Tonto Natural Bridge State Park and the Mogollon Rim, Payson, AZ

Tuesday, November 22

We left Dead Horse Ranch SP by 9 am. I took the car to Walmart to pick up a prescription for Freya that I had just about forgotten about and Ray went to the sani-dump. At Fry's we met up,  hooked up the car. and headed down Highway 260 to Payson. There was quite a bit of road construction between Cottonwood and the I-17 portion of 260 so it was a little slow going to start. After crossing over the
I-17 the road was great. We left an elevation of 3300 feet in Cottonwood and climbed up the windy highway to 7300 feet before descending down into the small town of Strawberry and Pine and then down some more into the town of Payson at 4900 feet. What a pretty trip. Although the road did not have much in the way of shoulders, it was all newly paved and quite smooth. A technical drive for those not used to their engine brakes or transmission shifts. These travel pictures are from Dianne.

Heading out up on the way to Payson. 

You finally get to the plateau.

Now down the hill into a little town called Strawberry.

Across the East Verde River

It did not seem very long and we reached our destination, the Mazatal Hotel and Casino. Steve and Dianne arrived shortly after us and after the boys had their confab about where we were going to park we proceeded to get set up for the next two days here.

Picture by Steve

Since the day was still young, with Ray's back capable of the trip and after the four of us refuelled with our leftover lunches, we all decided to go back up the highway a short ways to the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park and investigate.

“Tonto Natural Bridge is located in…the central part of Arizona…. It is in Pine Canyon, a tributary of East Verde River…. The country is mountainous, with deep canyons, towering peaks and precipitous cliffs. The elevation of the bridge in the bottom of Pine Canyon is approximately 4600 feet above sea level.

The outstanding feature that has made this place (The Mogollon Plateau Area) famous is the Tonto Natural Bridge. It is unique among natural bridges in that it is formed of travertine. Most bridges are either in sandstone, as witness Rainbow Bridge and other natural bridges in Utah, or in hard limestone, such as the famous Natural Bridge in Virginia.”

(Quoting Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, entitled “North American Natural Bridges” with a discussion of their origin.)

Not only is the bridge unique in respect to its origin, but also is, moreover, one of the most beautiful bridges in the United States. When the brilliant green of the irrigated, travertine-filled valley above the natural bridge comes into view, its beauty seems unusual…. Beneath the arch of the bridge are several caves of considerable extent, from the roof of which hang stalactites and from the floor of which stalagmites arise.

Darton…found 1150 feet of quartzite…exposed at Natural Bridge with basal conglomerate 300 feet thick….

Two large springs discharge into the valley…. These springs also provide water for the large swimming pool, which has been constructed for the accommodation of the visitors.

These springs have been discharging for a very long time, probably for hundreds of thousands of years. The travertine thus formed has spread out and choked the gorge…. Our attention was called to one deposit along the face of the cliff that has been built out five feet in forty years, or at the rate of 1.5 inches per year.

Height of bridge 183 feet Width of tunnel 150 feet Length of tunnel 393 feet Thickness of travertine above tunnel 60 feet Width of platform across valley on top bridge 1050 feet Length of platform, upstream 1320 feet Average thickness of travertine deposit 150 feet Number of cubic feet of travertine 200,000,000

There are within the tunnel 5 pools of clear water, one of which is said to be 40 feet deep. The present trail through the tunnel is practically unimproved, except that ladders have been built on the steeper cliffs. At one place in the tunnel there are 4 ladders, with 60 rungs. At many places, there is a constant dripping of water from the roof. Stalactites are forming from above and stalagmites on the floor.

There are several viewpoints on the top and a few trails to get down closer to see the natural bridge. It sure is huge. But first we did the short "Waterfall" trail. We did not know what to expect but here it is.

The waterfall actually falls onto the boardwalk trail.

Steve and Ray went ahead of us.

Picture by Steve

View of the cliffside

The water running down the side of the hill.

Ahh.... no, do not want to get wet!

The "creepy cave" on the other side of the waterfall\

The nub at the top right is hanging from the ceiling

We drove the car down to the other end of the parking lot so we could look at Viewpoint # 3 and #4.

View of path from Viewpoint #3

Picture by Steve

View from trail to the bridge

From viewpoint  #3, we saw the path down to the bottom to get closer so we decided to take the Gowan Trail. Wow it is sure beautiful down there. I even saw a fish in one of the pools.

At the beginning of the trail, on top of the natural bridge there is a grate to look down into.

You can see the water falling a long way down. (Too bad it was not plexiglass to get rid of the grate!)

Beautiful pools with reflections.

Picture by Steve

Steve and Dianne's Photo Op!

A rainbow in the water droplets.

Beautiful travertine ceiling

Dianne, Steve and Deb

Absolutely gorgeous.

To get an idea of how large it actually is ... look at the people high up on the rocks.

I was the slowest one to get up to the top ... they guys and Dianne were all waiting in the shade a minute or so for me to catch up with them.

Picture by Dianne

The above picture from google, taken from the other side down the Anna Mae Trail. 

Back across the parking lot we stopped at Viewpoint #2. Unfortunately the sun was right in the spot for the best view but with the help of my sun visor ... Ray did the best that he could. What a fabulous treasure.

Fantastic formations caused from the water, the same stuff we have seen in our cave tours.

And finally back over the natural bridge to Viewpoint #1 for the upstream pictures below.

After an hour or so viewing and taking mega pictures it was time to head back to the casino and enjoy some of the afternoon outside with a cold beer. As we were leaving the park I noticed a herd of javellinas and some deer crazing near the gift shop. Pretty cool seeing them outside of a zoo. The large building is the Historic Lodge and Park Store.

Picture by Steve with the Historic Lodge in the background.

They sure have lots of babies. They seem pretty docile with people around. We did not see a boar though.

The Historic Lodge

Back at home we sat around outside for an hour or so enjoying cold beer after today's adventures.

Picture by Dianne.

Around 5 we all walked over to the casino as it was "Crabby Wednesday", all you can eat snow crab for $16. Well it turned out to be a very disappointing buffet with only the crab as the main with the only sides being mashed potatoes and green beens. Their salad bar was pretty good though. Ray loaded up with crab, while the 3 of us just started with salad. Once back to our table I saw that the people behind us had huge dinners of prime rib. When the server showed up I asked her about that and she said you could order off the menu as well and the salad bar was included with your meal. Sweet! Ray stuck with his crab dinner although the server offered to take it away and he would not be charged but he opted to stick with it. Steve, Dianne and I ordered the prime rib. It was unexpectedly fabulous, moist and tender, medium rare just the way we like it with a loaded potato. Yumm.  Of course Ray got half my prime rib too.

So dinner turned out well surprisingly. Ray and I headed back to the coach after dinner as we were bushed. Steve and Dianne were going to try their luck at the slots for a bit. Another great day.