To Kendrick Peak by Firewatcher Shortcut

Several Skyliner members had hiked to Kendrick Peak a few years ago. The hike to the peak using Kendrick Mountain Trail #22 is 4.6 miles one way. That includes the 4.2 mile length of Kendrick Trail and an additional 0.4 miles from the trailhead to Kendrick Watchtower. For the present, 14 May 2016, hike I looked at three alternative trails: Bull Basin Trail #40 which ascends the mountain on the north side, Pumpkin Trail #39 which ascends the west side of the mountain and Kendrick Firewatcher Shortcut which uses a part of Kendrick Mountain Trail but starts at a different spot and runs north of Newman Hill. Thinking that the shortcut sounded interesting I chose that option.

We left Cottonwood at 0700, drove north on I-17 to its end at I-40, continued straight on Milton, turned right onto Santa Fe Ave and then north on Humphreys (US 180). We followed US 180 for 17.2 miles, turned left onto Forest Road 193, drove 3.3 miles and turned right on FR 171, drove 2.0 miles and turned right onto FR 190. We then continued for another 1.1 miles on FR 190, passing the Kendrick Mountain Trailhead and climbing through the ponderosa pine forest between Newman Hill and East Newman Hill, to arrive at the departure point for the Firewatcher Shortcut.

There we found one already-parked vehicle, a modest, dark colored Toyota, parked heading back down the slope. From where the vehicle was parked it could easily, with a gentle shove by the driver, have coasted down to the road and all the way back to Kendrick Mountain Trailhead, 0.7 miles away. That reminded me of my first car, a 1936 Chevrolet; when I drove it to town, I always searched until I found a hill to park on, just in case it wouldn't start when I was ready to go home. That precaution served me well at the time.

There is no marked trailhead, just a wide open area in the saddle between the two ridges. Apparently the shortcut is primarily used by personnel who man the Kendrick Lookout Tower; it provides them with a place to park apart from the busy Kendrick Mountain Trailhead. An additional benefit is that a car parked here can be viewed from the tower, located 1.1 miles away and high above the parking area.

Before heading across the road to climb the opposite bank along what appeared to be a very faint trail, we stopped for a group photograph.

Left to right: Karl Sink, Collene Maktenieks, Anita Jackson, Daisy Williams, Loren Pritzel, Lila Wright, Dave Beach, Jim Gibson, Betty Wolters, Ellen McGinnis and James McGinnis – author not shown

The visible trail didn't last very long; it just ran up the bank, turned to follow along a short stretch of fence, faintly seen in the photograph (right) which has been erected to protect a stand of tender, young quaking aspens. When the trail ended, we just followed a 2013 GPS track.

The track led us basically along the spine of a gently sloping ridge just north of East Newman Hill. We were in relatively open country, populated by lightly-scattered ponderosa pines. We were basically just bushwhacking, using the GPS track as a guideline, and winding our way around isolated rock outcroppings.

Scattered ponderosa pines through which we hiked

As we climbed higher we had excellent views across East Newman.

Panoramic view of East Newman Hill and beyond

About a mile into our hike we came to the top of the gently-sloping ridge we had been following. Another tenth of a mile down the other side of the ridge, in a saddle between it and Kendrick Mountain proper, we intersected with Kendrick Mountain Trail #22 which we would follow to Kendrick Lookout Cabin. Since leaving FR 190 at the fenced-in stand of aspen, we had hiked a distance of 1.1 miles and ascended a total of 765 feet. From this point to the cabin, a distance of 2.2 miles we would ascend another 1348 feet feet along a trail that would include 16 switchbacks. We pressed on, coming soon to the first switchback and from there had an ever-changing view as we climbed higher on the mountain. Meanwhile, the ponderosa pines were replaced by a mixed conifer forest of fir and spruce. The white bark of an occasional aspen grove struck a pleasing contrast with the conifers.

From different vantage points along the way we could see the, still snow-capped, San Francisco Peaks (left), some 11 miles to the southeast.

Then, just after our ninth switchback, we came to a fern-covered open spot with a great panoramic view of the open country visible between the San Francisco Peaks to the southeast and Bill Williams Mountain in the southwest. Hikers are seen standing on the trail in the lower right corner of the below photograph .

