Bridges, Bridges, Bridges

Grin and Barrett

A Blog by Joshua Barrett-Brought to you by C Bar C

Sometimes a nice scenic drive is just what you need. If you’re at a show or living in Putnam County sometimes it is just nice to get away. Thankfully we have some of the best nature and history within 30 minutes of the arena I have witnessed in all my travels.

 While working on the new C Bar C expo app, I took a drive to explore the covered bridges in the area and it was the best 2 hours I have had in a long time. Now it is all on the app so you can  take the same drive.

I started out at C Bar C and headed south for a few minutes before you turn into the woods and leave

civilization behind.  The first covered bridge you come to is Huffman Covered Bridge built in 1890. The drive is as good as seeing the bridge itself. I call this one “Children of the corn” as you get about 5 minutes away the road narrows to almost one lane and you are surround with some of the tallest corn I have ever scene. The road makes a serious of 90 degree turns so you feel as if you are driving in a giant corn maze. At last the corn opens up and you see Huffman covered bridge, the bridge is still in use today but does have a little gravel pull of so you can stop and get some pics, or just admire the craftsmanship.

Once you are done at Huffman continue straight over the bridge and you are about 15 minutes from Houck Covered bridge. This is another neat drive with old cemeteries along the way, I stopped in one next 2 Houck bridge and found grave sites from the revolutionary war. The best part about this drive is the Painted barn you will see right before you get to the bridge, It is on private property so you can only look from the road, but it is fully painted and seems to pop up out of nowhere. Houck covered bridge is no longer in use and sits of the road. They have put in several parking spots so you can park and walk around the bridge freely.

I spent a while at Houck bridge before jumping back in the car to head to Oakalla Covered bridge, again this bridge is roughly 15 minutes from Houck and is my favorite section of the covered bridge tour to drive. I call this drive Bridges, Bridges, Bridges because you will see a few metal bridges and a giant cement bridge before you arrive at Oakalla Covered bridge. The old giant cement bridge seems to pop out of nowhere as you

turn a corner and is so big it looks like some old structure from an Indiana Jones movie. Oakalla bridge is still in use today and did have
more traffic than the other bridges but also has a gravel patch to pull over and explore.

Next up is Dunbar bridge, this covered bridge sits just 5 minutes outside of Greencastle and is only a 15 minute drive from Oakalla. It is a nice little drive that follows the river so you have flowing water and often see a lot of wildlife crossing the street. You really cant get lost just follow the river from Oakalla to Dunbar. Dunbar is also in use and does have heavy traffic at times but like the rest ad a small patch of gravel so we could pull over and get some pics. We went right after a decent rain so

the water was flowing pretty hard, since the bridge sits at a bend in the river it can get pretty loud at times.

We have several more bridges in the county, the rest are on the north side of the county and are a bit further drive. You can see these four bridges in about an hour and a half and end up in Greencastle for lunch. Then you are just 10 minutes from C Bar C. 

I stopped into my favorite watering hole the fluttering duck and was back to the ban within 3 hours of leaving so it made for a great escape.

You can find all the covered bridges inn the county on our new C bar C expo App for android and Iphone, Just click on the bridge you want to go to and the app syncs with the gps in your phone and drives you right to it. I have the bridges on the app listed in closest to furthest from the barn, so you can take the same drive I did.  Check our face book page for links to install the app today.