The Coolest Covered Bridge Tour Period

Our introduction to Ohio covered bridges began 6 months earlier when we happened upon The Bridge of Dreams on our way to Mt. Vernon, OH. Noted as America’s third longest bridge, this discovery turned out to be our foray into exploring more covered bridges in Ohio. Read more about that trip in our Sleepy Towns are Awake and Waiting to Show You What They Got blog.

After reading many accounts of the unofficial Greene County, OH Covered Bridge Tour in the Ohio Road Trips Facebook page, we bit the bullet and decided to try this out one weekend. Some of these bridges are not easy to find, even with GPS, so we had to have a good idea where we were going before we set off. Since we were coming from Cincinnati, we chose the route that ends in Yellow Springs, OH so we could stay overnight. More on that adventure here.

The tour ended up being so much fun! We enjoyed trying to find each bridge as we chatted over our travel Spotify playlist in the background. Each bridge was unique, from the construction to its setting. We learned about Smith trusses and Howe trusses and that some of the bridges were no longer in use and moved to preserve them. Covered bridges went the way of the dodo bird due to newer iron, concrete and steel versions. We used this tour as a backdrop to our selfie-palooza, as we experimented with a ton of new ways to take more compelling selfies.

Bonus

As we were winding through some of Ohio’s finest country roads, we came upon a creepy old cemetery called Stephenson Cemetery between Charleton Mill Bridge and Stevenson Bridge. We had to stop. The cemetery was beautiful and was reminiscent of ones we’d seen in Savannah, GA and New Orleans, LA. As one would suspect, there were also a ton of Stevensons buried there. Don’t miss this on your way, it really is a nice addition to the tour.

Time: 3 hours, including our trip from Cincinnati

Our itinerary:

• Engle Mill Road Mill Covered Bridge

• Charles F. Dean Ballard Road Covered Bridge

• Robert N. Geyer Charleton Mill Covered Bridge

• Stephenson Cemetery

• Stevenson Road Covered Bridge

• Richard P. Eastman Hyde Road Covered Bridge

How we planned for it:

• Researched Ohio Road Trip Facebook page for the best itinerary and for directions

• For the car ride, we packed snacks and water

• For the hotel, we packed a cooler with wine, plastic wine glasses, a corkscrew and cheese (which we didn’t end up eating due to Young’s Dairy Farm stop where we discovered the world’s best cheese curds—sorry Wisconsin)

• Started our Photo Circle Album ‘Covered Bridge Tour + Yellow Springs + Springfield 25’

• Followed Instagram accounts like ‘nordic_scott and maren_pt’, ‘dimple.couples’ and ‘mobilephotography_tips’ to learn how to take better selfies