Length: 1 mile roundtrip

Difficulty: Difficult

State Park: Tonto Natural Bridge State Park

Journal: "Changing the Donut Spare",  "Coming & Gowan", and "Gluten for Punishment"

**Kid Friendly Hike**

From Fountain Hills, take SR 87 north to Payson 80 miles, then continue north an additional 10 miles to the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park turnoff.  Turn left and drive down the steep road to the park entrance.  Warning: This road is a 14% grade; to prevent your brakes from burning up, use your lower gears!

Trail Description:

From the parking lot take the North half of the Gowan Loop down. At the time of this writing , the south half of the Gowan Loop was closed at Viewpoint 4 because of rockslides.

The Gowan Loop is a well-manicured trail, that descends gently for a while and then begins a series of stairs down. Our daughter counted roughly 80 of them. At the bottom of the loop, the trail crosses Pine Creek on a bridge, before ending at the viewing platform.

From here on out, no real trail exists. The Pine Creek Trail, is merely a 0.75-mile boulder hop. Getting under the bridge is the first challenge. The rocks are slippery and water is falling on you. Follow the arrows placed by the park service. At one point you need to make your way across a narrow ledge.

After getting under the bridge, continue to follow the arrows as you boulder-hop, scramble, and hike up Pine Creek. The going is not bad, but little legs will need some help. Along the way you will pass by a very pretty waterfall.

Continue up stream until the arrows point you out of the creek. A short climb up a good trail and some stairs returns you to the parking lot.