Hite Crossing Bridge, Steel arch bridge at Narrow Canyon, Utah.
Hite Crossing Bridge is a steel arch bridge over the Colorado River in Utah, carrying Utah State Route 95 between Garfield County and San Juan County. It sits inside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, spanning a canyon section where the river meets the upper end of Lake Powell.
The bridge was completed in 1966, shortly after the Glen Canyon Dam changed water levels across this stretch of the river. It replaced a ferry service known as Dandy Crossing that had been operating here for about 20 years before the dam altered the area.
The bridge takes its name from prospector Cass Hite, who set up a river crossing here in the 1880s and brought some of the first settlers to this remote stretch of canyon country. Drivers crossing today follow roughly the same route that mule teams and early travelers once used to get from one side of the Colorado to the other.
The bridge sits in one of the most remote parts of Utah, far from towns or gas stations, so carrying extra water and fuel before heading out is a good idea. The road across is paved, but the surrounding desert offers little shade and conditions can change quickly depending on the time of year.
The bridge deck sits about 200 feet (61 meters) above the river, placing it right at the point where Cataract Canyon ends and the calmer waters of Lake Powell begin. This means that from the bridge, you can look upstream into a canyon shaped by rapids and downstream into an open reservoir, all at once.
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