Tonto National Forest

The Tonto National Forest covers 2,873,200 acres, making it the largest of the six national forests in Arizona and the ninth largest in the United States. Elevations range from 1,400 feet in the Sonoran Desert to 7,400 feet in the ponderosa pine forests of the Mogollon Rim, and it is one of the most visited urban forests in the country. It is bounded by the Phoenix metropolitan area to the south, the Mogollon Rim to the north, and the San Carlos and Fort Apache Indian reservations to the east. Its name is the Spanish word for 'foolish'. The forest is managed by the USDA Forest Service from headquarters in Phoenix, with ranger district offices in Globe, Mesa, Payson, Roosevelt, Scottsdale and Young, and offers hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing. On 13 June 2020 a wildfire ignited in the Tonto Basin area; the Bush Fire burned 193,455 acres, the fifth largest fire on record in Arizona, and was sufficiently contained by 1 July. Investigators determined that it was human-caused.

Where it is

Tonto National Forest is a natural landmark near Globe, in Gila County. It is one of the natural landmarks in this database, and appears in the statewide ranking of Arizona attractions.

How this ranking was reached

No official visitor count is published for Tonto National Forest, so its score rests on public interest and tourism significance, and is capped below the level a measured attraction can reach. That is why the medium confidence above is not higher. The weighting is explained in full on the methodology page, and every axis is broken out under Facts and sources at the foot of this page.

Note on the data: No official visitor count is published for this attraction.

Sources

• Public interest: Wikimedia pageviews (en.wikipedia, human traffic), 2024
• Coordinates and designations: Wikivoyage(opens in a new tab)
• County: U.S. Census geography via FCC Area API, resolved from coordinates

Record last verified 2026-08-12.