A panorama of the open country to the south, from an elevation of 9330 feet

It was still pretty early for flowers at this elevation and there were few to be seen. An exception was several hardy dandelions, growing all in a patch, (below left); also quite colorful was an Oregon grape with its bright yellow berries peering shyly from behind leaves that had already turned dark red (below right).

A patch of dandelions             Oregon grape

We made one brief pause to rest on the way up the mountain; but the hikers soon seemed ready to go, so we quickly pushed off again.

By my GPS track, it was 1236 when we turned the corner at switchback 16, no more than 200 yards from Lookout Cabin. According to a National Forest sign posted inside, the “Old Lookout Cabin” was built by the lookout in 1911-12 and served as the lookout's home. He kept a horse at the site and rode it to the peak, about 300 feet higher in elevation, each morning to watch for fires. He then returned to his cabin home each night. This cabin (right) served as home for the lookout until the 1930s.

Kendrick Mountain Trail #22 ends at the cabin, still 0.4 miles (by a switchbacking trail) short of the present-day Kendrick Lookout. Bull Basin Trail also ends at the cabin. The end of Kendrick Mountain Trail is marked by a somewhat ambiguous sign (below left). The small arrow shown on the sign, left of the lettering “To Trailhead,” points directly back down the trail we had just traversed. Of course, there is a trailhead that way; but it is 4.2 miles away. I think the old post with the rock atop it (below right) once carried a sign marking this spot as the beginning of Bull Basin Trail #40. Bull Basin Trail runs straight through the snowdrift seen here and continues down the north side of Kendrick Mountain.

                            Kendrick Mountain Trail-        Missing Bull Basin Trail-                            
   head sign                                    head sign                                

We didn't linger at the cabin on the way up; we wanted to eat lunch at the helicopter pad on Kendrick Peak and we still had 14 switchbacks and 0.4 miles to go. Another trail sign (below left) marked the way. The 14 switchbacks, being all packed into a very short trail, went fast. At switchback 13, just a few yards below the Lookout Tower, we found yet another trail sign, this one marking the beginning of Pumpkin Trail #39, running down Kendrick's west slope (below right).

Kendrick Lookout Trail-            Pumpkin Trailhead           head                                                                                          

Another few paces and we turned the corner at switchback 14 and arrived at Kendrick Lookout. The National Historic Lookout Registry provides the following information about the site:

Although the 10’ steel tower with metal 14’x14’ flatroof cab and catwalk was constructed in 1964, the previous L-4 structure on Kendrick Lookout was built in the early 1930s. A log cabin built in 1911 one quarter mile below the peak as sleeping quarters is the second oldest example of a fire detection structure present in the southwest region (Arizona and New Mexico). The current tower is in active service. ¹

For the reader who might wonder what an L-4 structure (mentioned in the above quotation) is, the following information is provided by the Forest Fire Lookout Page:

L-4 = standard 14 x 14 foot frame pre-cut lookout house built from 1929 through 1953, also known as an "Aladdin." It has a peaked roof, and wooden panels that are mounted horizontally over the windows in the summer to provide shade, and lowered over the windows in winter. Early models have a gable roof; later models have a hip roof.

In this photograph (left), the bottom deck of the lookout tower can be seen at upper left, a path is visible at lower right, a propane meter is shown just below and right of center and a barely visible hiker can be seen eating lunch just below and right of the meter.

Being quite hungry, I rushed on past the tower and settled on the sun-warmed concrete pad to eat lunch and take a nap. Sooner than I would have liked, I was awakened by a cool, brisk wind that came up in conjunction with dark clouds that covered the sun. I reluctantly picked up my pack and trudged back to the tower where I paused to look back to the now-deserted concrete pad and the dark, threatening skies west and southwest of us. Even under a cloudy sky, I could still make out Sitgreaves Mountain, left of center, and Bill Williams Mountain, on the horizon left of Sitgreaves.

