On the Road: 3 Covered Bridges and a waterfall in maryland

If you are driving from Frederick, the first bridge you’ll reach is Utica Mills, The original structure was built in 1850, but after much of it was washed away in a flood, the remaining portion was moved and reassembled over Fishing Creek, the present location. To be honest, there really isn’t much parking near Utica Mills, and we wanted to photograph the other bridges before the mid day sun hit, so we decided we would return to this bridge at the end. The next bridge we came across was the Loys Station Bridge, where we were surprised to find not only a large parking area at adjacent Loys Station Park, but a playground with a picnic shelter and tables. The original bridge was built in 1848, was burned down in 1991, and subsequently rebuilt. You can find the Loys Station Bridge on the National Register of Historic Places, added in 1978. Our timing of the fall leaves was about a week late, but I thought there were still plenty of great photo opportunities at this site, and we spent about 30 minutes here. Just a few minutes down the road, the third bridge on the route is the Roddy Road Covered Bridge, which crosses picturesque Owen’s Creek. Originally built in the mid 1800’s, over the years, the bridge suffered damage on several occasions from oversized trucks, and the bridge that is standing today is a replica bridge built in 2017. This bridge also has ample parking, which made it easy for us to spend another 30 – 45 minutes photographing not only the bridge but the scenic views of the creek. Definitely my favorite of the 3 bridges as far as photography!  At this point, as we were close to the main highway, we decided to head over to Cunningham Falls, so we never did make it back to photograph Utica Mills. Guess we will have to head back in the spring and photograph the bridges with the trees in full bloom.  Learn more about all 6 of Maryland’s covered bridges.