Trip to Tonto Natural Bridge in Payson, Arizona

The following pictures are from the Tonto natural bridge which is located outside of Payson, Arizona, which is about two hours from my house. These were taken last year, and I forgot about them until recently. Too bad I didn't have the actifit app at that time. The area is now a state park, so you have to pay to enter, but it is worth it considering how well kept the place was.

When you leave the parking lot, and head to the bridge, you have the option of taking the trail that goes along the top of the bridge, or hiking down to the bottom. I would have went down, but the person with me wasn't fit to make the trip, so I didn't go. This first picture was taken from the top of the bridge looking out into a valley of the Tonto national park. This is also the background image for my Steemit profile.

This next picture is of the trail that takes you to the bottom of the bridge. If you zoom in, you can see someone standing below the branches of the tree covering the wooden bridge.

After a few more steps, and turning right, you can see the natural bridge. To give you a sense of how big this opening actually is, consider that we were standing above the rainbow in the center of the picture, and if you look at the opening on the other end of bridge, you can see two people.

This is another picture from the same angle, but zoomed in so you can see the stream that flows through the bottom of the bridge.

Once you return to the parking lot, there is a whole other trail you can take which leads you down into a canyon along side of the bridge. While walking along that trail, I took this picture of a puddle of water on a rock that looks somewhat like the shape of a heart.

This trail ends at a cave opening that doesn't go too far into the mountain.

Along the way we encountered a cliff face that had water running off of it, and splashing down right next to the trail. It was like a natural cooling spot as it was a hot day.

This last picture was taken from another trail off of the parking lot. Again, this was a fairly steep face as you can tell from the fence posts at the top of the picture. The cutouts in the dirt were pretty spectacular.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Before leaving we stopped in the gift shop, and I found out that there is a trail that goes from the southern border of the state, all the way to the northern border. I love to hike, so maybe that will get covered one day, or more like several days when you consider that Arizona is the sixth largest state in America.