Richard’s Notes

Washington, Connecticut. Steep Rock Reservation. The Shepaug river is just over the near trees in what will grow into a ravine off the left edge of this image. Calling this a canyon is sort of like calling the hills around here mountains. Still, it’s a beautiful spot and close enough to my house that I can come here often. I know, I’m very lucky.

Walking along the west bank of the Shepaug, looking back upstream on my way downstream to the Hauser Bridge. This view reminded me of the famous canyon views of the Snake River in Idaho except that I’m about two hours north of Manhattan.

Walking down the Shepaug River in Steep Rock Preserve one comes upon a grove of large white pines. The ravine the pines are growing in is north facing and there’s moss growing on the north sides of the tree trunks and a cool dampness in the air. It’s striking and I hung out for a while taking it in before I started cooling down and decided to move on.

Still in the pine grove one comes upon the bridge and it’s striking and exciting to see something manmade this far into a wild area.

Hauser Bridge is a suspension bridge, like the Golden Gate and others. It has two towers and two cables anchored to enormous cement blocks (behind me here). I would love to have been around in 1991 when this bridge was built and I plan to ask the Steep Rock Land Trust if someone documented the building of the bridge with a camera.

I had to play around with a longer lens to see what effect it might have on the bridge. I mean, why else lug the thing out here? You can see the arc in the structure clearly here as it hangs from it’s suspension cables.