Posts Tagged With: Verde River

The Verde Canyon Railroad crossing a trestle along the 20 mile trip our to Perksinville

Prescott, AZ. February 13

Mingus Mountain Road is a designated scenic highway and today’s journey took us on the road for times two and three on this trip. The road goes through canyons and wooded hillsides of the Prescott National Forest on a twisty road with switchbacks and ends up in Jerome. Views are of the San Francisco Peaks, Mogollan Rim, and red sandstone cliffs. We were on our way to Clarkdale, AZ, home to the Verde Canyon Railroad.

Riding the rails was our primary activity for the day. The Verde Canyon railroad takes us from Clarsdale, home to a major cement producing factory, through the Verde River valley, to Perkinsville ghost ranch. The rail line transports finished cement and raw materials to the main BNSF line in the morning and transports people on excursion journeys in the afternoon. The rail line was completed in 1895 as a spur line to transport copper from the smelters to the outside world. The line was built by all manual labor in one year; the area was too remote to have mechanical equipment shipped in.

One of the first sites we see as the train leaves the station is the 40 acre, 40 foot deep pile of slag left over from 40 years of copper smelting. Slag is the molten byproduct of applying heat to the copper ore dug out of the mines in Jerome to extract the base mineral. The slag is poured out of pipes and the resulting piles, while looking like sand, are solid rock. In contrast, tailings are the unused rock and water used in mining the copper ore from the ground.

Once we leave the slag piles behind, though, the view is of plains, mountains, the Verde River, and the protected areas of two national forests and a wilderness area. Train trestles cross creeks and gullies that while dry today, must handle the flow from periodic flash floods. Train passengers must keep hands and heads inside since rock walls are just inches away. The coach cars are your base seating but each coach car has an open air car where passengers can sit or stand without windows or walls blocking the view. The winter’s leafless trees provide a view of the river not possible in other seasons. All the while, various colored cliffs and mountains loom in the background, providing a color contrast not presented by green leaves. Looking up, periodic cliff dwellings of the Sinagua peoples can be seen along the 20 miles of railroad track. All in all, it is a three and one-half to four hour journey.

Since this excursion was about scenery and not a history of Jerome or Clarkdale or mining or even the railroad, the rest of the blog will focus on what we saw. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip.

One of the views coming over Mingus Mountain

Jerome AZ, former mining boom town, now home to 444 souls.

Starting the journey

Our locomotives

The Verde River

Sinagua cliff dwelling

Joyce and Chris on the Verde Canyon Railroad

Riding close to the rock walls

During the journey

Along the journey

River, trees, rocks

Chris and Ed. Feb. 14