Is it a Meadow?

Apollo Training Ground, Cinder Lake, Coconino National Forest, Flagstaff, Arizona, United States

September 25th, 2026 - 1629 UTC (0929 MST)

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Caption

While hiking thru the Coconino Natonal Forest among the mature Ponderosa Pine you enter a large meadow. Nothing odd about that as they are scattered troughout the area. You continue on hiking throught the volcanic cinders that still lie loosly after being deposited by the Sunset Crater Volcano eruption iin 1064AD, possibly having to detour around odd depressions in the ground before reentering the forest and continueing on.

Your eyes have been deceived by your ground-level view and you have actually just passed through a small but important piece of space exploration history

About 500 craters were blasted in two fields. Field #1 (this location) is better preserved and is now fenced to protect it as both fields are now located in an off-road vehicle play area. Field #2 is to the North and the craters are now badly eroded by OHV (think Dune Buggy) activities.

"Grover" the training rover used here still exists and is on display at the Flagstaff Geological Survey Building. All of the Apollo Astronaughts were trained in locations around Flagstaff; the Grand Canyon, the Barringer Meteor Crater, Lowell Observatory, and Cinder Lake.

More in-depth history and photographs are available at <https://www.fs.usda.gov/r03/coconino/recreation/discover-history/cinder-lakes-apollo-training-area-history>

Location

USA-Canada / USA-Arizona

Lat: 35° 18' 21.05" N
Long: 112° 31' 21.42" W

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Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Equipment

Canon XTi (400D) DSLR, Sigma 8mm f3.5 fisheye lens, Nodal Ninja 3 (NN3) Pano Head, MegaMast 28' Carbon Fiber Mast, Apple 16" MacBook Pro (M5 Pro), PTGui Pro 11.31, Affinity Photo 2, Pano2VR 6.1.14

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Deception

Is it a Meadow?

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