Tuesday, September 2, 2008

An 'Old' road

This weekend we had a mission. Our mission was to go down to the Old Highway 89 bridge over Hell's Canyon. I'd seen this stone bridge originally from the heights of the railroad bridge that crosses the canyon (post here).

 

So on Monday we drove out to Drake Rd (a.k.a. 'The other Perkinsville'), and parked the truck. We conveniently dodged under the gate informing us that only authorized personnel are allowed, and that it is considered a 'General Blast Area'. We walked the 1/2 mile or so down to the bridge and started snapping away.

 

Pictures speak louder than words. :)

Weight Limits (probably why general traffic isn't allowed over the bridge any more):

 

From this point you get a pretty awesome view of the railroad bridge (3 exposure HDR):

 

Of course, the view from the bridge is never good enough for me, so we took a bit of a precarious slope down to the creek bed for some views of the underbelly of Old Highway 89 (and decided to play with vertical panoramas):

 

And why not bushwhack our way to the railroad bridge for a look up it as well (that little spot of blue... yeah that's DaNece standing directly underneath the beast):

 

Along we the way we picked up a little hitchhiker, whom I called George:

 

I even got DaNece to post for a pic:

 

We hiked out of the creek and on our way back to the truck we got a bit of a surprise. See, I have always been under the impression that this section of the railway is no longer used. Sure as shit though, along came a whole section of engines chugging along over the bridge:

 

I guess you learn something new everyday.

Go here for the few pictures not included in this post.

6 comments:

Daly said...

What an adventure!! Thanks for the pics. No one believes that the sky can be that blue but it really is that beautiful.

TomboCheck said...

Daly - The joys of this area, this is practically in our backyard. Just a 15 minute drive away. :)

The skies always amaze me, but especially during the monsoon season. Always so dramatic.

Granny J said...

What a fun outing, Tombo -- it's been ages since I've seen that old bridge, which, BTW, could still be used when we first came out here in the 80s. The best sight of all up on the rrailroad bridge is one of those inspection autos equipped with RR wheels -- a real strange site.

TomboCheck said...

GJ - I think I know the inspection truck you are talking about. A strange sight indeed.

Melissa said...

Stellar pictures as always.

Hi DaNece!

The vertical shots are wonderful. I loved doing those in Big Sur - sp much so that Steve was like "stop turning the damn camera around EVERY PHOTO."

I like the b/w one on your Flickr called Concrete Bridge too.

whom I called George

and I will love him and pet him...

TomboCheck said...

Thanks Melissa!
Yeah, I'm starting to get into the panos a bit more, since Photoshop CS3 does such an awesome job of merging them together.

The 'Concrete Bridge' photo was taken from up on the railroad bridge a few months back, and is the reason why I wanted to get down to the bridge to take a peak. :)

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinks of bugs bunny. :)