Tonto Natural Bridge Arizona State Park, Arizona

Our friends, Rob and Jen, were so very gracious as to drive a few hours out of their way so we could visit Fareed’s Uncle Frank in Payson. Of course, having personal, knowledgeable tour guides, they knew all the best places worth stopping at and brought us to Tonto Natural Bridge Park. Uncle Frank was going to accompany us hiking, but then had an upcoming heart cath and decided wisely to pass this time.

Driving into the park, Fareed noticed a large dark creature, the size of his hand, basking on the side of the road. Rob, very helpfully, informed us that tarantulas often like sunning themselves on the road to absorb the heat. That went over well with us arachnophobes and our eyes were glued to the pavement the rest of the way. Fall in the desert is also the time of year when male tarantulas come out of hiding to hunt for females and can be seen roaming about, which I would think could cause me to crash if I were driving.

We went on the Pine Creek Trail, which is only a 1/2 mile long. The rangers informed Rob that the park closes in an hour and that “the viewing deck is closed”. We started hiking a nice, rock-lined path that descended to a creek bed. It was quite cool and lovely in the forest.

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The “path” soon devolved into following a rocky creek bed.

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The creek bed was a piece of cake compared to when we turned the bend and saw the natural bridge. The height of the bridge is 183 feet and nearly 400 feet long, filled with even more enormous boulders to climb over.

A decision was made calculating the best path to continue on, largely based on the orange construction cone that said “do not enter” on the left side. We elected to go to the right, up and over the large boulder with the tree.

We’re pretty pleased with ourselves, and continue on the path until we get to this:

Uh-oh, this is the “closed viewing deck”. The only way out then is to go back the way we came… or is it? A family following behind us said “oh, you just have to go up the side next to the stairs, then under the rail and you can return this way.” I mean, if a stranger says this, surely it must be ok! Rob, who is the strictest rule-follower, expressed mild misgivings, but none of us wanted to return back through the cave. So we followed the other family and went to the side of the stairs and crawled onto the pathway. It was a lovely, long wooden bridge, and we forged forward without any problems, until we got to the end and again the exit stairs were carpeted with more storm fencing. The other family was helping each other one by one over the rail and down the side of the stairs. So of course, we decide it must be safe! After all, we had successfully traversed the first set of off-limits stairs.

I’m the first to go over the rail and the helpful stranger says ” You just need to put your foot on this branch and lower yourself down (about 2 feet) with your arms to this step”. Looking down, the drop-off if I slipped was about 10 feet. Because my 56 year old shoulders didn’t want to “lower me” and my short 5’2″ legs couldn’t reach the side of the stairs, I allowed our helpful stranger to lift me down by my waist. Everyone else in our group was tall enough to reach without a problem and we continued up the path.

As we started up the path, a ranger yelled down from on top of the natural bridge, “Hey- the park’s closed!” We were all righteous, like, “duh, can’t you see we’re hiking out?” But inside, I’m pretty glad he hadn’t seen us being rule-breakers.

Overall, this was a short, quick hike/climb that was worth a stop. I just wish it was clearer that “the viewing platform is closed” meant “you’ll have to turn around and climb back out over those slippery boulders”, which is way more dangerous than bypassing a few closed stairs!