We have decided to spend a week in the mountains and deserts of Eastern Arizona, before the weather at the lower altitudes becomes unbearably hot. We opt to spend the week at a time-share resort in the White Mountains, just north of the Apache reservation. As usual, we traveled out and back on Amtrak, renting a car in Flagstaff for the week.
This evening, we start our journey by taking the shuttle van from home to Los Angeles Union Station. We’re at the station with plenty of time to get something to drink and then wait for the train. We walk out to the platform when the time comes, find our sleeping car and board the train. For once, I do not walk to the head end before departure.
[consist]
P42
P40
MHCs
Baggage
Transition
Sleepers
Diner
Lounge
Coaches
Train 4, 5-1-1997 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
Los Angeles |
8:35pm |
8:35pm |
|
Fullerton |
9:15 |
9:15 |
|
San Bernardino |
10:17 |
10:17 |
|
5-2-1997 |
|
|
|
Kingman |
3:57am |
4:12am |
|
Flagstaff |
6:38 |
6:46 |
Southwest Chief Route Description
Darkness had fallen before we left Los Angeles. Dawn broke somewhere west of Williams Junction.. We arise as the train passes through the Arizona Forest, to be ready to leave the train on arrival in Flagstaff. In Flagstaff, we take a taxi down to the airport, where we rent our car for the week (five minutes after the rental counter opens), then drive back into town and stop for breakfast. After breakfast, we head northeast out of town to visit the local National Park Service operations at Sunset Crate and Wapatki. The former is a volcanic crater, less than a thousand years old, and the latter is a set of Indian community ruins roughly contemporaneous with the volcanic activity. Both are located on a loop road that roughly parallels the main highway north to Glen Canyon.
Sunset Crater is the nearer to Flagstaff, so we get to it first. There is a self-guided nature trail through the plant life that exists among the remains of the volcanic activity, in and around the crate area, so we stop and spend an hour taking that walk, reading the signs, and generally taking in the atmosphere of the place. Since it’s not yet even mid-morning, and since it’s only the beginning of May, the temperatures are still pleasantly cool. I wouldn’t want to do this on a hot day in July (like the day we visited Grand Canyon South Rim with a temperature of over 100 degrees F.). Having seen the natural phenomena, we move on a few miles to the human aspect of things. There are several sites dating from 1150 to 1225 AD that were inhabited by Wapatki Indians at the time that Sunset Crater arose in their midst. These artifacts are somewhat different from those left behind by other Indian groups of that same era in the general vicinity of Northern Arizona, Northern New Mexico, Southern Utah and Southern Colorado. We visited the ruins of an Indian village with its interconnected houses, religious spaces and communal buildings, apparently abandoned a few years after Sunset Crater appeared..
Exiting the loop road, we head back into Flagstaff and stop for lunch. Then we visit Walnut Canyon the ruins of an Indian village inhabited between 1125 and 1250, after which the inhabitants left for new housing a few miles southeast and were gradually absorbed into the Hopi tribe. These dwellings are on a mesa in the middle of the canyon, requiring a descent of several hundred feet to visit, followed by an ascent of the same distance to return to the car. We decide that we have seen enough Indian dwellings for the day, and head on east along Interstate 40.
About two-thirds of the way to Winslow, we leave the highway and drive six or seven miles northwest on a rough dirt road until we reach the BNSF main line, where we drive west to the Canyon Diablo bridge. This famous railroad landmark is almost unnoticeable from the train, but is well worth a visit to look at from the ground. However, the driving conditions to get there are abominable. Several trains pass while we are there, and I get some photographs. Then we return the way we came to the highway, after which we again head east to Meteor Crater. The latter is a tourist trap located at the site where a meteor impact many centuries ago has left a very deep hole in the ground. It is interesting to look at, but not worth the entrance price. While there, I drop a lens cap that slides through the fence and down into the crater, rendering the visit even more expensive.
After getting some cold drinks in Winslow, we head east on I-40 to Holbrook, where we turn south off the highway to drive the remaining seventy miles through Snowflake to Pinetop, AZ, where we will stay for the next week. The route is roughly the same as that of the Apache Railroad, but not close enough to see the tracks after the initial climb out of the Little Colorado River valley. In Snowflake, we stop for a few groceries. South of Pinetop, we find the Roundhouse resort, check in, and settle in to our room. For dinner that night, we first investigate the Indian casino just over the border of the Apache reservation, then settle on a steak house in Pinetop.
