By Irene Butler
Published in TravelLady E-Zine and Beyond 50 Magazine
“All Aboard,” crowed the conductor. My husband Rick and I jauntily moved with the crowd toward the coaches. We sank down into comfy window seats. The powerful eagle-decaled engines of the Verde Canyon Train rolled smoothly out of the Clarkdale Station for a four-hour round trip to Perkinsville Ranch – through a wilderness that can only be seen from these rails.
Towering sentinels of black slag sided the tracks as we left the station. A vivid reminder that this line was built in 1912 to haul copper ore from the Clarkdale Smelter to the main Santa Fe line, for shipping to markets throughout the country. It also shuttled workers and supplies to the once thriving mining town of Jerome, until the two area mines closed in 1953.
Descending into what is known as “the other Grand Canyon” a panorama of crimson cliffs rose in breathtaking splendour. My breath caught as we overlooked a steep drop to where rapidly flowing rivers and creeks snaked between Cottonwood and Sycamore trees.
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