About 40 years ago, back when I was in 6th grade, my friend and I went off to summer camp at Camp Arcade in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. At one point, the camp was divided into two groups for an overnight hike. My group went to a lake, and the other went to a nearby hill or rock formation that I think was called Devil's Head or something like that because it sort of resembled a demonic face. Anyway, in late afternoon, we spotted a white streak moving across the sky in our general direction. To our surprise, it seemed to explode over Devil's Head with a loud boom and formed a huge "halo" of smoke that lasted for quite some time. Needless to say, it was a pretty strange experience. I remember someone suggesting that it was a rocket test, but it seems odd that would happen as far inland as we were. I thought it was some giant firework set off by the other group, but my friend assured me that they didn't know anything about that.

I was reminded of this recently, and it got me to wondering what exactly I saw that day. Are meteors or comets known to create that kind of large ring?