Rock House

September 2nd, 2013
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Today we went back to the Rock House, yesterday (Saturday) we were exhausted from hiking the caves and actually went to the Rock House but when we saw it was another 1/2 mile one way vertical challenge we opted to save it for today. The hike down wasn't too bad and the last part is mainly steps made either out of the sandstone or rocks laid. As we approached, the cliffs were incredible and breathtaking and there was a bridge crossing a ravine where we saw a couple and spoke to them briefly,  it appeared she had hurt her foot but turned out it was just a cramp. We crossed the bridge and thought it was odd that the path was turning back into just a dirt trail. Deanna said she was going to go back and ask the couple about the Rock House, they informed her we just walked right past it! He said they did the same thing first time they were here. He told us we would have to climb up between some boulders to get in. We trekked back and sure enough there it was. 

As you can see there were some people inside standing on the edges. 

We climbed up and found it was pretty dark inside. Deanna had a little flashlight she could use to see where we were stepping cause it was not level. This was by far the coolest cave we went to over the weekend.

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So after exploring the Rock House we headed back the UPHILL journey, quite the workout!

Here are a couple pics of a cliff we found along the road.

Then as we were driving back to the campground I finally spotted an old building I had seen on Friday when heading to the park but couldn't find it again. It blended in so well we had drove past it a couple times without even seeing it again. It just struck me as a cool shot. 

We have already decided we are going back and probably right when the leaves are changing for the colors! There was still more to explore at Cantwell Cliffs, Conkles Hollow and Zaleski State Forest rock climbing and repelling area.

Hocking Hills Ohio

Labor Day Weekend

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September 1, 2013 Sunday, cloudy 76*

We are at Lake Hope State park which is west of Athens and is in the Hocking Hills area. We arrived friday night after about a 3 hour drive, traveling route 56 out of Urbana almost all the way with a lot of twisty turns and hills. The last 25 miles were really twisty with average speed probably 30 mph with towing the car. Being the last official weekend of the summer all the parks are full but yet there are a few spots here but most are tent sites. Being in southern Ohio this area was known for their production of iron and in this park is one of 69 furnaces, all the materials need to create iron were in this area but the need for wood to make charcoal required 300-400 acres of trees a year and the area was nearly stripped clean of growth. These furnaces were critical to the civil war as the iron was used to make cannons and balls. Later better and more abundant materials were discovered further east and these furnaces became obsolete. The interesting thing was that back then this was a company owned area and all the workers were paid in worthless script that could only be used in the company store to purchase overpriced goods keeping the workers here as they had no money to travel elsewhere since the script was no good anywhere else. In an ironic way it was like white slavery.

Earlier saturday went headed for the Hocking Hills parks, there are 9 in this area and our first stop was Ash Cave. Hard to believe we have such beautiful natural wonders in this state. Ash Cave is basically just a sandstone wall that water eroded away and created a shelf. 

Years and years ago the indians used this for cover and at least 3 different tribes had called it home with the area abundant with wildlife and water. Te weather has been pretty dry so there was only a trickle of water coming over the cliff, surely in wetter times it will create a large pool of water where you now see just a small pond now.

Next was Cedar Creek, of course as mentioned the dry weather has curtailed the abundance of water for the creeks so as a "Falls" this was a little less than impressive. :) The  landscape is stunning though and when this falls is running full bore it would be quite the spectacle. 

Yeah that dribble you see is Cedar Falls. 

Next on the list is Old Mans Cave State Park, once again this is a large sandstone cavern created by water over centuries, it got its name from an old man who made this home back in the earlier 1800's, from the cave one way you can hike to the. "Lower Falls" .......comeon now you suckered us once on this, lol, we walked part way and called it quits then headed back towards the visitor but opting to take the opposite side of the creek. 

Fuzzy because the exposure was so long i couldnt hold the camera still but you get the jest of it, its a tunnel through the rock to continue on the path.

 

Then we came across this cool picture of tree roots trying to hold on to the rock to survive and keep from falling over

Yeah, we fell for it again and hiked to the "Upper Falls" ;-p

But there was this cool rock cut from the creek. 

Then we stopped at a State Forrest repelling and rock climbing area and by now we are shot from all the hiking so we didn't make it back but got this shot of a tree tree stump a beaver had been working on and they must have cut it down so they could control where it fell. 

Today its off for a little more hiking at the "Rock House"