Ohio: Cuyahoga Valley N.P. and Hocking Hills S.P.
June-July 2022
Hocking Hills State Park
Cuyahoga Valley NP deserved more time than we gave it. I imagine this park would be pretty in the fall. But it was hot when we were there in late June, and Craig needed to spend time replacing the air conditioner. So, we had only part of one day free to explore the park.
We would have liked to see Brandywine Falls, but the parking lot near there was closed due to a construction project, which meant we would have had to start the hike farther away. That would have been ok, except rainstorms were in the forecast for later in the day, and we didn’t want to be caught out in the rain while on a long hike.
So, we opted for the 2-mile Ledges loop trail, which was well worth it. Lots of cool rock formations that we could wander through. I wish we could have also walked a bit of the easy towpath trail, and visited the museum about the Erie Canal. I guess we will have to go back sometime.
view near the end of the Ledges loop trail
Whenever we go to Ohio, we always go to Skyline Chili. Yum! We were hungry after our hike.
We moved on to our next campsite at Hocking Hills State Park, which is probably the most popular state park in Ohio, and for good reason. There are a lot of great hiking trails that lead to waterfalls and interesting rock formations. The end of June was a little late in the season for some of the waterfalls, as the flow of water had decreased quite a bit.
On our first evening, we walked from the campground to Cedar Falls. The flow was low but it was in a sheltered serene place, and the hike through the woods was quiet.
On the way back to the campground, we passed this lake. The water was so still that the reflection was like a mirror.
The next day, we hiked the most popular trail to Old Man’s Cave. The trail starts at the bridge near the visitor center, and passes several waterfalls.
The cave is really a large rock overhang.
That evening, we walked the short, easy trail to Ash Cave.
Ash Cave was quite large. The waterfall was just a trickle, though. It would be cool to stand behind it when the water is really flowing.
The next day, we drove to nearby Conkle’s Hollow Nature Preserve for a hike along the rim trail over the gorge. There were just a few places where we could look out over the gorge through the trees. I’ll bet it’s pretty when the leaves change color. The hike was rated strenuous because of all the stairs to climb at the beginning. Well, I guess it was strenuous for Ohio, but not compared to some of the hikes we’ve done out west.
From there, we headed to suburban Cincinnati to visit Craig’s family. We parked the RV at Stonelick State Park, but we didn’t spend any time there except to sleep. We really didn’t like the park, because on our last night, some drunk partiers across from us played loud music until almost 4 a.m., when the police finally arrived to shut them down. Also, the dirt sites were short and packed together. One day, a tornado went through the nearby town and blew down a lot of trees. The park was without power for 3 days. Thankfully, the tornado missed the park! (And we missed the storm.) We had a nice visit with the family, but we were glad when it was time to move on from that park.