In our NP Passports: Tonto Natural Bridge and Montezuma Castle

 Just a very short drive from Strawberry is the Tonto Natural Bridge National Park. We ate our picnic lunch...

 peeked through the peep hole at the top of the bridge...

 and headed out for the little hike that leads to the base of the bridge.

 The stone arch is "believed to be the largest natural travertine bridge in the world." So says the official website. It was certainly the largest natural travertine bridge we've ever seen.

 We climbed around the super slippy rocks inside the cavernous bridge for a while. The ascent back up to the parking lot was a lot more work than hiking down, but we all made it! I was especially proud of Gracie who carried a water pack the whole afternoon.

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 We took the long way back to the cabin and enjoyed a few miles of the Mogollon Rim. 

 No stamps for the passports here, but in our explorations we found a ranger fire lookout tower. The woman working there has been a fire lookout ranger for over twenty years. She let us climb up to her treetop office, pet her puppy, look through her binoculars at the column of smoke she had just reported, AND gave the kids some Smoky Bear gift bags. It was pretty hazy that day, but the tower still offered quite a view!

 The rim is mostly unpaved which made for a very leisurely drive. We were driving slow enough to spot a tarantula crossing the path. Cori offered to secure it in the bug catcher so we could bring it home. I offered to throw the bug catcher out the window if it had a tarantula in it. Grace got really brave and followed it down the road for a few steps.

 There are hundreds little dirt roads that split off from the main trail, all leading to pockets of campsites. One campsite was right on the edge of the rim. We made a little note of it. It would be an amazing place to spend a few nights. You know, once all the little ones are about 15 years older...

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 Our last National Park visit was the Montezuma Castle National Monument. It is a twenty apartment cliff dwelling that was built by the ancient Sinagua people over a thousand years ago. 

 We spent about an hour walking the 3/4 mile loop, reading the signs and trying to spot all the other little cliff dwellings we could.

Eden took advantage of the open space and the limestone amphitheater to run and yell like a wild banshee child. It was close to closing and the crowds were on the way out, so we let her.