After having a tour company present at our Park, we were reminded of a bucket list item – riding the Verde Canyon Railroad that runs out of Clarkdale, AZ, (north of Phoenix in the Black Hills on the Colorado Plateau).
After booking our trip, the rainy weather forecast became discouraging, but worked out quite well!
Day 1: Drive and Hike
The day dawned clear and cool – perfect for a drive. Once we reached the Sedona area, we chose to hike the Baldwin Loop Trail (thank-you Jeanne for trail tips). It was a good choice and the weather was sunny, calm with temps in the 50s F/mid teens C.
Hard to pick just one image to tell the Baldwin Loop story!
Day 2: History All Day
After wind and rain overnight, the day cleared off and warmed up nicely. From the patio of our rural AirBnB, we looked out over the Verde River Valley to see snow on the mountains to the west!
We spent the morning at the Tuzigoot National Monument, the preserved remnants of a pueblo village built by the Sinagua between 1000 and 1400.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzigoot_National_Monument
We spent our afternoon on the Verde Canyon Railroad
The 26 mile line was built in the mid 1890s to move copper mined & smelted in the town of Jerome to an existing branch of the Santa Fe Railroad system (rather than by horse & wagon).
The copper smelter was eventually moved to Clarkdale and the copper business operated until the early 50s. After that, the line was used to ship cement from Clarkdale until the line was sold in the late 80s. The new owner set about making the line a tourist attraction, finding vintage engines and cars to make the trip along the scenic Verde River Canyon a real adventure!
More photo memories!
Day 3: Mingus Mountain Scenic Road
This is the day we got to experience the snow that we had seen on the mountains yesterday morning!
Our drive took us from Clarkdale, through Jerome and on to Prescott before we returned to the Phoenix area in late afternoon. So, the elevation at Clarkdale is 3545, Prescott 5367, and Apache Junction 1722! We covered a lot of changing terrain on our drives.
The two-lane Mingus Mountain Scenic Road winds through the steep canyons of the Black Hills. The summit was 7073 ft where the temperature had dropped to 23F/ -5C. Snow was everywhere but we were grateful that the highway was cleared and dry.
The weather was not done with us yet as we drove back through rain, sleet and snow before finding dry roads again close to Phoenix. About an hour after our return home, there was another downpour that did a fairly good job of cleaning off the dust we collected reaching the trailhead for our hike!
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