View from Kendrick Peak looking west-southwest

A woman volunteer was manning the tower this weekend; it was apparently a a regular weekend event for her. Lila apparently chatted with her for some time while I was sleeping on the helicopter pad. And learned that the Toyota we had found parked below belonged to her. She was surprised that we had taken the Firewatcher Shortcut, apparently thinking that only the people manning the lookout knew about it. Judging from the lack of any discernible trail, I think she was very nearly right. While eating lunch, I overheard a couple of hikers discussing a nifty looking “sticker” they had acquired at the tower.

The sticker turned out to be from a peel-off strip of Smokey the Bear stickers (right).

I paused on the catwalk to photograph the San Francisco Peaks (below) before descending the tower for the trek back to our cars, some 2300 feet lower and 3.7 miles away.

                             The San Francisco Peaks from Kendrick Lookout Tower

One of our hikers had not had time to eat lunch at the peak, so we stopped at the old Lookout Cabin and I took a short nap on the bare-springs of a bunk bed while the hungry hiker ate.

When we reached the Firewatcher Cutoff, nine of our hikers continued for another 2.0 miles along Kendrick Mountain Trail to the trailhead. The author and the two drivers returned by way of the 1.1-mile shortcut to where we had parked and then drove back along FR 190 for 0.7 miles to the trailhead. We all arrived at about the same time, ending our hike at approximately 1630. The cleaned-up GPS track showed the hike, using the Firewatcher Shortcut, was 7.4 miles in and out (8.3 miles for those who returned all the way by Kendrick Mountain Trail). The maximum elevation was 10413 feet ( a bit more if one measures from the tower itself) and the total ascent was 2379 feet.

The attached map (below) shows our GPS track, using the Firewatcher Shortcut, to the tower in red. The cyan track shows a section of Pumpkin Trail, the magenta track is a section of Bull Basin Trail and the blue track is the lower part of Kendrick Mountain Trail, the path followed by nine of our hikers for the return trip. Finally, the dark yellow track is a section of Forest Roads 171 and 190 that we followed to access the Kendrick Mountain Trailhead and the Firewatcher Shortcut Trail.

1 http://www.nhlr.org/Lookouts/Lookout.aspx?id=114

2 http://www.nhlr.org/Lookouts/Lookout.aspx?id=114

A Different Path to Geronimo Spring and Cabin

Geronimo's Spring and Cabin are located in the upper reaches of Burnt Canyon. Burnt Canyon, located west of Gaddes Canyon along the southern rim of Mingus Mountain, consists of three separate branches at its head. The three branches join together and run southeast, parallel to Gaddes Canyon. Burnt Canyon and Gaddes Canyon eventually run together to form Black Canyon which continues to the east and empties into the Verde River. Geronimo Peña Lived in a cabin in the east branch of Burnt Canyon, about 0.2 miles below the water source that I have called Geronimo's Spring.

In company with various other members of the Skyliner Hiking Group, I had made four previous trips to the cabin, the earliest in August 2008. These trips had all started at the end of Forest Road 9003T near Burnt Tank.

Now, having explored the area and found an old trail that wound its way down the canyon wall above the spring, Jim Manning was leading a hike to the spring and cabin that would begin at the junction of Forest Roads 104 and 9003N on top of Mingus. On 9 May 2016, the group left the Cottonwood Safeway parking lot, drove to the top of Mingus on SR 89A, turned left onto Forest Road 104 and followed it around the head of Haywood Canyon, turned right onto FR 413, continued to the junction with FR 9003T and turned left. We then found a place to park, left one vehicle there and returned to the junction of FR 104/413, turned right and continued for about 100 yards to the junction with FR 9003N (right). From there we began our hike.

As we hiked along FR 9003N, we found that the road ran very close to the top of the ridge that lies between Burnt Canyon and Gaddes Canyon.

At first the road ran through a rather thick stand of ponderosa pines. After a short distance we encountered a fence with one of those new pedestrian cattleguard gates (left). I had not seen these devices before this spring but have recently noted several of them, all in Prescott National Forest. They are just wide enough for pedestrians, mountain bikes and perhaps some ATVs and all seem to be painted international orange.

We followed FR 9003N for about 0.8 miles, along the ridge between Burnt Canyon and Gaddes Canyon, before turning to the right to make our way to the rim above the spring. We were now hiking through an area with a lot of loose rocks that made footing a little precarious; but there was little undergrowth, just scattered pines and the occasional alligator juniper. There was no discernible trail from the forest road to the canyon rim above the spring; but Jim had already scouted the route, so we just followed him, recording a GPS track for future reference as we went.

