DESTINATION Tonto Natural Bridge

children“some in backpack carriers, others being helped by parents”-and senior visitors on the trails and making it to the bottom to look back up at the bridge.

Measuring 150 feet wide, 400 feet long and 183 feet high, the rock span formed over thousands of years when moving groundwater and spring water redeposited limestone as travertine, a crystalline form of the rock. Over time, the creek worked through the rock, creating first a “tunnel,” then, ultimately, the bridge.

About 110,000 people visit the park each year, and they all come into the valley the same way. The road, paved in 1996 and relieved of some curves and roller-coaster descents-but still a 20-mph ride in spots-makes it easy to get there today, said Boeck.

But the going was tough in 1877 when Scotsman David Gowan discovered the bridge while hunting gold and running from Apaches. He stayed in the valley, built a cabin and planted orchards of apricot, peach and apple trees. Years later, ready to move on, he turned the site over to a nephew from England, David Goodfellow. When the Goodfellow family arrived, they had to lower everything they owned into the roadless valley using ropes and burros. But they persevered, and in 1927 built a lodge for visitors.

Today the structure is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is open for prearranged group tours. Groups of 12 to 20 can schedule an overnight stay. Plans are under way to renovate the lodge and to offer overnight accommodations to park visitors. Boeck projects that services will be in place by spring 2004.

The bridge, like the Grand Canyon, can be enjoyed from above, and many people do just that. Four topside viewpoints, and a small natural hole in the bridge itself, offer a look at the wonders below. From above, visitors may even see some of the javelinas, deer, mountain lions, bluebirds, jays and tanagers that live among the Arizona cypresses, junipers, piñon pines, oaks and other trees.

But just as visitors to the Grand Canyon discover a whole other experience when they explore its depths, so do those who tackle the seriously inclined trails to the world below the bridge.

The last time I hiked there, on a mild October day, I saw mostly adults. Chris Coodey, a computer tech for Glendale Union High School District, and his wife, Rosie, a florist at A.J.'s Fine Foods in Scottsdale, hadn't known much about the bridge beforehand and were surprised by the beauty they found. The couple didn't break a sweat on their initial hike. “It wasn't bad,” said Chris, who admitted to “not being in the best shape.” I didn't see them after they hiked all the trails, but chances are they finished with a smile. Most hikers do, even if they have to rest a bit on the way back up.

Boeck thinks the latest addition, the Anna Mae Trail, is the easiest. Just 500 feet long, but still steep, it offers the fastest way into the canyon. What it doesn't offer are those steel cable “railings” that are so helpful on other trails, especially on the return climb. Anna Mae leads to views of caves not seen on the other trails, though, and it's fun to imagine which cave David Gowan used to hide from the Indians pursuing him.

The 300-foot-long Waterfall Trail, which I thought was the easiest, doesn't go to the creek but leads to a lovely view of a waterfall, a fern grotto, mossy rock walls and the pleasant sound of dripping water everywhere. “It is so-o-o-o beautiful down there,” one returning hiker assured me as I started my descent.

Gowan Loop Trail travels a half-mile to a cave and waterfall observation deck. When I last hiked Gowan, a vivid rainbow arched from the waterfall, disappearing into the darkness of the alcove. Mesmerizing. Fit hikers can continue across the creek and beyond. Pine Creek Trail, also a half-mile long, is developed all the way to the creek bed butnot past it. To access the bridge, hikers have to hop onto and off of wet boulders.

One summer, wearing tennis shoes instead of hiking boots but unconcerned because I carried a hiking stick to use as a “third hand,” I slipped off a rock and sat down in the creek with a splash and a yelp. Trust me, there's no way to pretend you did this on purpose. Still, being at the bottom of the waterfall with a neck-craning view of the bridge's underside made up for the wet shorts and red face.

Also the day I met the Coodeys, I watched another couple take a last look down through the hole in the bridge. Perhaps they were congratulating themselves for making it to the wonders below-or maybe they were vowing that next time they'd wear the right shoes and follow the trails that lead to paradise.

LOCATION: 100 miles northeast of Phoenix; 12 miles northwest of Payson.

GETTING THERE: From Phoenix, take State Route 87 northeast through Payson. At 10.5 miles northwest of Payson, turn left (west) following the directional sign. Proceed 3.4 miles to the parking areas.

HOURS: Memorial Day to Labor Day, 8 A.M.-7 P.M.; April, September, October, 8 A.M.-6 Ρ.Μ.; November to March, 9 A.M.-5 P.M.; closed Christmas Day.

FEES: Call for current fees.

TRAVEL ADVISORY: Call for trailer and motorhome restrictions. Wear hiking shoes; take plenty of water. Pick up a trail map in the visitors center. Heed warning signs. Three of the four viewpoints are wheelchairaccessible. No camping; no dogs on trails. Call ahead about lodge tours and group overnight stays. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: (928) 476-4202.

THINGS TO DO NEAR PAYSON

Area code is 928; 800 series numbers are toll-free.

PAYSON This old lumber and ranching town is the jumping-off point for year-round outdoor recreation in Mogollon Rim Country: hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, sightseeing and local events; Rim Country Chamber, 474-4515; www.rimcountrychamber.com.

