I am from Findlay, Ohio. It’s really flat here. Super flat. The only hills in town are man made. So, naturally, when I think of Ohio, I don’t think of sweet places to hike. It turns out the other side of the state is completely different.

This weekend some friends and I went down to the Hocking Hills region of Ohio (see their website)… just a bit southeast of Columbus. We went camping at a place called Lake Hope. Honestly, the campground was decent, but nothing special. The real attraction is the hiking trails located throughout the region. There are numerous trails and the whole area is beautiful. I could try to explain it, but I’ll just post a few pictures instead.

Conkle’s Hollow

On Saturday we hiked at a place called Conkle’s Hollow. We went around on the 2 mile Rim Trail. It had some stunning cliff views. While we were hiking the trail, it just started pouring down rain outside, and I still had a grand time.

Then on Sunday we hiked something along the lines of 8-10 miles covering three other areas of the Hocking Hills Region by following the Buckeye Trail between them. It was thoroughly fantastic, and I would recommend everyone check it out. I am very glad we took the Buckeye Trail between these three areas rather than driving to each one separately. It was quiet and relatively empty out along the trail, and in many areas it was just as beautiful as the far more touristy and populated areas we hiked along at:

Ash Cave

Ash Cave was our first stop, just off of State Route 56. It seemed like the smallest of all the areas we went to, although we only took the shorter of the two trails there. If you have young children, this seemed like the best of the areas we went to to bring them to. The cave was enormous and pretty stunning, and there is a safe trail leading up to a large sandy area beneath the cave that would be great for kids to play around at and enjoy safely.

Cedar Falls

The next stop along our trek was Cedar Falls. Oddly enough, it turns out there aren’t even any cedar trees around the falls. The hemlock trees were misidentified as cedars back in the day, but the name stuck.

Old Man’s Cave

I think the hike between Cedar Falls and Old Man’s Cave was the best part of the trip. It was beautiful and almost entirely devoid of people. But Old Man’s Cave seemed like the most popular of the areas in Hocking Hills, and for good reason. The whole place is pretty stunning. Unfortunately, I got there pretty late, and most of my pictures didn’t turn out too well. I’ll just have to go back another time.

There are also a few other places we didn’t make it to… I’ll just have to go back. I’m thinking I’ll be back sometime in the fall, I can only imagine it is even more amazing with colorful fall foliage.

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