We found a pine tree (right) that was ringed by a circle of rocks piled closely against its trunk. Four engraved, evenly-spaced metal plates were affixed to the trunk at about hip level. The plates had been nearly subsumed by the tree as it grew out and around them, so we were unable to make out the markings on the plates; however, I assume the tree was a boundary corner marker, perhaps marking the point where four mining claims cornered.

Our elevation was above 7000 feet and it was a little too early for most of the spring flowers. We did find a very attractive growth of mistletoe high in a pine tree (below left) and, just as we dipped below the rim, a fairly decent groundsel (below right).

Mistletoe                                 Groundsel                           

The distance from FR 104 to the rim above the Geronimo's Spring was about one mile. Now, Jim led us along a discernible, if little-used, trail that switchbacked its way down the steep wall of Burnt Canyon into the east fork. Looking northwest as we descended, we could see across Chino Valley to the mountains beyond.

Looking northwest from the trail above Geronimo's Spring

The trail down the canyon wall was faint but still discernible. It obviously had at one time been fairly well used. Any wrong turn would soon become obvious because of steep cliffs or impassable clumps of underbrush. The photograph (left) shows a section of the trail looking back.

Water flows (seeps might be a better term) from several different points along a broken, jumbled seam running down the mountain. The flow at each point is such as to be reabsorbed almost immediately. Geronimo's contribution was to capture the separate flows, channeling each to the next source below it until he reached a final collection point at the foot of the canyon wall. Shown here are the uppermost source (below left) that had a trail to it and the next seep (below right) into which the flow from above is channeled. I did not try climbing higher to look for more seeps above this point. However, judging from the metal chute, obviously placed to funnel water from above into the topmost source I did investigate, there were additional seeps.

          Uppermost seep with a          Next (or intermediate)            
 trail to it                                     seep                                      

All of our previous trips to the spring had ended at a lower point in the wash and we had never seen any water.

Now, looking at Geronimo's final collection point after having examined the channeling system above, we understood why we had not seen water before. The piping between the intermediate seep and the collection point, a tank placed in the last seep (right), had been disrupted; the water was being reabsorbed into the thirsty earth.

From the spring it is a mere 0.2 miles along a well-worn but now slightly overgrown trail to Geronimo's Cabin. On a 23 August 2008 visit to the cabin I had photographed (below) a poster, located on the inside of the then-intact cabin door, showing various photographs of Geronimo and his burros. The poster is no longer there but I have been told that it can viewed at the Charlotte Hall Museum.

Poster photographed at Geronimo's Cabin in August 2008

The, not very legible, inscription on the poster is shown here in a more easily-read photograph (below).

Information on display at Geronimo's Cabin in 2008

The alert reader will have noted that I have used the spelling “Geronimo” throughout this report whereas the inscription above, along with all of my previous reports, uses the spelling “Jeronimo.” That is because I did a little additional research and found the below information at Charlotte Hall Museum¹ in Prescott.

Geronimo Pena

Born: Mexico c 1877

Died: Mingus Mountain, Yavapai, Arizona c 6 Feb 1957

Buried: Cottonwood cemetery.

Plot:AZTECA

Spouse: Unknown

Parents: Unknown

Occupation: Woodcutter

Remarks: Westcott. Information: residence was on Mingus Mt.
Death certificate: had lived in the area for about 40 years. Cause of death: myocardial infarction due to arteriosclerotic heart disease. Arrangements.

There is also a Geronimo Pena listed in the 1920 census; although he is listed as living in Cedar Glade precinct, north of Prescott, he is of the right age and is also listed as a woodcutter. He may have temporarily been in the area at the time of the census. In any case, I think it is most likely that “Geronimo” is the correct spelling.

We stopped to pose for a group photograph (below) in front of the old cabin. The author and one other hiker are not shown.

