Hocking Hills State Park--Our New Favorite State Park!

As we drove into Ohio, we noticed signs pointing off the highway to an area we had never heard of--Hocking Hills. We then found out that Hocking Hills State Park is actually made up of six separate locations. So we started out one morning to conquer all six of them. We started at "The Old Man's Cave." The pictures above and below show Denisa's favorite old man at the entrance of the cave.

This area is named for an old man named Richard Rowe, a recluse who made this cave his home in the 1800's. He might have not liked being around people, but he had great taste in finding a home with a view. Not a bad view for a hermit to wake up to.

There was a small pond, with a CCC-made rock bridge spanning it. The area is filled with tunnels and one breath-taking view after another.

We were surrounded by tall rock cliffs and massive trees as we hiked down the gorge from the cave.

As we walked through this section of the state park, we were surrounded by the sandstone walls that were formed when the ancient glaciers came through southern Ohio. This geological action has formed the now-famous Hocking Hills.

This area once housed a roaring river, that carved this circular river bed known as the devil's bathtub.

But by late summer, the river's flow is just a trickle. The waterfall at the end of the gorge is barely visible behind Denisa.

Mark is standing over the same waterfall--on another one of the beautiful rock bridges built in this park 80 years ago.

We were in awe of the beautiful hiking and views we enjoyed at "The Old Man's Cave" section of the state park--but it's only the first of six different areas we are visiting today. Our second stop was at Cedar Falls. Its claim to fame is pumping the greatest water volume of any of the Hocking County waterfalls. We were a little underwhelmed with this water volume, as Cedar Falls are less than spectacular with barely a trickle coming down the face of the giant rock wall. But even without thundering falls this area was beautiful.

This section was actually misnamed, as there are no cedar trees here. The only evergreens are these hemlocks. The state forest is battling an aphid that is killing many of the splendid old trees in this forest, but most of the ones we saw this day looked very healthy.

Today's hike gets the award for the ugliest wildlife pictures. This crusty old turtle was following visitors up and down the green river trail.

He teased us by coming up for a breath right beside us.

Right up there with that ugly old turtle is this warm and fuzzy caterpillar with giant red eyes.

Next stop was the 80-foot-tall firetower built in 1934. This was one of 39 towers that were once manned to watch out for fires in the state forest. We were a little surprised that it was open to anyone stupid enough to climb those steep steps. Mark is just beginning his climb up when Denisa snapped this picture.

We didn't spot any fires below--just 9,820 acres of tree tops that make up Hocking Hills State Forest. We didn't stay at the top for long, because there was a hive of bees guarding the summit. We didn't want to rile up the bees and then have to race the entire hive to the bottom of the tower.

Mark stayed just long enough at the top to take this picture. That would be the top of Denisa's head 80 feet below.

The third section of Hocking Hills State Park is Ash Cave. This is the largest recess cave east of the Mississippi. Mark is dwarfed by the top of Ash cave, even though he climbed up on the tallest boulder underneath.

Denisa took another picture of Mark on that slick boulder because he found that there is only one thing harder than climbing up a slippery sandstone boulder. That would be trying to find a way to get down off that same rock without breaking anything.

We just kept taking pictures of Ash Cave, trying to capture its grandeur and beauty.

We are in awe of Hocking Hills State Park! You can barely see Denisa in her bright purple blouse in the bottom of the picture. We have once again wandered into more of God's wonders!

We have only hiked through three of the Hocking Hills State Park areas, but this blog is maxed out on beautiful views. So we'll add more of our new favorite state park tomorrow . . .