"Where in North America is this?" Section V

[Mark Sedenquist]

I love the engineering depicted in this photo...

(Photo by Dan Sedenquist)
It's not on the west coast, but it's a bit further east than some of my recent images. So what's the name of this bridge or the location? (In fact, it's near Kestrel's home town...)

[CalOldBlue]

Looks like somewhere along I70 near Vail?

[Mark Sedenquist]

That's not I-70, but it is very near Vail....Care to make another stab at the location?

Mark

[Foy]

That's the US-24 bridge over Game Creek near Minturn, CO, enroute to Camp Hale, Tennessee Pass and Leadville, CO as one drives south from I-70 between Vail and Beaver Creek. Ski Cooper ski resort is at Tennessee Pass.

Hope that's close enough for me to earn a "two-fer" when combined with Harpers Ferry. As is said here in North Carolina: "Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while". Actually, I drove my son Cooper over that bridge enroute from Glenwood Springs back to Denver on a father/son fly-n-drive in January 2000. We had time to kill and wanted to see Ski Cooper.

Foy

[Mark Sedenquist]

Foy,

Yeah, that's darn close -- I don't have a good enough map to confirm whether or not this is the same bridge... but Dan identified the lower road as being the road that goes over Shrine pass just outside of Gilman. And, of course, that it is US Highway 24. Did you catch the Colorado Dept of Highways truck in the photo?

Excellent work for this two-fer!

Mark

[CalOldBlue]

Red Cliff Bridge; US24 and the Eagle River.

I THOUGHT it looked like Western Slope.

[Mark Sedenquist]

But it could be the Red Creek Bridge -- I need to reach Dan and see how his memory is. I've looked at the topo maps and neither of these two bridges look like a perfect match... (weirdly).

Corrected and confirmed -- see below!

Mark

[Foy]

Nah, I think I missed it. The bridge I'm recalling is the Red Cliff bridge, I'm pretty sure. As we returned to I-70 from Ski Cooper, I pondered my CO DeLorme and wondered if the road from Red Cliff was open to Vail Pass. I should have known better, and sure enough the road was closed just on the far side of Red Cliff town limits. I correctly recalled signage on I-70 directing to US 24 (not CO 24) and Minturn, and stole a glance at Mapquest to ID the stream crossing there. Had I zoomed out and seen Red Cliff, I'd have followed the creek east of there to Vail Pass. I didn't do that, and I'm pretty sure I got it wrong.

One of these days, have a look at the historical significance of Camp Hale. Many denizens of the Western US owe a lot to the individuals who served there, not only for their military actions, but also for what they collectively accomplished after the survivors returned from overseas.

Oh well, I'm batting .500 today, anyway.

Foy

[Mark Sedenquist]

Dan just wrote and confirmed that Don was correct! It's the bridge that crosses the Eagle River just downstream from the town of Red Cliff.

Damn, you guys are good at this!

Here's a satellite image of this exact bridge location....

[Foy]

Great call, Don.

Foy