Journey Off Tonto Natural Bridge
During a week off of school, I made plans to go to Tonto Natural Bridge with a couple friends. We were kind of limited on places. Hear me out on it.. with a college budget, we couldn’t leave the state and with the colder weather, we were limited on hikes in Northern Arizona. We decided a day trip to Tonto Natural Bridge was our best idea. I remember seeing pictures and thinking “I wanna go there.” Not much thought or research was done after that.
I woke up at 6 in the morning to meet my friends and head out from there. I remember walking past my brothers (Belal) room . I remember thinking it was so early for him to be up so I asked him where he was headed and he just responded with “hiking with Amir.” He is not a morning person, I KNOW lol.
I ended up on leaving soon afterwards and not thinking much of Amir or Belal. I got to my friends house and we left from there. It was about a two hour drive through highway 87 towards Payson. We got there around 9 am and went straight towards the hike.
What I hadn’t known was, you can see the bridge from four different viewpoints that are a lot easier than hiking to it through a trail. We went the back way and hiked. At the time, I didn’t care. We came to hike anyways.
Tonto Natural Bridge State Park location
Four different trails-
Pine Creek Trail- ½ mile long, ends at the Pine Creek Natural area.
Waterfall Trail- 300 feet long, ends at waterfall cave
Anna Mae Trail- 500 feet long and ends at Pine Creek Trail and the Natural Bridge
Gowan Trail- 2200 feet long, ending at the observation deck in the creek bottom.
Five minutes into the Pine Creek Trail with two of my friends I heard someone laughing from afar and right away I knew who it was. I looked at my friends and go, “THATS AMIR.” They both thought I was crazy but a few seconds later we ran into each other. I was two hours away from home and I ran into Amir & Belal. It was the weirdest yet funniest thing to happen to me.
Fees
adults: $7
youth (7–13): $4
kids: Free
A little tips about Pine Creek trail since I came unprepared that day.
Half the trail is undeveloped so make sure to wear comfortable shoes that you know will do you good. Better yet, hiking shoes if you have any in your closet. If you’re afraid of heights, be alert lol. I’m not really afraid of heights, water, or much of anything really. There is this rock-like area surrounding a swim area. One of the rocks is pretty huge and it just so happened to be the rock you have to go through to get to the bottom. All the boys just ran down it like no biggie and there was me.. I was stood at the top looking down at the water and started shaking. Next thing you know, my body froze scared to death to just run across this. I kept looking at the water thinking “holy shit. That’s cold water if you fall in right now.” Anyways after about 5 minutes of everyone trying to encourage me to get down. I finally got down on all four limbs and scooted down with my booty lolol. If you do end up on doing this hike and see this area, don’t laugh at me. Looking back at it, I don’t know what got to me that day but jeez did I overreact.
A few more reminders
Dogs are allowed at and around the park BUT not on the trails
Swimming is not allowed
No glass containers
..And always be respectful of the land and people around you
If you end up on going to Tonto Natural Bridge, tag us in your pictures! If you end up doing the same trail as us, take a picture in front of the big scary ol’ rock! Haha! Have a great Journey and always remember to be safe!
