Amboy Crater is a dormant cinder cone volcano in the 27 square mile lava field of the eastern Mojave Desert of southern California…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
In 1973 the volcano was designated the Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The cinder cone consists of layers of vesicular pahoehoe ejected during the Pleistocene geological period…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Looking to the north is the famous Route 66 and the town of Amboy. Generations of U.S. Route 66 travelers from the 1920s through the 1960s could boast that they had climbed a real volcano!
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The volcano is estimated to be 79,000 years old, and last erupted 10,000 years ago…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Amboy is about 75 miles equidistant from Barstow to the west and Needles to the east…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The crater is 944 ft above sea level, about 250 ft above the surrounding basalt lava plains…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
The interior of the crater was a flowing lava lake…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Temperatures in Amboy can reach above 110 degrees in the summer…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Thousands of people visit Amboy and the Crater each year, avoiding rattlesnakes and old military explosives to hike to the interior!
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
Overlooking the crater interior lava lake which flowed west toward the Bullion Mountains…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler
From the top of the Crater we look Northeast over the basalt lava field toward the Bristol Mountains and town of Amboy with Route 66 and the Santa Fe Railroad off in the distance…
Film Photograph by Adam Chrysler