Lunar Crater Volcanic Field

A volcanic field in the Pancake Range

Lunar Crater lies in the southern Pancake Range of Nye County, along U.S. 6 between Tonopah and Ely. Travel Nevada describes the crater as volcanic, not the result of a meteor impact. It is a maar, a broad, shallow crater made when explosive eruptions near the ground surface meet groundwater. The same page calls it the largest natural crater in Nevada and gives its depth as 430 feet. It gives no diameter.

The crater sits inside a larger volcanic field. Travel Nevada lists other craters, cinder cones, basalt flows and lava beds. Recreation.gov says visitors can see about 20 other extinct volcanoes nearby.

The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology notes that not every crater here is a maar. Easy Chair Crater, which it places a few kilometers north of Lunar Crater, is a cinder cone. Its rock is basalt, and the bureau calls it a Quaternary volcano, less than 1.8 million years old. The name comes from its shape, with a high back and sloping sides. The bureau says it appears to have formed on the edge of an earlier cinder cone centered farther north. It also says the groundwater at Lunar Crater is too deep for a lake to form.

Landmark status and astronaut training

Travel Nevada says the crater was added to the National Natural Landmark register in 1973 and is one of six in Nevada. Recreation.gov also gives 1973. Travel Nevada adds that the site was classified as a Terrestrial Analogue Site because it resembles the Moon’s surface, and that in the 1970s astronauts trained there, practicing rock sample collection and checklist procedures in full spacesuits. None of the sources fetched for this note ties that training to Easy Chair Crater specifically.

Visiting today

The Bureau of Land Management manages a 24-mile loop called the Lunar Crater Back Country Byway. The agency lists it as a high-clearance route, best in spring or fall, and says vehicles are limited to existing roads and trails. Recreation.gov calls the road bumpy and unpaved, and Travel Nevada says high-clearance vehicles are strongly recommended for the full route. Travel Nevada reports free admission and year-round access.

Sources differ on the turnoff. BLM says it is near mile marker 79 on U.S. 6 east of Tonopah, on the right, with a sign. Travel Nevada gives about 77 miles from Tonopah, and Recreation.gov gives 75 miles. Use the highway signs.

The bureau warns that hiking in the volcano can involve steep, rocky and loose ground, and advises sturdy boots and gloves. Cell phones usually do not work in rural areas away from major highways. Road conditions change. Check with the BLM Battle Mountain District Office, 775-482-7800, before going. Leave rocks and any artifacts where they are.