Oregon Is Home to 54 Quaint Covered Bridges. Here's How to See Them All in One Road Trip

If you're looking for a theme for your next road trip, you have your pick of options. You can find maps that plan routes around cemeteries, restaurants, and national parks. This map from Jamie Hale gets even more hyper-specific, plotting over 50 covered bridges in the state of Oregon.

Writing for The Oregonian, Hale rounded up all the state's covered bridges that he could confirm are still standing. After sifting through sites like Travel Oregon, Covered Bridge Map, and Wikipedia, and cross-checking his research with local jurisdictions, he tallied up 54 in total. Considering that many bridges are in various states of disrepair—and not all of them are well-documented—it can be hard to name an exact figure, but Hale believes Oregon boasts the most of any state in the West.

Most of the bridges on his list were built in the early 20th century. It includes the Chambers Railroad Bridge, one of few surviving covered railroad bridges in the state; the Earnest Covered Bridge, which appears in the 1965 film Shenandoah; and the Joel Whittemore Bridge built by a high school shop class in 1989.

The designs of the bridges are as varied as their histories. They're all concentrated in the western side of the state, so hitting each site in one charming road trip is easy. You can check out the map of the covered bridges of Oregon below.

[h/t The Oregonian]