Day 5b: Hocking Hills to Zanesville

Note: this is a continuation of Day5: Chillicothe to Hocking Hills.

It's so hard to leave the tranquil beauty of the Upper Falls, but after playing in the water for a while we press on. Btw, getting soaking wet is the absolute best thing to do when you're hiking on a hot day. It'll help you stay cool for a long, long time.

You actually have to walk through the Old Man's Cave (so named for a man who once lived there, although no one seem to know just where) area again to get to the Lower Falls when walking from the Upper Falls. Quite a ways too!

Can't pass the tiny twin waterfalls without taking another picture.

I found an opening in the rocks was just begging to be climbed.

It's a very quiet walk along a gentle stream that runs between towering cliffs.

Shortly before reaching the end of the trail there's a very strange spot called the Devil's bathtub, where the rushing water has gouged out a bathtub shaped depression in the rock. Sounds like a swell place to relax, but it's actually very dangerous (and hard to take a decent picture off, sorry).

Although not as nice as the Upper Falls, the Lower Falls are quite picturesque. Like I said it's quiet too, but the bridge connecting to the two sides of the rim trail is a bit of an eye sore.

We cross the little bridge at the top (eyesore or not, surely this must be the quickest route ...) and voila, we find ourselves at the other end of the parking lot.

Conkle's Hollow Nature Preserve is technically not park of Hocking Hills SP, but it is listed on their brochure so we follow to walkway to the end and then continue to the uneven trail to a trickle of a waterfall at the end. Compared to the other areas this one's a bit of a letdown, but at least we learned to how differentiate between cedar and hemlock and we spotted this cute red bird and.

Who needs a Stairmaster when you can hike Rock House?!

The steps are narrow and uneven on a steep grade, but we make it all the way to Rock House where once again there is no signage. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ohio’s parks, but the trails are often poorly marked, and so we trudge past the main attraction all the way back to the parking lot before we realize we missed it.

It's one of those places that if you just steal a glance at it, it really doesn't look like much of anything.

But then when you take your time it's simply breathtaking ...

I waited for the other people to leave, which was just as well because it lets your eyes get adjusted to the light and you find the most amazing colors. If you look closely at the picture you can see a tiny opening in the rock with a pigeon on its nest.

After a good long while we say goodbye to the pigeons in Rock House, but not before my sandaled foot slips off a rock right into a puddle of emulsified pigeon poop. Ewwww!

By the time we get to Cantwell Cliffs we’re pretty pooped -- me literally, Sandy physically  -- so she waits at the top while I descend down Fat Woman’s Squeeze, a tiny set of uneven stairs wedged between two cliffs. Can't say it was really worth the effort.

For dinner we drive to nearby Logan and sit down to a scrumptious meal at Millstone BBQ. Wow, that seriously is THE best turkey I have ever had!! What a blessing to spend our last night in Ohio dining on their patio and talking about what we enjoyed most on this trip. And did I mention the turkey? I'm drooling just thinking about it now.

We have a long drive ahead of us tomorrow so instead of finding a hotel in Logan we head over to Zanesville, which is a little bit closer to home. Can I just say, what a friggin' scary drive!? :-o OMG, those winding roads were bad enough in the daylight, but at night it's a whole other animal.

Anyway, obviously we are not lying in a ditch somewhere so did manage to get us to the hotel in one piece, but it was quite the experience.