Description
This Cinder cone crater is estimated to be around 6,000 years old and was formed in layers of mostly vesicular pahoehoe - possibly in the Holocene geological period. The interior has a lava lake. Lava flows as old as Amboy Crater itself blanket the surrounding area. According to the BLM interpretive sign the last eruption could have been as recently as 500 years ago.
The crater is 944 ft (288 m) above sea level, about 250 ft (76 m) above the surrounding basalt lava plains. The scenic and solitary Amboy Crater was a popular sight and stop for travelers on U.S. Route 66 in California before the opening of Interstate 40 in 1973. Other than a stretch of U.S. Route 66 in New Mexico, Amboy Crater was one of few extinct volcanoes along the entire route, so generations of U.S. Route 66 travelers from the 1920s through the 1960s could boast that they had climbed a real volcano. Visits decreased after I-40 opened, but have increased in recent years with the nearby Mitchell Caverns, Mojave National Preserve, and renewed historical tourism interest in "old Route 66."
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