Not as planned...

Early Saturday morning Kenny and I picked up Jereme to head up to Payson to hike Tonto Narrows... little did we know it is now closed due to misuse! I know there are tons of trails up there in Hellsgate Wilderness, but we had no idea how to get to them! Kenny remembered Tonto Natural Bridge was just North of Payson so we decided to go there. Tonto Natural Bridge is on the list of state parks to be closed this year due to the economy so I was really glad for the chance to go up there!

We hiked all the trails there and had a really nice day. We couldn't have picked a better order to hike the trails. The sites just got more and more beautiful and breath taking as we went.

We started waterfall trail -

Kenny and Jereme coming down the stairs

The trail up to the waterfall

looking up at the waterfall

it was actually cold under the fall!

Then we headed to the Pine Creek trail which linked all the way to the observation deck under the bridge (which we didn't know until we came upon it)

You can see the waterfall behind us

another waterfall picture

Most of the trail was undeveloped river bottom and we just figured our own way to go.. one rock at a time.

We came upon this narrow passage

and if you looked up you would see walls like this

we also came across a small cave

Here we were in the natural Pine Creek area just under the bridge

We are actually on a high cliff across from the observatory desk. There is a deep pool of water between us. The wind was really blowing and it was cold!

One of the walls of the bridge

The small amount of water that falls off the bridge...

acts like a moving sprinkler in the wind... Kenny was just in front of me and I asked him to wait up for me. Right then a gust of wind came and moved that water over his head and drenched him. It was pretty funny in retrospect.

Here are the guys as we were leaving (the bridge is behind them)

This is a view from the top (view point 4) of the bridge

looking the other direction

Oh yeah.... The original trail advertised how great it was for dogs, so we brought Hope. Unfortunately, Tonto Natural Bridge does not allow dogs on the trails (there is no way she could have made it with all the rock climbing) so she pretty much spent the morning in the car. She was a really good sport about it though and I am sure she like getting to GO!