After a short drive we arrived in Logan, however, finding the campground was another story. The roads into Hocking Hills are twisty, narrow, 2 lane, blacktop with lots of hills. Guess that’s why it has the name. Garmin screwed us up by indicating, “You have reached your destination”, about 1/2 mile too soon. Signage for the campground was non-existent. A road off to the left of the “destination” looked promising, so we took it. OMG!!! It was with steeper hills, big ruts for shoulders, and very twisty. Car and Driver ranks these roads their favorite to drive. Hey, try it with a 4 ton trailer!
Couldn’t call for directions; no cell service. After several a - - puckering miles, we returned to Hwy 664 to find that had we gone straight 1/2 mile instead of turning left we would have been at the campground entrance. Ms. Garmin almost became a UFO!!
The campground is a disappointment. Sites are tight, paved, but not anywhere near level. The showers are from the 60s with push button 30 second squirts, with little privacy. Worst of all, last cleaning appears to have been Memorial Day. If we return here camping, it will not be in this State Park. Boy, you don’t appreciate Michigan’s parks until you experience one of these.
Tuesday - A new day and we are here to hike the trails. So we laced on out hikers and set off for three trails. The first is the most popular, Old Man’s Cave.
A significant formation here is the Sphinx Head. It is the Park’s icon.
A big feature in the area are waterfalls, streams, and rapids. That’s what carved these formations. Well, the heat and lack of rain has dried everything up. We supected that would be possible, but the formations nontheless are quite spectacular. The trails are short, most less than a mile, and in good condition. The CCC constructed most of the paths, steps, bridges, tunnels, etc. 90 years ago to make it possible to get around here.
Our second trail was to Ash Cave. Said to be the largest cave formation in Ohio. It is a whopper and the acoustics are amazing. It got its name from ash remnants on the floor left from Indian ceremonial fires. No sign of it today, too many footprints.
Notice the size of the people for perspective on this cave’s size.
Our last stop today was Rock House. This very large formation has a huge interior cavern, thus the name.
Here are a few odds and ends that show the interesting shape and color in these formations.
We covered a little over 6 miles today, so we should sleep well tonight!
Wednesday - Its getting a bit warm and muggy around here. The only remaining trail we wanted to hike was the Cantwell Cliffs trail. Looking at the map it appears to be a doosey. So off we went this morning and our estimates were not wrong. Although only a mile in length, half of it is down and the other half up. These are the steps down into the gorge.
The formations were quite pretty. There is (was) a river that flows though, but dried up.
This is our last day in Hocking Hills and we have enjoyed our visit (except for the campground). It was a suprise to us that Ohio has this kind of scenery. We may want to come back in late spring sometime so we can see these features with water flowing. It might be pretty cool in the winter also.
Tomorrow we head to Flintsone, MD to begin our tour of the C&O Canal.
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