Tonto National Monument

Today we visited the Tonto National Monument. We had made reservations for the hike/tour to the upper cliff dwellings. It's a 3 mile (1.5 miles each way) hike with 600' of elevation gain. There were about a dozen of us on the hike lead by Ranger Jan. We made many stops on the way up when Jan would talk about the animal and plant life. It took over 1 1/2 hours to get to the dwelling. Once there we ate lunch outside the dwelling and then went inside. Jan explained many of the rooms and what we were seeing. Very interesting place! After about an hour we headed back down. It took less than 1/2 hour to get back down. All in all a very worthwhile outing.

Upper cliff dwelling as seen from the trail.

Ranger Jan explaining one of the rooms.

View from the dwelling.

The trail switchbacking up the hill.