Ohio’s most un-Ohio place has 300-million-year-old cliffs and it’s free to explore

Hocking Hills won’t cost you a dime

Hocking Hills State Park sits about an hour southeast of Columbus in Hocking County, Ohio, and it covers around 2,000 acres of land that looks nothing like the rest of the state.

Towering cliffs, deep gorges, waterfalls, and recess caves fill the landscape here, all carved from sandstone that dates back more than 300 million years.

The park keeps over 25 miles of trails open from dawn to dusk, every day, for free. What you find along those trails goes back a lot further than Ohio itself.

From an ancient sea floor to a state park

The Blackhand sandstone under your feet was deposited when this part of Ohio sat beneath a shallow inland sea. Water and erosion spent millions of years carving it into the gorges and caves you walk through today.

Native American peoples knew this land as far back as 7,000 years ago, including the Adena culture. Later, the Wyandot, Delaware, and Shawnee tribes hunted and lived in the region.

The name “Hocking” comes from the Wyandot word “Hockhocking,” meaning “bottle river,” after the bottle-shaped gorge along the Hocking River.

A hermit from Tennessee gave Old Man’s Cave its name

Old Man’s Cave is the park’s most popular hiking area, and it sits right off State Route 664.

The cave got its name from Richard Rowe, a hermit who left the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee in the late 1700s and spent the rest of his life living in this rock shelter.

The trail runs about one to one and a half miles as a one-way loop, and it takes you past the Upper Falls, the Lower Falls, and the Sphinx Head, a rock formation that erosion shaped to look like an Egyptian sphinx.

Ohio’s largest recess cave stretches 700 feet wide

Ash Cave is enormous.

The opening runs roughly 700 feet wide, 100 feet deep, and about 100 feet high. After a good rain, a waterfall pours right over the rim from above.

You reach it by walking through a narrow gorge lined with hemlock trees, beech trees, and seasonal wildflowers, and the whole trail is paved and wheelchair accessible.

That makes it one of the easiest hikes in the park. Ash Cave sits at the southern end and marks the endpoint of the Grandma Gatewood Trail.

Early settlers got the trees wrong at Cedar Falls

Cedar Falls is one of the most photographed waterfalls in the park, and its name comes from a mistake. Early settlers thought the surrounding hemlock trees were cedars, and the name stuck.

The falls flow strongest in spring and after heavy rain, so timing your visit matters. You can find Cedar Falls along the Grandma Gatewood Trail between Old Man’s Cave and Ash Cave.

A picnic area with tables and restrooms sits near the trailhead, so you can eat lunch and dry off.

Outlaws once hid inside Rock House’s cliff corridor

Rock House is the only true cave in Hocking Hills.

It stretches about 200 feet long and 30 feet wide, cut right into the cliff face with natural stone columns and gothic-style arched openings that frame the forest outside.

Prehistoric Native Americans used shallow openings in the rock walls as ovens for cooking. Later, outlaws reportedly used it as a hideout, earning it the nickname “Robbers Roost.” The trail to get there runs about half a mile and includes steep stone steps, so wear solid shoes.

Conkle’s Hollow drops 200 feet between its cliff walls

Conkle’s Hollow is a state nature preserve where the cliffs rise over 200 feet above the valley floor, making it one of the deepest gorges in Ohio.

At its tightest point, the gorge narrows to only about 300 feet from cliff to cliff. Few people make it out there because of its remote location.

The lower trail is paved and accessible, but the rim trail is a two-mile loop with cliff-top views that will test your legs.

Nearby, Cantwell Cliffs stand about 150 feet high with trails that wind through narrow passageways between huge sandstone slump blocks.

A 67-year-old grandmother inspired the park’s best trail

The Grandma Gatewood Trail runs six miles from Old Man’s Cave through Cedar Falls to Ash Cave.

It carries the name of Emma Gatewood, an Ohio native who in 1955 became the first woman to solo thru-hike the entire Appalachian Trail at age 67.

She carried an army blanket, a raincoat, and a plastic shower curtain.

The trail also connects to Ohio’s 1,444-mile Buckeye Trail, the North Country Scenic Trail, and the American Discovery Trail. Every January, thousands of hikers show up for the park’s annual winter hike along this route.

Fly through the treetops at 50 miles per hour

The Hocking Hills region calls itself the canopy tour capital of the Midwest, and with more than 60 ziplines in the area, it has the numbers to back it up.

Hocking Hills Canopy Tours opened in 2007 as the first zipline canopy tour in the Midwest. You can pick a traditional tour through the treetops or a SuperZip that reaches speeds near 50 mph.

If you prefer water, you can kayak, canoe, tube, or raft on the Hocking River. Horseback riding trails run through the surrounding state forest too.

See Saturn’s rings through a 28-inch telescope

The John Glenn Astronomy Park opened in June 2018 about a mile from Old Man’s Cave, and it sits in one of the few spots in Ohio with very little light pollution.

The park carries the name of astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn, who was born in nearby Cambridge, Ohio.

A 28-inch telescope fills the observatory, and free guided stargazing programs run on Friday and Saturday evenings from March through November.

The plaza was designed so the sun’s rays hit a central point at the start of each season. This is the only part of Hocking Hills open at night.

Ride a historic train on tracks from 1869

The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway has been running volunteer-operated train rides since 1972, departing from Nelsonville about 15 minutes from the park.

The tracks date back to 1869, and the trains roll along the Hocking River valley from Memorial Day weekend through October, with fall foliage rides and holiday specials added to the schedule.

Back in the park, a Christmas in Ash Cave celebration fills the massive cave with caroling each December. October brings the Grandma Gatewood Fall Color Hike during peak autumn foliage.

Explore Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio

A full-service lodge and conference center opened inside the park in October 2022, the first new state park lodge in Ohio in more than 30 years.

It has 81 guest rooms with forest views, a restaurant, a pub, indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness room, and event space. If you want something more private, the park also has 40 renovated two-bedroom cabins and a campground with over 200 sites.

The lodge sits within walking distance of several trailheads and the John Glenn Astronomy Park, so you can hike all day and sleep five minutes from where you started.

If you want to see all seven hiking areas for yourself, Hocking Hills State Park sits about 60 miles southeast of Columbus off State Route 33.

The park’s visitor center at Old Man’s Cave, located at 19988 State Route 664 Scenic in Logan, is open daily and has free trail maps, exhibits, and Wi-Fi.

All trails are free and open year-round from dawn to dusk. Cell service is limited throughout the region, so download your maps before you head out.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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