Left to right: George Everman, Wayne Schwetje (front), David Murrill (rear), Jim Manning, Gary Neil and Tana Allman

For those who may be interested, there is a set of photographs, taken in 2009, of the cabin, its interior and the surrounding yard posted online at a blog maintained by one Mary Leavitt.²

Although all accounts I have heard claim that Geronimo used only his burros for delivering his wood to Jerome, I think that he may have sometimes either hired a truck or sold wood to someone else who delivered it by truck. This idea is supported by the existence of wire cable anchors at the cabin (below left) and at the end of an old road at the foot of the steep hill (below right) on which the cabin is located. The cable anchors could be all that remains of a high-wire system used to move wood from a staging area at the cabin to a waiting truck below.

Upper cable anchor                 Lower cable anchor

Logging was underway in the area below Geronimo's Cabin and the brush left over from the logging operation was being used to check erosion by filling in the old, no longer used, roads in the area.

Close to where we had parked near FR 413 we stopped for awhile to observe the loggers operations at the loading area.

Truck moving forward to be loaded

The total one way length of this hike was 2.6 miles, the highest elevation was 7579 feet and the total descent was 879 feet.

On the included map (below), the red track shows our hike, the blue track is an alternate trail that is smoother and less steep than the normal trail to the cabin and the green track shows an old road leading from the site of the lower cable anchor. The faint yellow track at left shows the route we drove between the two trailheads.

1 http://www.sharlot.org/archives/gene/cemetery/cem_show.pl?id=30393&nxt=index.html

2 http://maryleavitt.blogspot.com/2009/08/mingus-mountain-legend_21.html

A Ride on the Verde Canyon Railroad

Our daughter, Diana, was visiting for a few days and had mapped out a rather extensive list of things to do while here. Diana and I have made several trips (Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland) together during the past few years and have learned to ignore lists when it suits us. So it was that we canceled a planned hike on Monday in favor of a more relaxing day of just visiting, working a jigsaw puzzle (Rosemary and Diana), reviewing preparations for the forthcoming Price family reunion (Diana and I) and finishing a report for the last Skyliner's hike (me). Then, Rosemary having called and made reservations for us, Diana and I took a train ride up the Verde River Canyon on Tuesday, 19 April 2016.

Rosemary, who was attending to some duties involving a book sale at the library, went to the station to see us off. A kind passerby used my camera to take a photograph (below) of the three of us as Diana and I prepared to board the train.

Left to right: Ellis, Rosemary and Diana Price

Apparently the passenger cars are all named for Arizona towns and cities. At least, in addition to the Cottonwood Car on which Diana and I rode, I saw several others named for Arizona cities and none otherwise named.

A short history of the origin and a description of the current status of the Verde Canyon Railroad are available on Wikipedia:

The tracks on which the Verde Canyon Railroad runs were opened in 1912 as part of a north–south branch line linking a copper smelter at Clarkdale and the copper mines at Jerome to Santa Fe Railway tracks passing through Drake. The Santa Fe Railway owned and operated the 38-mile (61 km) branch line from 1912 to 1988.

David L. Durbano bought the branch line in 1988. Passenger service between Clarkdale at milepost 38 and Perkinsville at milepost 18, resumed in 1990 under the name Verde Canyon Railroad. Milepost 0 of the AZCR is at Drake, where the line meets the BNSF Railway system. The AZCR track to Drake is still used for hauling freight even though the excursion line stops at Perkinsville.

Excursions involve a 4-hour, 40-mile (64 km) round trip from Clarkdale to Perkinsville and back. Scenes from How the West Was Won were filmed at Perkinsville in the 1960s. The route follows the Verde River, crossing bridges and trestles, and passes through a 680-foot-long (210 m) curved Tunnel. Between milepost 30 and Perkinsville, most of the land along the railroad right-of-way is in the Prescott National Forest or the Coconino National Forest (across the river).

The railroad carries about 100,000 passengers per year. In 2005 the Verde Canyon Railroad celebrated its one-millionth passenger, and the following month was named an "Arizona Treasure" by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.¹

As the train pulled out from the station it passed close by the old slag pile left over from the United Verde Copper Company Smelter which operated here from 1915 to 1950. The Photograph (right) provides a close up view of the slag pile from the train window. Note the overhanging railcar roof in the upper left corner. The horizontal grooves in the slag wall were apparently caused by a corr-ugated holding barrier that kept the molten slag away from the tracks until it cooled and solidified. Rusted remains of the old metal barrier can be seen at bottom right in the photograph.

