tonto natural bridge state park

Just a few miles off the main road, this natural wonder is well worth the visit. The view points are easy-enough to get to. Take the trail down to below the bridge.

The Tonto Natural Bridge State Park is a beautiful treasure well worth the visit! It is very well maintained; the staff is extraordinarily helpful; the site is protected.It is is also very nice that there are adequate picnic and parking facilities for family picnics--no electronics needed!! What a joy to observe family outings in a gorgeous setting!While in Payson or in rim country, do visit!

What a beautiful place to visit! The natural bridge is breath taking. Once you find a park there are many viewing points. If you are adventures hike down to the base of the bridge and hike through the center. It is a very steep hike down to the bottom and back up. If you have bad knees or hart problems think about it first. Once you get to the bottom you have to chart your own way through the water and slipper boulders, but it is wreath the hike. As you hike through look up, there are some great rock formations. On the other side of the boulders is a viewing deck that you can see the water following down from above in to the creek.

We decided to make a trip to see the Tonto Natural Bridge in Payson, AZ. From Gilbert it was only about an hour and twenty minute drive. We actually went up the night before and stayed in a local hotel. We arrived at the Natural Bridge around 11 AM. The entry fee is $5 for adults and $2 for kids 6 and older. The man who took our money was very friendly and told us the Gowan trail was the best if we wanted to go all the way down so we parked and headed over to the Gowan trail.In my party was myself 40, my son who is 10 and my daughter who is 7. The Gowan trail starts off really easy as you are working your way down the trail. Going down you will go down stairs, the terrain is mostly dirt, dusty and rocks. It really didn't take long to get to the bottom of the trail where you looked up and saw the beautiful natural bridge. There was water coming off the bridge down to the bottom. There is a section at the bottom where people can sit on the rocks, kids can play in the water or my kids climbed on the rocks. Also at the bottom was a bit of water. We used the rocks to step across and the kids played for a good 20 minutes.Never being here before we were a bit confused if we were supposed to turn around or if we could keep going. You can keep going. My son noticed a tiny arrow on a rock pointing through so we kept going. If you keep going through under the bridge and up the other side it is a lot harder than the trail you just took to get down. There were huge boulders to venture up and over. You really had to think which one to stand on or if you even stood or what was around to hold onto. It was very steep. We hike a lot around home so my kids did okay. My daughter had a few times where I was nervous if she would be able to climb up the rock, if she would fall into the water or fall off a rock but she was okay. So the climb up took about 30 minutes. When you go through and up the other side you actually come up on a different trail. When you come out of the trail there is a lookout point. You can look down at where you just were. It's pretty cool to see how far down you were, you just touched those rocks, saw those trees up close. I would highly recommend going down the Gowan trail, cross the water at the bottom and go up the other side. It was beautiful. Lots of different trees, cactus growing out of the rocks, amazing boulders, the colors were beautiful, an awesome trail. Bring your camera you will take lots of pictures, I took over 400 pictures it was that pretty.After we finished that trail we wanted to do the waterfall trail. That trail we were told was fast and easy but very pretty. So off we went. You start at a very easy dirt path that quickly lead to a ton of steps down. We got down about half way and there was a chain link blocking everyone off with a sign saying trail closed. You couldn't see anything down to that point so I'm not sure why the trail wasn't just closed at the top. We passed people as we were going down they were coming up but no one said anything about the sign. As we went back up we told others about the sign. I guess we got our exercise in as we did all those steps but I feel the sign should have been at the top. You couldn't see any waterfall or anything. Other than this we had an amazing time. For sure a great place to go and see if you are visiting or even live in AZ. We will go back again.Oh one more thing.. my daughter wanted to stop at the gift shop. I'm usually against gift shops at places like this but I gave in as we were disappointed in the last trail being closed. The gift shop is actually a pretty small house looking building located right where you paid your entry fee. When you first walked in to the left was a room of pictures, information on the park and stuffed animal heads. I'm not into the stuffed animal heads so we quickly left that room. To the right is the small gift shop. The prices were very good. A tee shirt was about $14 which isn't bad and they seemed to be good quality. My kids didn't see any shirts they liked so my son got some gems which were pretty cool and my daughter got some rock soap which was cool as well. There really is not a lot in the gift shop but the prices were normal not overpriced at all.

Me and my wife got married here september 15th 2001. It is the ideal place for friends and family to share a special occasion I would highly recommend doing so. You're also able to rent out the hotel part of the park it is memories that will last a lifetime.

We had a picnic and walked around the park, although we didn't venture to the bottom of the falls. Pretty, natural scenery. It's quite a steep road in and out. Friendly staff, clean grounds. The trees were blooming and very pretty.

This attraction exceeded our expectations. The grumpy old guy who took our $10 fee (this is the first state park employee I've ever met who was grumpy!!) explained viewing options of this 188-foot-high travertine natural bridge. There were a number of sunny picnic table areas, and not a one in use during our visit. But to really experience it, take the steep steps/path down to the river bed and look up into the bridge. Signs warn it is very difficult hiking, which it is not. If you're in decent physical shape, it only takes about 15 minutes to go down and maybe 20 back up (we're ages 66 and 74). From below, you'll see trees perched on a moss bank 200 feet above you, so perilously they appear to be ready to fall, but water streams from that point into a veil of mist that covers the boulders at creek level. You can look through the bridge to the sunlit scene behind it, almost like an entry to the fantasy land of Shangri-La. Climbing on the boulders under the bridge is not advisable (slippery). When we were there, a local helicopter rescue team was doing maneuvers in the canyon, probably practicing for high season when foolhardy types get themselves in trouble. Stay on the path and soak up the beauty.

It is an OK attraction. Once you have looked at it for ten minutes, you are done. An interesting geological fenominon if you happen to be near by due to other reason. But, for the fee and the drive to get there for it alone . . . not worth it!

The bridge is an unusual formation, nice and easy walking tour in the Park, plenty of viewing stations, benches to rest

that is if you are fairly fit. I live here so have taken visitors here quite a bit. Always worth going again.

Just went last weekend and we loved it! Pretty easy hike. Had our 2 year old son with us and he was able to make it down and up the stairs with no problem. We could only go to the base of the bridge because there were high waters but from what we saw, we loved it. We will definitely go back in the summer when the water is lower so we can do the entire hike.

The Tonto Natural Bridge State Park has about 4-5 trails that wind down to the natural travertine bridge. Unfortunately due to the heavy rains that had come through a few days earlier some of the trails were closed. Some of them were steep and my husband with his fear of heights couldn't do them anyway. But we enjoyed our time there, and would definitely consider bringing a picnic lunch the next time, as there were many tables there and it is a beautiful area.

A beautiful easy walk from parking lot to waterfall outlook, a little more ambitious to walk to the falls lower vistas. Worth a stop!

What a neat place! Unless you are a mega-hiker, you'll be limited to a little valley with short trails, beautiful scenery, picnic tables and the like. It's quite isolated (part of the charm), and a neat visitors' center and helpful park rangers. We were there in midwinter, so we didn't stay too long--just walked a few of the nice trails. A delightful place to explore and relax.

Visited on the 1st February, great road to drive down to the park. I was the only visitor when I arrived and was advised most of the trails were closed due to high water levels. Still went in and spent an hour wandering around and walking the last open trail. Lovely spot and great views. I can imagine on a nice summers day its a great spot to spend the day.