road

road
Originally uploaded by Saintbridge

The old Prospect Road up Mill Mountain.

My folks used to take us up to the mountain on this narrow two-lane switchback on Sundays.

At the top was the spectacular view of the valley and the city plus a small zoo -- and all that is still there today.

But what captivated me the most was the drive up: a drop off on one side and a tidy old stone wall on the other.

About halfway up was a stone arch with a gatehouse (still there) and a couple hairpin turns later was the coolest: a bridge we went under and then whipped immediately around as we climbed higher and went over!

Now cloverleaf interchanges are fairly common these days, but to a six-year-old the stone wall and arch, the turns up the mountain on the tiny road and then the magic of the near-figure eight under-then-over bridge was like some sort of a cool storybook village.

The road is closed now just before the bridge; a large house sits halfway up the mountain and the passage stops at its driveway. However you can walk up along the road and visitors frequently do both on foot and on bicycles.

I took this shot by stooping down and huddling against the wall in an effort to recapture the sense of size and mystery and thrill I felt going up the mountain when I was small.