For perspective, toward the bottom of the image, those are people on the trail. The crater is 600 feet deep and descends down a trail that’s certainly less than a half-mile long, so it's a fairly steep grade (more than 20%). Clare & I went to the bottom with two others in our group. The rest of the group walked the circumference of the rim. We had more fun. :)
“Ubehebe Crater is a large volcanic crater 600 feet deep and half a mile across. … To the Timbisha Shoshone Indians, the crater has been known as ‘Tem-pin-tta- Wo’sah’, meaning Coyote’s Basket. Although applying this translation to the word Ubehebe has produced a great deal of confusion, but comparing the crater to a basket is appropriate.
“How did these craters originate? They are known as maar volcanoes, created by steam and gas explosions when hot magma rising up from the depths reached ground water. The intense heat flashed the water into steam which expanded until the pressure was released as a tremendous explosion. The western cluster of Maar volcanoes was the first to form, then the southern cluster, followed by Ubehebe—the largest of them all—possibly as recently as 300 years ago.”
Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
![Sigh. [Travel-day]](https://media.365project.org/1/9428160_bfilmqru48_sq.jpg "Sigh. [Travel-day]")
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