Road Trip: Covered Bridges

46 this morning, cloudy, windy and showers off and on all day. Not a good day for gardening, so why not take a little road trip?

I had a doc appointment in Parkersburg,  about 50 miles north of here, so we decided to combine that with a drive to see more of our neighboring state's covered bridges. Ohio has over 120 of these historic structures! We chose to seek out three in Wayne National Forest, just over the river from West Virginia.

The first was the Hune Bridge, built in 1891.

All three bridges we visited were closed to traffic.  Probably a good thing, to preserve them. But I do wonder if this disuse is allowing the state to allow the bridges to deteriorate since they are no longer vital to traffic flow? At this bridge, we could see that the issue was that the foundations were washing out. Not a cheap fix, but definitely repairable. 

There was a sweet little camping park by this location, and here I found a literal plethora of wildflowers.

Wild phlox

I don't know this one, do you?

A hillside covered with Dutchmen's Breeches

Rue anemone

A view up the road, bordered by wild phlox

Trillium. These were everywhere.  We did not see any of the rex or yellow varieties however.

Closeup of the Dutchmen's Breeches

And of course, sweet violets.

Another antique spotted in the area!

We had packed a picnic lunch but the weather wasn't fittin', as the oldtimers used to say. So we ate in the car before venturing on.

More next time!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.