MAZATZAL CASINO Try your luck at the casino operated by the Tonto Apache Tribe; (800) 777-7529; www.777play.com.

RIM COUNTRY MUSEUM Wander through exhibits of the area and explore the oldest standing ranger station in the West; 474-3483; www.rimcountrymuseum.org.

SHOOFLY VILLAGE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE Located on Houston Mesa Road, 2.6 miles from the intersection of State Routes 87 and 260, these Indian ruins of unknown origin, circa A.D. 1000-1250, once encompassed 80 rooms, a courtyard and plazas. There's a quarter-mile trail with interpretive signs through the site. Tonto National Forest, Payson Ranger District; 474-7900.

TONTO CREEK FISH HATCHERY Twentyone miles northeast of Payson via State Route 260 and Forest Service Road 289 (watch for the sign), the hatchery thrills kids of all ages because they can take an interpretive walk and see hatchery rooms and trout up close; 478-4200.

PINE AND STRAWBERRY These small towns, 15 and 19 miles northwest of Payson, offer cabins, antique shops, home-cooking eateries and events all year long. The Pine-Strawberry Museum exhibits artifacts of local history; Pine-Strawberry Chamber of Commerce; 476-4791; www.pinestrawhs.org.

alongthe way by LISA SCHNEBLY HEIDINGER CAMELBACK CEMETERY Reserves Its SILENT STORIES for Posterity

YOU CAN VISIT FASCINATING PEOPLE YOU'LL never meet, just about a mile north of Scottsdale Fashion Square. There, tucked away near 64th Street in Paradise Valley, you'll find the anomaly of Camelback Cemetery: rustic, spare and unpretentious land nestled in a neighborhood of very high-end homes.

For mystery and history, nothing beats a pioneer cemetery. Tubac, Williams and Payson all have good ones, but the juxtaposition of valet-parking malls and former area residents make this plot particularly compelling.

Cemeteries like these exist for people who prefer questions to answers. Peopled with silent storytellers, cemeteries let you visit and wonder.

A nearby resident told me the Camelback Cemetery began in 1916, when early homeowners needed a place to bury Mexican servants who died. Since then, it has become desirable real estate. A board decides who deserves to move in. Those who rate get a final resting place that feels like the middle ofnowhere in the city's center. And the neighbors are fascinating.

Like Joe "Cheyenne" Kiser, whose monument is surrounded by a rusty iron fence with a bucking bronco welded on - kind of a New Orleans-gone-rodeo look. The statue celebrates his being World Champion Cowboy in 1923; the dates show he would have been 27 then. He lies buried next to a couple named Ives, who were about his age. Was he a brother to the wife?

I wish Elmer Powell, down a few rows, could tell me some of his stories; he was on the Bataan Death March during World War II as a prisoner of war. I like reading the stone's inscription: "We miss you, Dad." And Bess Burkett told her husband and the world "I Love You" on his headstone; Robert was only 41 when he died. Of what, I wonder.

The saddest to me is Laura Dunn Stanley, who at age 36 died the same day as her 6month-old son, Riley. "Mother and Baby" is incised into the stone. Was it a car accident? Flu? I feel sorry for P.O. Stanley, who outlived his wife and son by almost 50 years. I wonder how often he came here.

Just as interesting, but more enigmatic, are the plots to the west of these. Probably those first servants, I'm guessing, but most are anonymous by now. Worn away are the names scratched on concrete covering the graves or

Carved in splintery wooden crosses. This is

harsher than unmarked graves; someone made the effort to pay tribute to these people, and time has taken them off the roster.

One marker's inscription in green paint has washed off; a whole row of white crosses has blackened, dripping stains where names and dates must have been. Juan Montiel does have a hand-carved cross, showing he lived until 1969. Another cross has an arm broken off; I hope it's from weathered workmanship rather than from vandalism.

There's no parking lot and no lock on the gate. Traipsing down the rows always feels a bit like trespassing; since I have no relatives or friends here, I'm an uninvited guest. I feel anyone who comes to pay tribute must be welcome. Someone took care to put up and maintain these monuments; the least we can do is read them.

Many stories could be told here. The obscure maid now sharing space with prominent people and religious leaders whose monuments are as impressive as any home. Here at Camelback Cemetery, the poor are as interesting as the rich resting next to them.

I enjoy seeing what was vital enough to people to include in their final signoff. In a Tucson cemetery, I admire Mrs. Sanders' stone, which says, "I have loved the stars too deeply ever to be fearful of the night." Puts death in a nice perspective.

At Camelback Cemetery, I see servants as beloved as masters, unmarked crosses saying as much in a different way as the polished granite markers. People die, but can still teach something about equality in eternity.

I have said that I would like one of two monuments to commemorate my time on Earth: either "Dressed to minimize figure flaws," or "Celebrate Remember Believe." But it's interesting to know that I might be a different type of story, a thoughtstarter, in anonymity.

Unlike New Orleans, where one gets to occupy the traditional burial vault for a year and a day, people who were interred at Camelback Cemetery remain. And while the "dust to dust" part of the journey is clear, it's equally true that everyone who is still part of this visible place, who shares either biographical information or enigmatic silence, is not forgotten.