Tonto Natural Bridge

There had been a little too much time at home with everyone on the last week of our Fall Break and Big Daddy and I thought that maybe we needed to spend a little time enjoying our beautiful state.

We decided to take a day-trip to the Tonto Natural Bridge.

It was a beautiful day for a little hike.

Look how cute we are…

We spent a little time up at the overview to get a nice look at where we were headed.

This little stream doesn’t look like much…

But it sure makes a pretty waterfall.

I am so glad the rainbow from the mist showed up in the pictures.

They are checking out the trail we are going to hike down. Grandma Jo was smart and decided she would wait at the top for us.

The trail doesn’t look too bad…see the nice steps.

And off we go to the trailhead.

I didn’t take any pictures of the actual trail because I couldn’t focus the camera and breathe at the same time.

The actual trail was only 1/2 a mile, but to give you an idea of how far we hiked down into the canyon that’s the overview we were just at up on that rocky ledge.

My first sight of the underside of the Bridge. That’s the Man-Child standing at the top of the stairs.

Then you see the enormity of it. The pictures don’t even come close to capturing how big this arch is. Those little dots at the bottom of the picture are people.

As soon as we got to the bottom these two took off to explore.

Here is part of the stream that started on the top.

Big Daddy took the two Littles to explore.

Roo was going to wait at the bottom with me, but soon decided she wanted to explore with everyone else.

The rocks beyond this point were more than I thought my ankle could take, so while everyone else was hiking under the bridge I took pictures.

I finally spotted some people I recognized.

This girly was so proud of herself.

Man-Child and Einstein finally came back from where they had hiked to.

I love that Ham stopped and posed so I could take his picture.

Slowly but surely they were making their way back to where I was waiting.

Ham looks a little concerned about leading the way.

Finally they made it past the last rough patch.

My cute little hikers.

La familia de Chaos and the Tonto Natural Bridge.

Check out Ham striking a pose.

The hike out was breath-taking…literally.

At one point the Man-Child grabbed my arm and was pulling me up the trail. I was amazed at how much easier it was to climb when I had a 14 yr old boy dragging me!

We were very happy to see Grandma Jo waiting for us at the top.

This is the closest we came to finding fall colors while we were there.

Does it count if the trees are always that color?

We made a quick stop in Payson for some lunch then headed home.

On the way home Big Daddy spotted two birds in a tree.

We turned around to get a better look.

They weren’t just any birds.

There is a Bald Eagle nesting area along the Verde Valley River, but it’s pretty unusual to see them this far south.

As an added bonus on our drive home the fountain at Fountain Hills was going when we drove by there.

It was such a fun day that the kidlets decided we should go back once a month.

As long as the Man-Child is willing to pull me up the trail every time I’m game…