Verde Canyon Railroad

North of Clarkdale, Arizona, the Verde River runs for 20 miles through a canyon that no road crosses: dirt tracks come to an end at either side, and between them there are only the river, the red-rock walls and a railroad. It was built in 1911 and 1912 by 750 men with picks, shovels, donkeys and dynamite, to carry copper from the smelter at Clarkdale to the Santa Fe main line, and it took them a single year.

Since 1990 the Verde Canyon Railroad has carried passengers instead. Its trains leave Clarkdale behind a pair of EMD FP7s built in 1953, cross the basalt gorges on steel trestles, follow the river past Sinagua cliff dwellings and the trees where bald eagles spend the winter, pass through a curved 734-foot tunnel blasted out of solid limestone, and turn back at the old ranch station of Perkinsville. The round trip is 40 miles and takes three and a half to four hours, and every seat comes with a place on an open-air car.

Trains run all year, most days at 1 p.m.

The trip starts at the depot on North Broadway in Clarkdale, a company town founded in 1912 by the copper magnate William A. Clark. Give yourself an hour and a half before the train: there is the Copper Spike Café, whose lunches you can carry on board, the Boxcar Gift Store, and the John Bell Museum in an old boxcar, while storyboards run the quarter-mile length of the platform. From the depot you can see the mining town of Jerome halfway up the mountain, and the ruins of Tuzigoot on their ridge across the valley.

Every seat is assigned. The passenger cars have couches that face each other in fours and chairs for two at bistro tables, and each is coupled to an open-air viewing car, shaded by a canopy, that anyone may use. Narration comes over the speakers, or through the AudioFetch app on your own earphones.

The train leaves past the black slag heap of the old smelter, Sinagua cliff dwellings high in the rock and the smokestack of a power plant of 1918, then crosses its first bridge, built from the turntable of the Prescott roundhouse. For the next three miles it runs on basalt above the river's inner gorge, crossing the highest and longest bridge on the line at S.O.B. Canyon. At milepost 30, where Sycamore Creek comes in, the Coconino and Prescott National Forests close in on both sides. Just before it, a monocline tips the red rock on end beside the track; in winter, bald and golden eagles hunt along the river. Between the termini the line drops almost 500 feet.

The tunnel

At milepost 22.5 the construction crews met a point they could not go around. A crew of Swedes spent six months in 1911 blasting through solid limestone, and the result is 734 feet long and curved, so you cannot see the exit from the entrance. Timbers support it only for about 30 feet at each end; the rest is bare rock, close on both sides of the cars.

The trains

The train is pulled by two EMD FP7s, Nos. 1510 and 1512, built by General Motors at LaGrange, Illinois, in 1953 for the Alaska Railroad, and among the last ten of their kind still at work in North America. They first ran here on 8 March 1997, and in 2019 they were repainted, turquoise, with a bald eagle hand-painted on each side. Behind them come twelve passenger cars, the open-air cars and a red caboose of 1929.

At Perkinsville, a ranch station of 1912 where scenes of How the West Was Won were filmed, the locomotives run round the train and couple onto the other end for the ride back. Passengers stay on board; the light has moved by then, and the canyon looks different on the way home.

The train runs all year, from the depot at 300 North Broadway, Clarkdale, to Perkinsville and back. There is usually one train a day, at 1 p.m.; on Saturdays from March to December there are two instead, a morning ride and a later Starlight ride. Every trip takes 3½ to 4 hours.

From late November to 23 December many evenings go to The Magical Christmas Journey, a separate one-hour ride, and between Christmas and New Year the morning and Starlight rides run daily. Some days, most often early in the week in winter and summer, have no train at all.

Good to know:

• Book ahead. Trains often sell out well ahead, especially in peak season and on event days. Payment is taken in full when you book.
• Arrive early. The railroad asks you to be at the depot an hour and a half before departure, and you must be checked in at least 15 minutes before it, or your seats may go to standby passengers.
• Rain or snow, the train runs.
• Parking is free, across the street from the depot.

Departures as of September 2026, from the railroad's monthly calendars for January to December 2026. Confirm before travelling on verdecanyonrr.com (opens in a new tab).

There is one fare for everyone aged one and over, and all the passenger cars are the same class: a seat on a couch or at a bistro table, the open-air car, and a charcuterie tray with a sparkling toast. Babies under one ride free on a lap. Drinks and snacks on board are extra, paid by card only, and a $2 preservation fee is added at booking. Most festival trains cost more, and the caboose is sold to one party at a time.

Up to 48 hours before departure you can cancel for a 90% refund, or move to another date for $5 a ticket; after that there are no refunds. Fares checked September 2026 at verdecanyonrr.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars.

No rail pass covers the Verde Canyon Railroad. It is a private heritage railroad that sells its own tickets. Amtrak's USA Rail Pass is valid only on Amtrak's own services, and Interrail and Eurail do not apply anywhere in the United States.

The nearest Amtrak station is Flagstaff, on the Southwest Chief, about 40 miles away by road. The railroad's own offers go to groups of 20 or more and to guests on its room-and-ride packages.

Checked September 2026 against verdecanyonrr.com (opens in a new tab) and amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

Clarkdale, a town of about 4,400 people, sits in the Verde Valley some 40 miles south-west of Flagstaff. Tuzigoot is just across the river, Jerome is up the mountain behind the town, and Cottonwood and Camp Verde are further down the valley.

Clarkdale has a handful of places to stay within a few minutes of the depot, and there is more choice in Cottonwood next door and up the hill in Jerome. The railroad sells its own room-and-ride packages with its sister hotel, the Taawaki Inn.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about Verde Canyon Railroad. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.