Bridge to nowhere

First a little history on the "Bridge to Nowhere"

"The Bridge to Nowhere is one of the most bizarre artifacts to be found in the San Gabriel Mountains. Back in the 1920s, Los Angeles County planned to build a highway all the way up the East Fork canyon to the Mine Gulch Bridge to Nowhere Junction. From there the road would climb over Blue Ridge and drop down into Wrightwood. It would be among the most scenic roads in America. Construction began in 1929, most of the work being done by County prison work crews. By the mid-1930s the highway had reached The Narrows (2800ft) where the East Fork flows through a very deep gorge, the deepest in Southern California. There it was necessary to construct a concrete bridge high above the waters of the gorge. A tunnel was also chiseled out of sheer rock. However, the winter after this difficult construction task had been completed, an unprecedented storm arrived on March 1-2, 1938, depositing many inches of rain on the San Gabriel Mountains. The result was a tremendous flood that roared down the East Fork, obliterating everything in its path including more than five miles of the painstakingly constructed highway. Only the bridge was high enough above the waters to be virtually untouched. The futility of the project having been so emphatically demonstrated, the County abandoned their plans leaving a brand new concrete road bridge standing alone in the middle of the wilderness more than five miles from the nearest highway. It became a popular destination for hikers who dubbed it the ‘Bridge to Nowhere’."

My first time doing this hike was actually when I was a boy scout and our troop was attempting to hike to swan rock, which is midway on the trail to the bridge. This was during the winter months and the water level was pretty high. While hiking along the trail we came upon a portion of the river that was simply to deep and fast to cross, so we made camp at there for a few days before returning.

I didn't make the hike again until I was an adult and married and made the trek several times during different times of the year. Even though its 5 miles one way, its probably one of my favorite hikes. I find the hike very relaxful and somewhat simple. The trail stays pretty level (on the most part) with only a few spots where one would have to climb or walk up very short steep portions of the trail, but the best part is the stream, which is a great way to cool off when needed. The highlight of this hike is the bridge of course. Once at the bridge I will often hike to the water below to relax along the fast moving stream while having lunch - makes for a great day.

This brings us to the present. I was currently on vacation and my son and I wanted to do something together, so we decided to go for a hike and picked the bridge as our destination, but I thought it would be nice to invite my niece and nephew, who have never been on a hike before. After an early morning wake up and a 1 1/2 hour drive we were ready to start our trek to the bridge to nowhere. We had a great time hiking to the bridge and I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted, but I did take some, which you'll see below. The one thing I did that I wanted to do was to try some HDR. You'll find my favorite one at the end of this post. I did a color and b&w version of the shot to share.