One of the attractions of riding the Verde Canyon Railroad is the chance to observe bald eagles. Apparently, the eagles have become accustomed to the regularly-passing trains and do not consider them a threat. In any event they build nests quite close to the railway and an eaglet was hatched earlier this year; unfortunately, it fell victim to a predator before leaving the nest. A photograph (left), taken in 2009, shows a long-since abandoned nest built close to the track.

We also passed the still-standing stack of the The Arizona Power Company (TAPCO) Power Plant (below). The TAPCO power plant was constructed by Arizona Power Company during a seven-month period in 1917 and placed into service that same year. It operated under base load from 1917 until 1930 and then sporadically thereafter until sometime in 1958. The plant was sited here primarily to provide power to the United Verde Copper Company.

Ruins of the TAPCO Power Plant

The next point of interest was the SOB Bridge, located about 4.5 miles from the station, which carries the track across the 175-foot deep SOB Canyon. According to our guide, SOB stands for Superintendent of Bridges. Personally, I would have liked some explanation as to why it was so named; was a specific Superintendent of Bridges being honored? If so why didn't they just use his name? Was it intended to honor the position of Superintendent of Bridges? Without some further explanation it simply doesn't make sense. Perhaps the SOB was applied by the workers who built the bridge to describe their feelings about the task and the name just stuck. Alternatively, according to Phoenix Magazine, “one popular legend attributes the canyon’s name to a river pilot, Bill Diamond, aka 'Sweet Ol’ Bill.'”²

Whatever the origin of its name, we would soon be crossing it; already we could see the bridge from the window of our railcar. In the photograph (below), the engine of our train is shown at left and the bridge can be seen just right of center.

Train approaching SOB Bridge

The train is a popular venue for weddings and wedding vow renewal ceremonies, with vows taken while the train is stopped on the bridge. Weddingbee.com³ says, “Most ... ceremonies take place on an adjoining open-air viewing car stopped over a historic trestle and steep canyon at a panoramic overlook....” This could only refer to SOB Bridge; the trains all stop on the bridge for passengers to take in the views, exemplified by the photograph (below).

View from an open car stopped on SOB Bridge

The above photograph, which shows the downriver view from the bridge, includes a view of Mingus Mountain on the far horizon. Closer up, in the lower right corner, can be seen a colorful ocotillo cactus.

Looking ahead, as shown in the photograph (below), we could see the channel the river has cut into the surrounding plain, the looming, red-tinted slope of Black Mountain to the right and, to the left, the jumble of hills through which the Verde River Canyon runs.

Looking ahead as the train travels across the plain toward the mountains ahead

Continuing our way up the canyon, we soon passed the confluence of Sycamore Creek and the Verde River. This is the site where Packard Ranch was located. The ranch was homesteaded in the 1890s by a Mr. and Mrs. Packard who grew fresh vegetables on 35 acres of irrigated land. It is reported that Mr. Packard had a wandering eye and that Mrs. Packard, tiring of his philandering, “forged his name on a quit-claim dead for $1800, bought two horses and a rifle and disappeared to places unknown.”⁴

The ranch holdings are now a part of the National Forest. The Trust for Public Lands⁵ reports that, “Packard Ranch’s protection was critical to the health of two perennially-running waterways, rarities in Arizona where clean, safe drinking water is one of the State’s gravest worries. In January 2012, TPL transferred ownership of all 139 acres to the National Forest.”

There is still a strip of private land located at the Sycamore Creek junction and running upstream along the river. Further upstream of the private land is located the Alvarez Ranch. The ranch, a long narrow strip of land on the north side of the river, was acquired by Rosendo Alvarez in 1908. The ranch was vacated in 1993 after a devastating flood and became a part of the National Forest in 1995. Referring to the photograph (below), the ranch property was located between the nearby trees and the hills beyond them.

Location of the Alvarez Ranch

I visited the old ranch site in May of 2014 and took several photographs. Included were the old ranchhouse (below left), taken while standing in the middle of the river, and a nearby well (below right).

