Verde Canyon Railroad

The Verde Canyon country was home to the ancestral Sinagua people, whose hilltop pueblo at Tuzigoot overlooks the valley and whose descendants are connected to the Hopi and the Yavapai-Apache Nation of today. Much later, this became copper country. The rich mines at Jerome, high on Cleopatra Hill, and the smelter town of Clarkdale below drew a railroad in 1912, built to move ore out of the remote valley to the wider world.

For decades the line hauled ore, freight, and passengers through the canyon. When the mines finally closed, the railroad's original purpose ended, and the tracks fell quiet. Rather than let the line be torn up, the route was reborn in 1990 as a scenic excursion railway, and the vintage trains have been carrying visitors into the canyon ever since. The journey preserves both a beautiful wilderness and a piece of Arizona's mining and railroad history in one ride.

The great appeal of the ride is access to the inaccessible. The Verde River canyon between Clarkdale and Perkinsville is wilderness, with no paved road running through it, so the train reaches scenery that almost no one sees any other way. Red and buff cliffs rise steeply from the river, side canyons open and close, and the tracks cross trestles and thread a tunnel hand-cut through solid rock, all at an unhurried pace built for looking.

Along the way the train passes beneath the ancient dwellings of the Sinagua tucked into the canyon walls, and it crosses and recrosses the Verde, one of Arizona's last free-flowing rivers. The open-air viewing cars are the place to be, letting riders stand in the wind with an unobstructed view of the cliffs and the water. At the far end lies Perkinsville, a near-ghost town where the locomotive runs around the train for the return trip, giving fresh views on the way back.

The Verde River corridor is a wildlife haven, and the railroad is one of the best places in Arizona to see bald eagles, which nest along the canyon and are most reliably spotted in the cooler months. Great blue herons stalk the shallows, hawks and vultures ride the thermals off the cliffs, and javelina, deer, and the occasional river otter or beaver appear along the banks. Guides on board point out the wildlife and the historic sites as they pass.

The river itself is the reason the canyon is so alive. As one of the last undammed rivers in the state, the Verde supports a lush green ribbon of cottonwood and willow through the desert rock, a corridor of shade and water that draws animals and birds from miles around. Watching the river slide past from an open car, with cliffs on either side and an eagle overhead, is the essence of the trip.

Winter and early spring are prime for the ride, when the cottonwoods are bare, the eagles are nesting and active, and the crisp air makes the open cars invigorating. The canyon takes on a stark beauty in the cold months, and wildlife is easiest to spot with the leaves down.

Spring brings green to the cottonwoods and wildflowers to the slopes, and fall lights the canyon with golden foliage along the river. Summer runs hot in the valley, so the milder shoulder seasons are generally the most comfortable for the open-air cars, though the canyon offers welcome shade and the river its cooling presence in any season. Whenever you ride, the slow pace and the roadless scenery make it feel like a journey out of ordinary time.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.