VERDE CANYON RAILROAD

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It will be a more relaxed day today. We didn’t leave until close to noon to go to the train station in Clarkdale - about 40 minutes away. There I climbed aboard a luxuriously comfortable vintage passenger car. There was a good sized, good quality charcuterie box at each seat and they gave us a small cup of champagne to toast the trip. The track follows a historic trail along the river’s edge lined with towering red rock pinnacles, nearly 600 year old ancient Sinagua Indian ruins and over and though bridges and tunnels. The train moves quite slowly but steadily uphill.

On the right side of the train it drops down to the Verde River which is flush with cottonwood, juniper and sycamore trees. The left side is the mountain slope with rock, prickly pear cactus and other small green shrubs (which I couldn’t find the names of). The Verde River is still running high and fast but has receded a considerable distance according to the mud flats and flattened grasses. Even though I had an assigned seat, I rode outside in the open car - I feel so much more in touch with the land out in the fresh air.

There are college students working as train attendants - one was our bartender exclusively for our car, another was there to point out interesting things and talk about the history of the train and the surrounding land. Later in the trip I was sitting on the outside car and the train attendant girl came and sat with me. We talked for about a half hour about all the things that we are interested in - seems we had a lot in common. She is going to college to become a librarian.

There were some teenagers on the train with their parents and I think the journey was extremely boring for them. They either slept or played on their phones. The things that parents make their kids suffer through!!

When I am away from the van for long periods of time, I make sure that all the windows are cracked open and I turn on the ceiling fan which pulls air through the van. She is quite comfortable as the temperature is only getting to about 15-16 degrees and the air is still cold.

We didn’t get back to the campground until after 6 p.m. Had to stop for gas and stopped at Walmart to get jugs of water and some salad for supper.

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