As we rode along on the train, we always had the Verde River beside us. Not that we could always see it, but, it was there.

Hole in the rock, see the big rock on top sticking out, on the side it looked like a giant bathtub

Those two big rocks on the top left are the Budweiser frogs, come on, use your imagination!

                                   Turtle Rock                                                                                      

                                                                                                                              We saw bald eagles all day, but, managed to only get this one picture. Ron saw one flying around and I saw one standing in the middle of the river. He may have been eating, but, it was so far away, I couldn't tell.

Going into the tunnel....

                  Perkinsville - end of the line

 

 

 

                                                                               

                                                                                                            

This cool looking eagle is painted on the front of the train

There it goes...down the line to the other end

Heading back to the station in Clarkdale

Our scenery starting out was not that great, as we passed by a slag heap, testimony to the old days of mining. I read in an article in the lobby that Phelps/Dodge bought the whole thing for 6.5 million dollars because the newer technologies can get at the minor metals. They figure they can make 50 million dollars from those metals. I must say, looking at that is a real blight on the landscape..

I was just going to mention, if you noticed my layout is a bit different, it's thanks to Donna Huffer, who showed me that I can manipulate my pictures where I want them. I didn't know that,  I didn't think I had a choice where they were placed. I like the way it looks now. I also changed the background from what it was.                                             
                                                     This second picture was higher than our heads, higher than the train going by it. It would be real nice if they could move the whole mess somewhere else, while they're at it..                                                                       
                                                                                the very first thing we saw, after the slag heap was a couple of Indian ruins high up in the cliffs. Considering they weren't protected by any national park or anything, they were in pretty good shape...
                                                                                                                                                                                               

Verde Canyon Train ride

 On Wednesday, we took a day off from sightseeing and just vegged. Ron made reservations for the train ride to Sycamore Canyon. We were surprised to hear that the train doesn't take off in the morning, like we thought, it doesn't even leave the station until 1PM. It was a beautiful day to take a train ride! 











As we were walking into the train station/lobby, we noticed they had a little restaurant and people were ordering food before taking off on the train. We didn't bother, because in first class they served food. We were in the Wickenburg car and this is the inside of it. See the small tables to the left? That is where we were sitting, the bigger couches were for parties of four and they had bigger windows to look out of, it didn't matter to us, anyway, we spent most of our time outside looking at the scenery.
                                                                                                                                                                      

We went up into the housing area to see if we could get high enough to get better pictures of chimney rock & coffeepot rock. These are the vistas one has when they live in Sedona. There are lots of other rocks that look like different things, but, those are for another day...

On the way back to town, we stopped at the bridge and took a hike to the lookout. In the distance you can see Sedona with Oak Creek meandering below

Interesting rock formations, Oak Creek and the beautiful winding road

On the way up towards Oak Creen Canyon we saw this bridge in the distance

Coming into the outskirts of west Sedona

Yesterday, was the day we went to hear the presentation on a time share. We went through the whole speil and they just couldnt understand why we weren't going for their great deal. We just couldn't make them understand, so they gave up and gave us our two free first class tickets for the train ride. We had lunch in their bistro and the food was really good. Our ticket was buy one, get one free and boy, I am sooo glad we didn't have to pay for two sandwiches. The first one cost us enough!! It came to over $17, but, the two sodas were around $2.50 each, plus they slapped a $4 gratuity in with it!!! For two people, we would have been better off going somewhere else for lunch!

After we left there, we drove into the city of Sedona. For those of you who have never been there, it's so pretty with a backdrop of red mountains all around. Since we'd never driven up through Oak Creek Canyon, that is what we did and it was beautiful, too. Although with all the hardwood trees, I'll bet it is gorgeous in the fall with all the leaves turning different colors. On the way back down the canyon, we just had to stop for a Dairy Queen blizzard...

Standing in the middle, looking down each side and out at the lush Verde Valley

We saw this little fella sitting on the ledge on our way out, it was almost like he wanted to have his picture taken

Inside the only covered building that was there, notice the construction of the roof

Looking up at the site from the visitor's center

Tuzigoot was probably around when the Ancestral Puebloans lived up in the cliff dwellings in Colorado, much of the construction is the same. These people lived on top of the ground, though, but, try to picture the whole settlement with roofs and ladders going up the outside walls and ladders going down through a hole in the roof. They utilized both the insides of their houses and the roofs, too. This looked to be a thriving settlement.

Tuzigoot was probably around when the Ancestral Puebloans lived up in the cliff dwellings in Colorado, much of the construction is the same. These people lived on top of the ground, though, but, try to picture the whole settlement with roofs and ladders going up the outside walls and ladders going down through a hole in the roof. They utilized both the insides of their houses and the roofs, too. This looked to be a thriving settlement.

At the bottom of the hill, we drove right through Clarkdale, home of the Verde Valley Railway

We finally were ready to leave, because we had one more spot to stop on the way home. We had heard about Tuzigoot Nat'l Monument, but, had never seen it and here it was, right in the vicinity. So, down the hill we went....

At first, I thought he was making a vase, but, it turned out to be a glass. One of original bldgs, the glassblowing was in courtyard of bldg.