Well, this section starts where Meteor Crater left off. I headed east
from Meteor Crater about 20 miles to Winslow. It's a pretty small town,
and not unlike other small towns that are right smack in the middle of
nothing at all. I often times wonder how a town so far from anything
is able to sustain, but I suppose it's just one of those mysteries of
the free market. This photo was taken about 15 miles out of Winslow
at a small lake. It's more like a wide river, except that it
doesn't actually flow anywhere. I'm sure when I figure out how towns
can exist in the middle of nowhere, I'll figure out how lakes can exist
in the middle of the desert outside of nowhere.
Not to leave my car out of the pictures completely, we have this picture
of my Civic overlooking the lake from the high-side of the bank. Not
a whole lot going on here though, so I moved on without much further
delay.
Just one more example lending validity to my argument that I am not
the only person who just goes out driving on these long, silly roads
for no particular reason. After all, I'm not the one who went out and
create a whole club for it, so hey.
This was at the bottom of a long, sweeping, dropping altitude S-curve
in the road. It's highway 87, about 60 or so miles north of Payson,
and it's my kind of road. They even had that big paved area there on
the side of the road to park and take pictures. Ah, how I love driving...
Skipping right to the point, we have a picture from the bottom of the
valley over which the Tonto Natural Bridge extends. It's a somewhat
difficult hike, but worth it in my estimation. Just being in the
city all the time doesn't give me the chance to drive and hike around
to find places like this very often. This area is certainly one of
the nice ones though, showing the natural diversity of the landscape
in Arizona.
Water, trees, shade, and lower temperatures than the broiling Phoenix
area make this trip all the more enjoyable for what it offers.
Simplicity.
This is a photo looking through the tunnel that's under the Natural
Bridge. It's a little bit dark, but you can judge size by the fact that
the people standing in the middle of this picture are looking quite
small. According the literature, the bridge is 187 feet from the
lowest point to the highest (which is not visible here). It's also
400 feet from the entrance which is just in front of me here, to the
other end, where there's daylight.
You cannot tell from this perspective but that waterfall actually goes
all the way from where you see it at the top, to the ground, which is
below my camera's point of view. I'll have to take pictures from a
different perspective next time to demonstrate how this looks a little
better. What you can see well though, is the texture of the inside of
the tunnel.
This view gives a good view of what it actually looks like when you're
inside the tunnel. There are a few people way down in the lower-right
for a perspective of size. It's quite large, and all the rocks are
very slippery. It's not really for the novice or casual hiker.
Finally after hiking my way through to the other side, I took this
picture of the stream that runs through the valley. Just another
example how nice the whole area is. Of places you can go to just
enjoy a simple natural wonder, Tonto Natural Bridge is one of the best.
Page Crated: 7-4-98