4/11/2010

April 10, 2010 – Verde Valley Railroad

Another wonderful day in paradise – :-))).   Carolyn, Pete, Andy and I took a trip on the Verde Valley Railroad.  We met at the station in the morning, took in the museum, then lunch, then boarded the train.

Here we are:

 04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 014

And off we go.  We passed by this slag pile.  There is a company that is processing this – they figure they will get an ounce of gold per ton of slag as well as copper and silver.  The end product will be used at the cement plant.  And within 15 years this pile will be gone out of the valley.

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 016

And get ready for lots of pictures.  (They really do not show the incredible colors of this canyon.)

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 023

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 030

More ruins – they were quite a few throughout the canyon:

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 036

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 053

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 064

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 067

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 085

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 088

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 105

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 112

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 131

The two rocks on the left look like the Budweiser frogs and the one on the right looks like the lizard – LOL:

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 134

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 143

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 145

This tunnel was completed in 1912 and is all man-made.  It is 680 feet long thru solid limestone and curved so the exit cannot be seen from the entrance.

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 163

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 167

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 170

Notice the face right inside the cave entrance.  This cave was used by the native Americans but researchers think it was not used as a home but rather a place to stay as they moved thru the valley (a hotel/motel):

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 174

The cave in the distance was excavated by geologists from the Arizona State Museum in the 1960s. They found evidence that it was used by native Americans as living quarters.

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 179

The next two pictures are of Perkinsville which was our turnaround point.  In the 1960s, a few scenes from the film “How the West was Won” was filmed in this valley.

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 181

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 182

Check out this house – in the middle of nowhere.  There are four homes in this area that predate the establishment of the National Forest.  The closest town in Cottonwood and it takes about 1.5 hours on a dirt road to get there.

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 195

And even more incredible scenery:

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 197

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 198

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 203

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 204

04-10-10 Verde Valley Railroad 207

Another wonderful day!

No comments: