Tonto Natural Bridge State Park Gowan Trail

The second and last trail we went on at the state park was the Gowan trail.  This trail led you down to the bottom of the natural bridge.  It is so named after the first person to settle there and enjoy the scenery way back in the 1880s.  The trail is about 1/2 mile and is steep and rough.  There was about a 200 foot elevation gain.  Ugh.  It was worth it though because it was nice and cool under the bridge and reminded me of being inside a cave. 

Here is the natural bridge from the top looking down.  It is thought to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world.   It is 183 feet high and measures 150 feet at it's widest point.  The state park has created walkways on top of the bridge and also the hike down to the bottom.  There is a small creek running through the bridge. 

Here is the bridge from the trail coming down.  It looks like it has two tunnels but it doesn't.  I'm not sure why it looks like that from afar because you can't see that once you're under it. 

This is from under the tunnel looking up at the small waterfall.  It was very nice.  The ceiling of the bridge also leaks water and that was nice.  

My husband wanted to go a little further through the tunnel than I did so I sat and made myself comfortable while he explored on his own.  There he goes. 

While he was gone I took (what I think are) beautiful pictures of the scenery.  Here are a couple. 

If you look closely there are people in the back of the tunnel.  One of them might be my man.  

Here he comes back using a different way then when he left.  Can you see him?  I thought I was going to have a heart attack and I expected him to fall at any moment.  Those rocks looked so slick. 

He made it okay, thankfully.  I could breathe easy again.