Riding the rails in Arizona...saying adios to Sedona

Monday, 29 October. Well, we’re down to our last night in the Verde Valley and getting ready to move on tomorrow morning, headed for Santa Fe with an overnight stopover in Gallup, New Mexico.  To say we’ve REALLY enjoyed our stay here in Verde Valley and the Sedona area would be a huge understatement -- this is beautiful country.  The Verde River is the lifeline of this entire area and runs for almost 200 miles through southwestern desert landscape and three national forests until it joins the Salt River and their waters enter the Gila River at Phoenix.  The Verde provides much of the green landscape for this area and when mixed in with the desert landscape provides an enchanting charm to the whole region. 

Verde River Canyon

For one last tourist venture, we opted to drive over to nearby Clarkdale, an old copper mining town where we could catch the VerdeCanyon Railroad (VCRR) Wilderness Train. This 4-hour excursion train rides thru the Verde River Canyon offers some spectacular, rather remarkable close-up vistas not only of the canyon and river, but also the beautiful red rock formations that abound throughout this area.  The train passes towering red rock butte cliffs, ancient Indian ruins, several trestles, and through a 700-ft manmade tunnel. All I can say is, “Wow!”  This was one great Sunday afternoon spent with nature in the luxury of a comfortable, cushy train.  We opted to upgrade to First Class and did not regret it.  In addition to much more comfortable seating, we were treated to free finger-food and a selection of some great margaritas. I tried their Prickly Pear version – made with prickly pear juice – and was not disappointed.  Quite delicious, to tell the truth. Lynette had the Verde Canyon margarita, a VCRR specialty, and said it was equally tasty. 

The VCRR also came equipped for us snap-happy photographers and offered several flatcars intermixed with passenger cars and were equipped with side rails and canopies – making for a very unique, very nice open-air, 360-degree viewing car.  I think I caught a couple of these viewing cars in some of the pics that will accompany this blog entry.  Needless-to-say, I went crazy with the photography.  Far too many pics, but every bend on the train ride offered another spectacular photo op.  I had to be careful since on numerous occasions the train came precariously close to the side of a red rock cliff.  I think I could have stretched my arm out and actually touched the cliff on several close encounters.  Like I said, one great train ride with wonderful scenery.  When I needed a lift, I simply went back to our First Class seating and sipped on my margarita or sought out the attendant and ordered another – which she promptly brought out to me on the viewing car.  Quite the service – kudos to the VCRR folks. 

So, without further ado, here is a tiny fraction of the dozens of photos I took over the 4-hour journey thru Verde Canyon.  Hope they do justice to this beautiful country.

The train rounding a bend in Verde Canyon

 A glimpse of one of the open-air viewing cars

On our way back to the station depot

Photo quiz for my grandson, Ben, and granddaughter, Rayne:  The train conductor said this red rock formation had one special rock they called "Turtle Rock."  Can you spot it? 

Lynette, enjoying the open-air viewing car

The four hours passed far too quickly and we were soon back at the historic train depot in Clarkdale.  On the drive back to our campground, we decided to check out the nearby mountain ghost town of Jerome.  It was quite a curving, twisty climb up AZ Hiway 89A to the old ghost  town that sits at 5,200-ft atop Cleopatra Hill.  It was too late in the afternoon to do much sightseeing or shopping, but Jerome appears it might offer an interesting afternoon on a future visit. Once a thriving copper mining town of 15,000 inhabitants, today Jerome has 444 permanent residents and a thriving artist colony, several B&B’s and unique shops, a spectacular-looking historic hotel, and numerous restaurants/bars, including one named Belgium Jennie’s Bordello (it's a pizza joint...go figure).  Like I said, we might come back to this interesting little town during a future visit to this wonderful country.  Viva Sedona!