This quaint wagon bridge has a plank roadway and two 180-foot spans of pin-connected steel camelback through trusses. Twice moved, it is Colorado's oldest still-used state bridge. The Escalante Bridge, ranch, and creek are all named to commemorate Padre Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, the Spanish Franciscan missionary, explorer, and journal keeper of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition. That party provided the first written account and map of this region on a 1776 expedition that aimed to establish an overland route between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Monterey, California. A dirt road continues up Escalante Creek and Canyon to the Uncompahgre Plateau, passing a few ranches, ruins of quarry sites, the Escalante Canyon Wildlife Area, and the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry, which has yielded bones of fourteen species.