       Alvarez Ranchhouse         Well at Alvarez Ranch         

We found several other intact buildings as well as a productive pomegranate tree at the site during this visit.

A short distance beyond Alvarez Ranch the canyon loops sharply north, even sightly north-northeast and then southwest as it looped around Mormon Pocket. We camped at Mormon Pocket while on an overnight hike down the canyon on 24 May 2014. We found a very nice wooded area, tucked tight against the cliff wall, just across the river from the railroad. This photograph (right) taken on the current trip shows the the cliff at the approximate position of our campsite.

As we continued on up the canyon toward Perkinsville, the cliff walls seemed to become ever closer and higher. We could now look almost directly down into the river below where we saw turtles sunning themselves on the rocks.

Shortly before we reached the tunnel, just over four miles downstream from Perkinsville, we reached another bald eagle nest. It was located high above us on a ledge in the side of a towering rock spire. I got a pretty good photograph of the spire (below Left). Diana, meanwhile, zoomed in for a shot of the nest itself (below right).

Tall rock spire with         Close up of eagles nest
eagles nest                                                         

After passing the eagle nesting area we entered the 680-foot long curved tunnel that carries the railroad through a high ridge with sheer slopes at a sharp bend in the river. Shortly thereafter we were at Perkinsville. Little is left at the Perkinsville stop except for the long-abandoned old train depot and a few other decrepit buildings. The old depot (left) was used for shooting a scene in the 1962 movie, How the West Was Won. In that scene, Zeb Rawlins (George Peppard) and his wife Julie (Carolyn Jones), along with their two children, meet his aunt Lilith Prescott (Debbie Reynolds) at the “Gold City “ Train Depot. As filmed, the portico shown here was extended for several feet to the edge of a wide boardwalk that ran along the front of the depot and a since-demolished extension to the building. The flooring beams, as shown in the photograph, for the extension and the boardwalk are still in place.

The timber structure (right), shown just beyond the red-roofed building, was photographed in 2009. It once supported the old water tower tank used for steam locomotives. The tank itself, out of use since the demise of steam locomotives in the 1950s, was blown up for a scene in the movie; but that scene was cut from the film.

The depot and and the water tank foundation are located on the south side of the tracks. The photograph (left), taken looking north, shows the remains of a limestone quarry and kiln used to produce lime for use as a flux at the Clarkdale Copper Smelter until it closed in the 1950s.

The train stops for ten minutes at Perkinsville, just long enough for the engine to use the siding to move to the other end of the train for the return trip. The train itself does not turn around, the engine just moves to the other end. The engine is shown here (right) moving along on the siding for the change of direction.

Perkinsville is located in a relatively flat, roughly boomerang-shaped area, roughly 1.5 miles long and no more than 0.5 miles wide, along the river. Once the engine was reattached to the train we started our return journey, leaving the flat area around Perkinsville and, at Orchard Draw, plunging once again into the narrow canyon.

Reentering the canyon at Orchard Draw

Shortly we entered the curved 680-foot tunnel, with walls sometimes only inches from the cars (below left), and were plunged into complete darkness. However, we soon reemerged at the other end (below right) and continued our journey down the lush canyon, now seen in a different light than on the way up because of the angle of the sun.

    Entering the tunnel        Reemerging from the      
              tunnel

 The canyon walls, weathered by wind and water and distorted by earth movement over the ages, presented an ever-changing visual feast as we wended our way back down the canyon. One could spend an eternity giving names to the strange formations appearing atop the cliffs.

Warped and weathered canyon wall with weird shapes on top

We were back at the station in Clarkdale by 1638 after a most satisfying train ride up the Verde River Canyon to Perkinsville and back.

NOTE:  Be sure to review Footnote 4 below.  It provides a lot of interesting information about the canyon, the railroad, the mines and smelter and the Packard, Alvarez and Perkins families.

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verde_Canyon_Railroad

2 http://www.phoenixmag.com/

3 http://www.weddingbee.com/wedding-vendor/verde-canyon-railroad

4 Rail: The Official Magazine of the Verde Canyon Railroad; available online at:http://www.flipsnack.com/TPropeck/rail-magazine.html

5 https://www.tpl.org/our-work/land-and-water/packard-ranch-coconino-national-forest