My inlaws ended up in Arizona in the hottest part of the year, but for some reason it was unseasonably muggy while they were here. Although the monsoons arrived as soon as they left in the beginning of July, I needed to get the heck out of the valley. I emailed our friends who have a cabin up in Payson, AZ and asked them to rescue us from this abysmal hell of the Sonoran Desert. A day later I got a call that they’d be at the cabin for a week and we were more than welcome to drive up for a couple of days. Donna was amenable to this, so last Saturday we threw our stuff in the car, dropped the extra key with the neighbor to watch the dog, and drove north. Payson is really only a 90 minute drive from our house, and they’ve worked on bettering the Beeline Highway which is a direct shot from here to there. On the road, I texted a friend who loves to ride her hog up and down this highway on weekends and asked what we should see while there. She suggested I dragged the fam to the Tonto Natural Bridge; I’ve never heard of it, so I mentioned it to Donna and filed it away.

We decided to just drive up over night. Claire for two days beforehand wouldn’t stop talking about seeing her friend Eli. Eli’s going to be 5 this August, and so he’s about 1 1/2 years older than her. They’re good friends, and at home, his parents are like our SW family. The weather is the pines was a mild low 70s and the beers were ice cold. Loved it. Good company and drinks. We sat around, snacking, and talking. Those two played and played. Eli’s little sister Riely just stood in her saucer toy and frowned (her favorite thing to do at 13 months old).

That night we had a huge storm. We sat inside playing games and watching it rain. Claire and Eli were relegated to the second floor where there’s a television with kid’s movies. They eventually fell asleep and were put to bed, and we played Sequence and Facts in Five until the wee hours.

I had asked Terri if the Bridge was cool, and she said it was nearby and worth seeing, so we headed up there the next morning after saying our goodbyes and shooting a cool video of Claire & Eli hugging goodbye.

Tonto Natural Bridge is an ancient geological creation that essentially eroded through several layers of various rocks until there’s a natural bridge that’s just under 200 feet tall. Terri said which trails to take and what would be easier to do with Claire. When we got there, we were confused. We hit one trail and saw some cool waterfall, but we wanted the Big Kahuna. We took another trail down and it looked a little steep. Donna had her purse shoved in a bag with some snacks and water. I wasn’t carrying much because I still had sutures in my chest. Claire’s new Merrel hiking boots got a work out as we made our way down the side of what amounted to a cliff. We came around a bend, and down the creek bed was the bridge. We made our way as carefully as possible down to the bridge and under it. Up ahead we saw what looked like ants, but were people down where we were headed. I felt like a pack mule going down the Canyon.

We made our way over rocks, slippery with wear. We slipped into Pine Creek water and had a helluva good time. We made it down to the bottom, and a beautiful waterfall fell down under the bridge. We had a short snack, shot some more video and pics, and walked back up the easy way. The way I bet Terri had suggested we walk down.

After our adventure, we headed back down to Payson and tried to beat the storm down to the valley. We lost that battle and drove precariously down the Beeline in the torrential downpours with everyone else who had the same ideas as us. About 30 miles north of Fountain Hills all traffic stopped. Someone had rolled a pickup into the ditch. The truck blew up, and when we finally made it the two miles to where the truck lay (after 90 minutes of waiting!) the rubber of the tires had completely melted off.

Even though the driver had a terrible weekend, we enjoyed our time with our friends and our adventure hiking with 14 stitches, a three year old, and two cameras.