We went back to the Arcola railroad bridge tonight, on Summer Solstice. It has been a few years since we’ve first went there and I felt it would be good to go back. It was good. We first hiked down to the St. Croix river that gave a far angle view of the bottom of the bridge, then hiked a bit up the path and back down another path that brought us almost directly under the bridge and under a sandstone cliff gorge. I took a bunch of photos down there. The massiveness of the structure was sure visible from down there. This was a beautiful hike back up along steep slopes, gorges cliffsides and arroyo paths. The path followed the creek which could be heard trickling most of the way. Then there was a steep climb up the base of the bridge to the top. Once on top it was an impressive site with the vanishing point of the railroad tracks against the horizon. Once we started to walk out over the gorge, our fear of heights kicked in a bit and every creak of the steel girders or railroad ties. I really wanted to all the way across, but when we realized a storm was coming, we thought it wise to start to head back. We did stay on the bridge as long as we thought safely possible to experience the storm coming in from high and awesome vantage point where we could really feel the air pressure and winds and have a great view of the clouds and lightning coming closer and closer.

It came to a point where it was hard to tell if it was going to be safe to be out on the bridge, so we headed back and took another path down  to the river and then back up the hill. I saw my first fireflies for the season and that always makes me feel that it is a good midsummers eve. It began to rain, lightly at first but as we began to exit the canopy of the forest, it began to come down harder and we ran for about five minutes until we got to the car.