Verde Canyoun Train Trip

The weather has been great so we head north of  Phoenix on I-17 about a 2 hour drive to the town of Clarkdale. This is a small town that is about 15 miles west of Sedona. If anyone has been there, they know that Sedona is known for it's wonderful red rock formations. The Verde River flows  along a lovely canyon with the same kind of red rocks cliff faces that we  are familiar with in Sedona. But the train goes into an area that is not accessible by road. The track was built to bring copper from the nearby town of Jerome to smelters in Clarkdale. When the copper ran out, the railroad was only used to bring cattle from nearby ranches and food supplies to a small town. In the 1990s the train began as a tourist attraction and now they take the 4 hour journey along the canyon on a daily basis.

The first thing we pass as we leave the station is the abandoned copper works and these huge slag heaps. They are 14 feet high and cover 40 acres of hardened rock - remains of the smelting process - you can also see ribbons of copper still left in the slag - not all was extracted from the rock. Iron fencing was used to keep it off the tracks but that has rusted and gives a sorry feel to the desolate area.

Just a mile of travel brings us out into the open areas and the train follows the winding course of the Verde River. It was easier to build a railbed along the canyon hillside. This trestle was named the S.O.B. bridge - "Superintendent of Bridges" (if you believe that)!

We pass by one of the cliff dwellings, on the hillside, of the Puebloan people who lived and farmed here between 1200 and 1400AD and then just disappeared.

 

We enter a tunnel after about 22 miles of travel. It is 680 feet long and curves so that you cannot see the end when you enter the tunnel. It was built in one year with the labour of 200 Swedish railway workers.

The turn around point is at a small siding named Perkinsville - after the family that ranched this area. They are still in business though no one lives here anymore. There are free range cattle that they leave to graze for the season and then load onto the train for market. Once a movie was filmed here - "How the West Was Won". They blew up the wooden water tower for the movie and then that scene ended up on the cutting room floor! There is a siding here and the engines dis-attach and run to the caboose end and hitch up again to drive the train back to Clarksdale. We are treated to ice cream while this is being done.

We spend most of our time in the open cars - the views and the picture taking opportunities are much better here.

The return trip is just as beautiful as we follow the Verde River back to our starting point in Clarksdale. The whole trip has taken 4 hours and a very worthwhile afternoon as we head back on the two hour drive to Phoenix.