Ogden State Park – Central Oregon

My husband and I stopped at the Ogden State Park on the way to Sunriver for a vacation.  I remember coming here as a kid.  The views of the gorge and the Crooked River are just breathtaking.  We could also see several of the Cascade Mountains, but my camera had a hard time picking them up.

It was really cool to walk across this bridge built back in 1926.  It is no longer open to traffic and a new bridge was built just to the east of it.  It allowed for stunning views of the Oregon Railroad Trunk Bridge built in 1911 and the first structure to cross this gorge.

When we arrived at the park, there were maybe 5 other people there.  Then a bus arrived and a huge crowd of people got off to check out the bridge.  All of a sudden, there was a murmur among the crowd that a train was coming.  Everyone became every excited and found their position to take a picture.  It turns out that the bus load of people were on a railroad sightseeing trip.  The organizers stated that they had never been here when a train actually crossed the gorge, so this was a really big deal.  It made their whole day and I thought it was pretty darn cool too.

The Trunk bridge is stunning and it was great to stand next to very old men as they talked about all they knew of this historical treasure.