Three bridges, three eras, one wild canyon off Oregon’s Route 97: Officials say

Wikimedia Commons/Gary Halvorson

It’s 300 feet straight down to the river

Pull off U.S. Route 97 about nine miles north of Redmond and you’ll find yourself standing at the edge of a basalt canyon with the Crooked River running far below. Three bridges hang over the gorge side by side, each from a different era, each telling a different piece of the story. Reviewers keep calling this Oregon’s mini Grand Canyon, and when you walk out over the rim and look down, you’ll understand why they reach for that comparison. Wikimedia Commons/Gary Halvorson

The fur trader who put Central Oregon on the map

The park takes its name from Peter Skene Ogden, a fur trader who led a Hudson’s Bay Company trapping party through the Crooked River Valley in 1825. He was among the first non-Native explorers to travel through Central Oregon, pushing into country that most people back east had never heard of. He died in 1854, but his name stuck to more than just this park. The city of Ogden, Utah carries his name too. Interpretive signs at the viewpoint pull out details from his travels worth a few minutes of reading. Wikimedia Commons/Gary Halvorson

Three bridges crossing one gorge across three centuries

Stand at the right spot on the rim and you can see all three bridges at once. Together they span more than 100 years of engineering, each one high above the narrow canyon walls, each one built to solve a different problem. The combination draws photographers and history buffs the same way. That single view, three bridges side by side over a 300-foot gorge, is what makes this stop different from any other pullout on the Oregon highway. Wikimedia Commons/Drew Jacksich

The 1911 steel span that was the canyon’s first crossing

The oldest of the three is a steel railroad bridge built in 1911, the first structure ever to cross the gorge. It stretches about 460 feet from rim to rim and rises more than 300 feet above the river. Two rival railroad companies were racing to build through this part of Central Oregon, and whoever crossed the canyon first gained a real advantage. The bridge still stands, still in use, still the same steel skeleton that went up when Woodrow Wilson wasn’t yet president. Wikimedia Commons/Gary Halvorson

Walk to the middle of the 1926 arch and look straight down

The 1926 Crooked River High Bridge is the one you get to walk across. Cars no longer use it, so the whole deck belongs to people on foot. Bridge engineer Conde McCullough designed it, and when it opened, it ranked among the highest single-arch bridges in the country. Walk out to the middle and look down. The canyon walls drop straight beneath your feet and the river runs at the bottom, thin as a ribbon from that height.

There aren’t many places in Oregon where you can stand over a gorge this deep. Shutterstock

The 2000 arch that introduced a new way to build bridges

The newest of the three opened in 2000 to handle the traffic that the 1926 bridge could no longer manage. Its arch runs about 410 feet across and clears the canyon floor by roughly 300 feet. Engineers built it using a cast-in-place concrete method that had never been used on a U.S. bridge before. It now carries every car and truck on U.S. 97 over the gorge, while the old 1926 arch beside it handles only foot traffic. Wikimedia Commons/Bobjgalindo

The Oregon pilot who helped change World War II in the Pacific

The modern bridge carries a name worth knowing: Rex T. Barber. He grew up in nearby Culver, Oregon, and in 1943 he flew the mission that shot down the plane carrying Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander of Japan’s naval forces. Barber flew 138 combat missions in total and earned the Navy Cross. A memorial at the viewpoint tells his story with enough detail to make the stop feel like more than just a scenic pullout. Shutterstock

Lava from 40 miles away built these canyon walls

The dark, layered cliffs around you are columnar basalt, and the story of how they got here starts at Newberry Volcano, about 40 miles to the south. Lava from that eruption flowed north across the high desert and eventually hardened into the rock you’re looking at now. After the lava cooled, the Crooked River went to work, cutting down through the solid rock over thousands of years to carve the gorge. The layered walls make the whole process easy to read from the rim. Wikimedia Commons/Bobjgalindo

The rim path shows you canyon light you won’t forget

A paved path curves along the top of the gorge and connects several viewpoints, each one looking out over the cliffs and river below. The basalt walls are covered in lichen, and in morning and evening light they shift from dark gray to orange and gold. On clear days, snow-capped peaks show up on the horizon. Photographers tend to arrive early or come back at sunset. The middle of the day works too, but the light is flat and you’ll miss the glow the walls put out when the sun is low. Shutterstock

Golden eagles ride the canyon winds above the cliffs

The gorge is worth watching as much as looking down into.

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The post Three bridges, three eras, one wild canyon off Oregon’s Route 97 appeared first on When In Your State.

Golden eagles soar over the surrounding high desert, and hawks and falcons ride the updrafts along the canyon walls. Mule deer turn up in the scrubland nearby often enough that it’s worth a slow look around when you arrive. Bring binoculars if you have them. The canyon is deep enough that birds riding the thermals can be hard to track without some magnification. Wikimedia Commons/Chris Light

Flat, paved and easy on any schedule

The rim path is short, paved and flat, so the walk takes almost no effort. Grassy lawns and picnic tables sit back from the edge, making this a reasonable lunch stop if you’ve been driving a while. Clean restrooms are on site. The parking area handles cars well, though large trailers have limited room to maneuver. Most people spend 20 to 30 minutes here, but the ones who sit down and look around a little longer tend to leave with better photos and a fuller sense of what the canyon is actually doing. Wikimedia Commons/Dougtone

Pair the gorge with Smith Rock for a half-day loop

Peter Skene Ogden Viewpoint and Smith Rock State Park share the same Crooked River and the same high-desert backdrop, and they sit close enough that doing both in a single half-day is easy. Smith Rock is known for its tall rock formations and serious climbing routes, but you don’t have to climb to appreciate it. The two parks together give you a good cross-section of what Central Oregon’s landscape does, and the viewpoint makes a natural bookend to the day, whether you hit it first or save it for the drive out. Wikimedia Commons/Gary Halvorson

Visit Peter Skene Ogden State Scenic Viewpoint in Oregon

You’ll find the viewpoint right off U.S. Route 97 in Terrebonne, about nine miles north of Redmond. Oregon State Parks manages the site and keeps it open year-round during daylight hours, with no entrance fee. There’s no gate, no ticket booth, just pull in and walk to the rim. The parking area is paved and easy to find from the highway. Check the official website for any seasonal updates before you head out, and give yourself at least 30 minutes to walk the path properly. This article was created with AI assistance and human editing. Read more from this brand:

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The post Three bridges, three eras, one wild canyon off Oregon’s Route 97 appeared first on When In Your State.