Train Ride 4/27/2007

We took our train ride today. It was wonderful. The scenery was beautiful. The weather could not have been better. The ride started in Clarksdale and went to Perkinsville. It's a 40 mile round trip and takes about 4 hours. You can ride in a Pullman type car or an open car as shown below. We rode in the open car on the way out so we could take pictures and in the Pullman type most of the time on the way back. The railroad is called the Verde Canyon Railroad and was originally built to haul copper ore from Clarksdale to Drake 38 miles away. It connected with the Santa Fe Railroad for shipment to other parts of the US. I believe you can click on the pictures to expand them, especially the eagle one. Then you can actually see the eagle. :-)

The cars all have names, we were in the Tucson Pullman type car and the Mesa in the open car. Each Pullman type has an open type with it so you are not too crowded.

This is the first thing you see when you leave the station. It is copper slag. It covers about 40 acres and is about 40 feet deep. It's the result of 40 years of copper mining. The rods and tin roofing were used to keep the slag off the tracks.

This is one of the trestles the train goes over on the trip and one of the many curves.

I know this is not a good picture of an eagle, but he was so accommodating. He flew right by the train and then landed on the pinnacle and posed for us. I don't believe I could have gotten a better picture even if I would have had a stronger telephoto lens. The train was shaking so bad that I am amazed that the pictures turned out as well as they did. On the way back we saw the nest with two eaglets in it. They have named the eagles Black and Decker. They have raised broods here for 10 years.

This is the Verde River. It is the water supply for the whole Verde Valley. This riparian area brings a lot of different types of plants and wildlife that wouldn't be here if there wasn't any water. The main type trees are the cottonwood and the white bark sycamore. The animals are the heron, elk and eagles. They say that a large tree can transpire a 100 gallons of water a day. Of course there are many other types of plants and animals that use this area.

This is the only tunnel on the trip. They brought 25 Swedes over from Sweden to make the tunnel in 1910. They had to blast through solid limestone. It took them six months. The tunnel is 680 feet long and is curved.

This is just one of the many beautiful views on the trip. At one place on the trip you can see the Mogollon Rim which run 300 miles though New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and of course Arizona.

The red rock only out crops for about 25 miles around Sedona.

On the way back the engine goes to the back of the train and pulls us back, with the cars going in the opposite direction from the way we came. Fortunately the seat backs switch so that you are not riding backwards.