors from entering the area, allowing them to be directed to the entrance. A 4-foot-tall retaining wall was constructed along the parking area. Low-water use plants with small foliage were planted along the top of the wall, and the area was top-dressed with decomposed granite.
Project Scope
Construction began in several phases during January to avoid the large crowd in the high seasons. A second phase was installed the following January. 
It included more Versa-Lok walls and plantings. This area was constructed in a series of terraces inside of the entrance just past the ticket booth to prevent further erosion to the property and create aesthetic appeal for the visitor center entrance.
