my dream bridge
woke up in a vehicle, found a bridge. that is, THE MOST EPIC BRIDGE I'VE EVER SEEN.
i may or may not have a crush on this bridge, you all. vance creek bridge was perfect. foggy. serene. really high up in the air. exhilarating!
esther & i had car-camped the night before, not far from where i'd found out we could get access to the bridge. my friend amanda who had been there before gave me some notes on how to find it, & online i stumbled upon another blogger dishing out some details too.
as esther & i were getting ready to leave our vehicle, an older man who esther thought looked like david letterman drove up & asked us if we were here to go to the railroad. i answered with no, because it didn't click until later that the bridge used to be a railroad (morning brain). he was super smiley & friendly & explained how usually the road he was driving on is lined with cars to go see this railroad. eventually he told us we should go check it out, said to have fun, waved, & drove off.
the "trail" to the bridge was covered with piles of white trees, no doubt deliberately done by locals to make it seem like nothing is there. esther & i maneuvered over & under trees almost the whole 30-ish minutes it took to get to the bridge. you definitely have to earn this one. we came up to a big rock that covered most of our view of what was ahead. as i walked, i leaned to my right to get a glimpse of what was beyond the rock... & there was vance creek bridge.
i gasped at the sight. it was all so breathtaking. the fog was slowly dancing all around it, weaving in & out of the surrounding trees, as if it was welcoming us with a fog show.
esther & i had the whole place to ourselves. it was an awesome morning to visit. we carefully ventured out past the trees at the bridge's start, so we could enjoy the openness. being the 2nd tallest railway bridge in america, its 360° views from atop were stunning.
[wpvideo g4RqhHdj] the thrill & the rush of standing 347 feet above the forest-lined vance creek is unexplainable. so i of course had to (VERY CAREFULLY) sit on the edge of it & dangle my legs freely. i do this often in places like this because i live for exhilaration & experiences like that. i do this when i adventure alone too, so its really not just "for the shot." some think me crazy for doing stuff like that, & i am, but i'm always always super careful. please, if you try this, exercise extreme caution, & don't do anything you aren't comfortable with.
[wpvideo yBpNyPWB] esther, who doesn't love heights & was already a huge champ for being up there with me in the first place, also joined me in sitting on the edge. she's such a good friend... trying new things that i love with me even if it's not her first choice. i think i'll keep her. ;)
eventually we felt the unfortunate need to leave, since we had other places we wanted to go that day. you guys, i legitimately felt sad; i really didn't want to leave. (told you all: mad crushin on this place.)
we made our way back to the vehicle, with me collecting HUGE leaves along the way. no one saw us on the way in, & no one saw us on the way out. we felt like ninjas. IT'S LIKE WE WERE NEVER THERE. muhahaha.
we got some breakfast & then headed for the hoh rainforest. we changed our minds after driving up, but we did find this beauty below just hangin out in the middle of the parking lot.
i want them antlers!! bwah!
one of yhe many many things i've loved about this adventure trip with esther is how laid-back & go-with-the-flow it's been. if we change our minds about something, it's more than ok. we make decisions in the moment, we play things by ear, we high-five... it's been so great. sure we have a long list of places we want to visit on this trip. but if we don't get to everything (& we haven't), it's not the end of the world. i'd say esther & i both have type A tendencies, but we're probably more type B overall. we didn't have one thing set before we landed in seattle besides our rental vehicle. we've been making accommodations as we go!
if you're gonna roadtrip with a buddy, it helps if the two of you are compatible for the adventure ahead.