This morning, we visit the local supermarket to buy the needed supplies for our small kitchen, then look around the general area. I spend some time writing up the ideas I have developed since a meeting last Tuesday.
Today, we do little except walk around the area of the resort itself. I use the detailed maps we have acquired since getting here to plan our excursions for the week. Pinetop is on the northern edge of the White Mountains, most of which are part of the Apache lands.
Today is the first of our visit to look at Copper-country railroads. We drive out of Pinetop to the north, then turn south southwest on the road that heads for Phoenix. This runs through the valley in the middle of the White Mountains that comprises the heartland of the Apache Reservation. About two thirds of the way to Globe, the road drops down a steep cliffside into the Salt River valley, crosses the river, then climbs an equally steep cliffside on the south side of the river. At Globe, we reach the line of the Arizona Eastern Railroad, a shortline operating the former SP branch to the former SP (now UP) mainline at Bowie, AZ.. Today’s train has already headed down the line toward Bowie, and will not return until long after we have passed through Globe on the return journey late this afternoon. We turn east, past the old town area of Globe and across a ridge to Miami. The railroad goes around this ridge to the north. In Miami, we manage to photograph some Arizona Eastern switchers on a run to service a rock plant.
Then we head over the mountain to Superior, upper terminus of the Magma Arizona Railroad, which operates the branch to the mainline junction at Magma Junction, AZ. We find the railroad alright, but as predicted when I asked about the operational status of these lines on the Internet, it appears very much closed at present. So, we turn south along the ridge towards Hayden. Halfway there, we encounter the Ray Mine, a deep copper mining pit. There’s a public observation area, so we stop for a look. The pit is very deep, with terraces along the sides, being used as roads by dump trucks with huge tires. A worn out tire is mounted on display at the overlook, so we can see how large it really is. The mine pit is rail served, but tracks no longer run along the terraces themselves.
The rail line to the Ray Mine is one segment of the Copper Basin railroad, which takes ore from the mine to the smelters in Hayden, and also provides a segment along the Gila River valley connecting Hayden to the main line connection at Magma Junction. This carries refined ore out for delivery to customers, and also serves as the outlet for the San Manuel Railroad that has an end-on connection with the Copper Belt at Hayden. Between Ray and Hayden, we stop to take photographs of a Copper Basin train heading away from Hayden, then stop again in Hayden, near the smelters, to take pictures of more Copper Basin locomotives parked at the railroad’s headquarters. Also in Hayden there is an ore-car dumper for emptying the trains from the Ray Mine.
Just south of Hayden, we see a train stopped on the San Manuel railroad at the interchange. The locomotives are nowhere in sight, so we continue south. We get some cold drinks at a mini-market, then head south along the Gila River valley to Mammoth and San Manuel. This whole landscape is covered in Saguaro and Cholla cacti. At Mammoth, we turn across the San Pedro valley, crossing over the San Manuel RR, and then over the spur north to the Mammoth Mine, another massive copper pit that we can’t actually get in a position to see into. Beyond the mine spur, we turn down the road to San Manuel. At the latter, we see and photograph a San Manuel RR mine shuttle train at the rotary ore-car dumper, then drive around as much of the smelter as we can looking for switchers, etc. Finally, we head back north.
Nowhere along here have we found a place to get lunch. As we head north in search of lunch, we see the San Manuel train heading south across the valley. There’s nowhere to get near it, but I get some shots with the telephoto lens. Nearing Hayden, we take the road that goes directly back to Globe, where we finally find a place for lunch—after 3 pm! After our late lunch, we return to the old town area of Globe to take a look at the ex-SP steam locomotive preserved in a park there. Then we start the return journey to Pinetop.
At the drop down to the Salt River bridge, we come up behind a line of cars. A truck has overturned on the sharp bend, and we must wait for the State Patrol to secure the area and create a bypass over the dirt on the inside of the bend for a single line of vehicles to traverse. Finally, we get past, returning to our resort the same way we had left in the morning.
Today, we spend some time driving back to all of the pretty lakes on the side roads off the road over to Springerville, on the northeast corner of the White Mountains, including a road that climbs way over a mountain ridge to get to the lovely lakes behind it. These lakes are mostly pristine mountain lakes, but the ones over the mountain ridge are clearly artificial in nature although we don’t see a dam. On the way back from these latter lakes, we see a herd of mountain goats only a few feet from the road, so we stop and watch them for awhile.
