COLUMBUS, Ohio –
Visited Hocking Hills this past weekend. Thanks to some great recommendations. Located about one hour from Defense Supply Center Columbus, Hocking Hills offers a variety of services for outdoor activity. Here’s the state website: https://ohiodnr.gov/wps/portal/gov/odnr/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/hocking-hills-state-park. While we only hiked, the full list of available activities is really impressive.
We walked into the Ash Cave area and the view of the gorge as you make your way past the hemlocks and into the cave itself is breathtaking. It’s easy to imagine when live music concerts were played there. There were lots of families walking in and around the open recess cave. It’s not a spelunking type of cave experience as the cave is open at grade. There is a small waterfall there too. Great place for pictures. From there we hiked to Cedar Falls which is about two miles away – passed a fire tower along the way!
The hike in this weather was good and the trail is sporadically soft from some surface water. Can do sneakers, and a good hiking shoe is probably preferred – I had sneakers and did fine. We saw a few families on the hike, and some enthusiasts that looked like they were backpacking on a multi-day visit since camping is available there too. We had a small pack with trail food, water and having a charged phone felt like a good idea. The traffic is pretty steady on the trails and keeping distant and COVID-mindful seemed pretty easy.
At Cedar Falls we took in a beautiful view. Descending the steep stairs into a magnificent chasm you can smell the hemlocks and begin to hear the waterfall. Again lots of families and met an octogenarian from Pennsylvania who was also making his visit to Cedar Falls and Hocking. On a next trip for us to Hocking we will park this time at the falls and hike over to both Whispering Cave and Old Man’s Cave.
For information on the trail please see this link: https://ohiodnr.gov/static/documents/parks/parkmaps/hockinghillstrailmap.pdf