Tonto Natural Bridge

After doing a few things in the warm part of the state, we decided to head north for cooler country.  We went from wearing shorts and short sleeves for our Saguaro Lake and Red Jeep trips to wearing jeans and sweaters.  Except for Don.  Unless it gets down into the 40's or 50's, he is in his shorts.  Looks rather odd with his ultra white legs, but I guess you can say that his legs match his goatee!  

Just north of Payson is the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park.  The bridge itself is believed to be the largest travertine natural bridge in the world.  Amazingly, neither Don nor I had visited here before, even though we've lived in Arizona for over 50 years.  Hanne, Don and Sarah are ready to do some hiking!

Don and Hanne head on down the many, many steps to the bottom of the canyon.  

Here is a view from the trail.  The natural bridge is under the arch in the canyon wall.

If you go down, you must go up again.  At least that is what usually happens when you go hiking in the mountains.  

The bridge doesn't look that big until you look at Hanne climbing up the next set of stairs. Sarah is the tiny dot of orange on the platform above her! 

It was cool and drizzling at times as we hiked.  Water was coming  from stream on the mesa above us, creating a waterfall off the tree roots.

If you look closely, you can see the black spot (me) and the red spot (Sarah) climbing up on the rocks.  They were wet and slippery, making it a bit more difficult.  Usually, I'm the one taking the pictures but Don stayed back by the platform to make sure I didn't slip and fall (and ruin the new camera).

Well, Sarah and I made it this far without breaking a leg!  Success!

Here we are, at the platform at the bottom of the bridge.  One of the other visitors agreed to take our group picture.  Don and I were the only Americans.  The other group of 8 people were all from Great Britain.

This is what we looked like right after hiking out of the canyon.  I didn't give any heed to this bench on our way down, but we sure took advantage of it after hiking up the trail and the stairs.

This is what the bridge looks like from the top.  We celebrated our hike later on by stopping by another Arizona icon.....Rock Springs Cafe for a piece of their famous pie!  I guess that cancelled out all the calories we burned by our hike.  : (      

So, if you are ever in the northern part of Arizona, stop and see this hidden gem.  It is well worth the trip.