Today we’re making a trip to see the second set of copper-country railroads, to the southeast of where we’re staying. To get there, we repeat the previous day’s main road route as far as Springerville, then turn south through Alpine and climb up into the White Mountains themselves. This road soon reaches an altitude of 10,000 feet near Beaverhead, which was a complete surprise to us, then twists and turns along the ridge for many miles, affording wonderful views down into the valleys on either side. This countryside is mainly rocky hillsides covered in pine trees, a major contrast to the cactus “forests” seen on Monday, and the scrub and deciduous trees found in the middle of the Apache reservation.
Eventually, the terrain changes and the road drops down towards Clifton. Partway down, the road reaches the edge of the Phelps Dodge Morenci Mine, an even bigger copper pit than the Ray Mine. Again, we take the opportunity offered to take a good look down into the mine. Late, as we drop down the road through the town of Morenci into Clifton, we pass a train entering the smelter on the Phelps Dodge property. This railroad line is a former SP branch to the main line at Lordsburg, NM, now operated as the Arizona and New Mexico Railroad. At Clifton, we reach the San Francisco River valley, a tributary of the Gila River.
Again, there seems to be nowhere to get lunch in town, so we head back towards Pinetop using the road through New Mexico rather than back along the ridge. In a small town (wide spot in the road) along this route we find a small café at which we eat a late lunch. Then we return to our lodgings, using the same route as outward beyond Alpine.
This morning, we drive north to Snowflake, then west to the headquarters facilities of the Apache railroad, where I take pictures of some of the Alco locomotives in the yard, in various states of repair. Then we drive south, back into the Apache Reservation, the same way we had gone on Monday, but this time turning off on the side roads into the villages and towns on the reservation. We drive each one of these as far as paved road exists, over ridges and down into river valleys, first west of the main road, and then east. At the major crossroads in the section east of the main highway, we visit some of the buildings at the old US Army fort that once provided the US presence on the reservation, and take a side road going well up a creek valley into the mountains to the east. Finally, we return north on the road that arrives at Pinetop from the south, past the casino.
Today is departure day, so we pack and check out of the resort. We leave the area on the road heading due west along the Mogollon Rim, the top of one of those thousand-foot escarpments that cross Arizona from east to west separating the higher altitudes in the north from the lower ground in the south. After fifty miles or so along the rim, the road drops slowly down to the lower land below. We eat lunch in a small town where the east west road crosses a road north from Phoenix, then continue westward, across Interstate 25 to Prescott, the original capital of Arizona Territory, where we spend some time looking around the old part of town.
Leaving Prescott, we head north to Ash Fork, occasionally seeing the old Santa Fe line to Phoenix, then east parallel to the original Santa Fe main line to Williams. We spend a few minutes at the Grand Canyon Railway’s depot and gift shop, then head north towards the canyon to see the GCR’s train of the day heading south in late afternoon. Today’s train is headed by one of the railroad’s FPA4 cab units, which I get some pictures of. Then we head east on Interstate 40 into the Arizona Forest, covering the area of the Arizona Divide. Following some directions I had acquired off the Internet, we find a place to stop alongside the BNSF main line where we watch and photograph trains until it is too dark to do so.
After dark, we drive into Flagstaff, have dinner at a Chinese Restaurant, fill up the fuel tank on the car, and leave it in the appointed lot at the Amtrak station with all paperwork filled out. Then we walk over to the adjacent station building to wait for the train. We spend the intervening time looking at the exhibits maintained by the local Chamber of Commerce and tourist folks. When the train arrives from the east, after dark, we walk to our sleeping car and board. We go directly to bed once our tickets are taken
[consist]
P40 835
P42 20
MHCs
Baggage
Transition
Sleepers
Diner
Lounge
Coaches
Train 3, 5-8-1997 |
Schedule |
Actual |
|
5-9-1997 |
|
|
|
Flagstaff |
9:14pm |
9:12pm |
|
5-10-1997 |
|
|
|
San Bernardino |
5:46am |
6:17am |
|
Fullerton |
6:54 |
7:20 |
|
Los Angeles |
8:00 |
8:10 |
We awake when the train stops in San Bernardino. Into Los Angeles essentially on time, we take the shuttle home and are there by mid-morning.