Having tried out our new snowshoes two weeks before, John and Mary and I decided that we needed to do it again.  After all, playing in the snow was fun; snowshoeing made it even more so.

As luck would have it, on our first free weekend day - Saturday, January 20 - it had snowed overnight in Payson and was still snowing that morning.  So, we packed up our winter gear and our snowshoes and left the house in search of winter fun.

We left Phoenix around 8:30 a.m., and it wasn't long before we were in a winter wonderland.  It was snowing as far down as 3,500 feet, and the snow was sticking to the ground.  However, unlike some of our other trips to the snow, this snowfall didn't slow us down much, as we didn't really have white-out conditions. 

We arrived in Payson around 10:00 a.m., and we were delighted to see that the whole town was completely covered in snow, except for the Beeline Highway, which had just been plowed to provide the people safe passage through town.  It had been quite some time since we had seen that much snow in Payson, and it was lovely to see it.

Before we could go play in the snow, we had details to take care of.  For one thing, John needed gloves.  He had forgotten to grab his skydiving gloves on the way out of the house, so he needed to buy a pair.  The best place to find winter gear - usually - was the Wal-Mart in town.  Unfortunately for John, on that particular day, there were no men's gloves at all; they didn't even have winter hats.  I, on the other hand, found a new pair of gloves for myself, as well as a head band that would keep my ears warm.  (John could then use my hat for warmth.)  While we were at Wal-Mart, we stopped at the Subway inside and bought sandwiches for lunch; we would eat those after we were done snowshoeing.

We didn't have far to go after we left Wal-Mart; our destination was the Houston Mesa Trailhead, located just outside of Payson on Houston Mesa Road.  This was an area that we had not explored before, so there was no better time than the present!

We arrived at the snow-covered trailhead around 10:45 a.m., and right away, we put on our snowshoes to begin our short hike.  Of course, we didn't plan to go very far; the idea wasn't to gain a lot of distance but to have fun in the snow and get some more practice using our snowshoes.  After all, there was no way that we were going to get very far when snowball fights kept breaking out!

Our snowshoe hike took us about a quarter of a mile down the trail, through the fresh snow.  That was when Mary called an end to our hike because she wanted to build a snowman.  So, we all pitched in and built a piece of the snowman.  We used sticks for arms, dirt clods for eyes, and a twig for a mouth.  To top it all off, Mary took off her hat and put it on the snowman's head just long enough for us to pose for a picture with him.

After finishing our snowman, we decided that it was time to head back to the 4Runner.  It didn't take us long to make it back there; we were thinking about the fresh Subway sandwiches that were waiting for us there, and we had worked up quite an appetite snowshoeing!

Although our hike was over, our day's adventure was not.  Our next destination was Tonto Bridge State Park, which was just a few miles away.  We had visited Tonto Bridge State Park a couple of times before (July 1998 and May 2005), but never during the winter, while it was snowing.  Imagine how beautiful the bridge would be in the snow!

We were surprised to find that the road to Tonto Bridge State Park was open and had been plowed; that made it so much easier to drive down the 13% grade.  Once we reached the bottom of the road, we found that the visitor center was also open and that there were already several visitors at the park.  I guess Tonto Bridge is a popular place to see in the snow!

We went into the visitor center to pay our entry fee, and that was when the ranger told us that all of the trails leading down to the bridge were closed due to the ice.  That was okay, because we weren't planning on hiking there anyway.  We were just going to take pictures, throw a few snowballs, and maybe make a snow angel or two. 

Although the trails leading down to the bridge were closed, the trails on the surface were open.  We hiked a couple of them in order to view the bridge.  At one vista, John and Mary started a snowball fight with each other, and I was caught in the line of fire!

At another scenic overlook, we came across an amazing sight.  Despite the freezing temperatures and the snow, the usual waterfalls were still trickling over the side of the bridge and onto a dead tree below.  The water froze upon contact and formed a series of icicles that hung off of the branches of the tree, making it look like it was covered with a sheet.  It was very beautiful.

As always, it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt...and then it's hilarious!  John managed to hurt himself in a comical fashion as we hiked through the park.  On our way to one of the scenic overlooks, we came to a series of steps leading down to the path.  John decided to skip those steps and just jump into the pile of snow next to them.  He completely misjudged them and wound up slipping and falling flat on his back.  I couldn't help but laugh at him, even though he did hurt his back a bit.

By two o'clock, we decided that it was time to leave Tonto Bridge State Park so that we could start our long drive home.  We had played very hard that day, and now it was time to go home.  So, we said goodbye to the winter wonderland of snow and hoped that we would have the opportunity to do more snowshoeing next year...

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