Here and There n Arizona

The surrounding shots were taken while on the Verde Canyon Train Excursion, which begins in Clarkville, southwest of Sedona, and takes a four-hour train trip through the Verde Valley. It travels north to Perkinsville, paralleling the Verde River, winding through incredible scenery, no matter what season it is.

Perkinsville is the end of the line for the Verde Canyon Train Excursion. At its peak, the small town consisted of only 10 or 12 families, but its claim to fame was the partial filming of the 1962 movie "How the West Was Won." It was on this now delapidated platform (above) that Debbie Reynolds danced in the movie.

Above and Left: The Verde Valley, just outside the town of Jerome, southwest of Sedona.

Below: The town of Jerome, also southwest of Sedona, has a wonderful history and deserves more than just one picture. One of these days, I'll go back and spend more time.

The picture to the left and those below were taken in the western Arizona town of Wickenburg. The town, located some 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, was founded by gold miner Henry Wickenburg in 1863. Today it's a delightful stop for tourists taking in towns that have preserved the feel, traditions and legends of the Old West.

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The Arizona Territorial Prison was located in Yuma from 1876 to 1919. The grounds and prison cell area are still there, though not completely intact, and have become a museum. Over the years, the prison held 1,069 convicts.

Several yards behind the prison grounds is a cemetery where some 111 convicts are buried on rock-piled graves. A plaque lists the names of those interred there, who died while at the prison by either disease, accident, murder, suicide or escape attempts. There are no tombstones.

Montezuma Castle is an easy day drive from Phoenix, heading north toward Flagstaff. Though interesting in itself, the name is a bit misleading. For one, Montezuma, emperor of the Aztec Indians, never lived here. Also, it's obviously not a castle.

But what's interesting is that the cave-dwelling has remained intact since 1100 A.D., built by the Sinaguan Indians who lived there as a farming community of about 200 people for close to 300 years. About 35 people lived in this particular dwelling. Other similar ones are no longer standing.

Jerome is an old copper mining town turned touristy sitting on Mingus Mountain just south of Sedona. Its reputation as a long-ago wild and wicked city of many vices draws people to the town of less than 500 population as much as does its current repuation as picturesque and artsy.

It has various nicknames including "The Mile-High Town," "America's Most Vertical Town" and "The Largest GhostTown in America." And speaking of ghosts, while there visit the ghost mining town of Haynes, just north of the Jerome.

The next several shots and the one above were taken in Jerome.

Arizona's Highway 70 which runs southeast to northwest from Interstate 10 into Globe is a practical and fun route to drive to avoid the hassles of Interstate 10 past Tucson and to Phoenix. Highway 70 is an easy drive as well as picturesque. The next several pictures were taken along the route. This picture and the ones to the right were taken just north of the town of Duncan.

Other than potential, the small mining town of Miami doesn't have much going for it. It's listed in the tourist books mainly for a set of 150 steps called the Keystone Steps (because they're on Keystone Street) that were used daily by miners to get to the mines above town.

Spring flowers popped up everywhere to help brighten the streets.

Miami is located on Highway 60 just west of Globe.

I had just left the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park near Payson and Pine, AZ, when movement of these javelinas caught my eye. I grabbed my camera, but the stopping of the car sent them scurrying. It was a small herd, possibly around six or eight of them. Javelinas, though they look like wild hogs or boars, are not in the pig family. They are actually in the peccary family.

There's hardly a dull spot on Arizona's Highway 260. After it splits from Highway 87 and heads west toward Verde, the terrain is dramatic with small mountain ranges taking off in all directions. There are plenty of pullovers, and I think I stopped at every one to take in the beauty. This and the following shots were taken along that 30-mile stretch.