Olive did a lot of helping on our vacation (photo album to come once I get my act together with the 320 photos John took!) - especially with photography. I was taken with these four directional totem animals at the Mission Hills Cemetery overlook in Bay Mills, MI. The overlook was a place John and I discovered (with the help of a great waitress) on our honeymoon, so we hunted it out again on this trip.
Here is Olive, helping:
One last set of yammering notes and photos from our recent getaway to Hocking Hills for you...
Our last stop on the day of three sight stops was to Cedar Falls. I honestly can't pick a favorite thing we did or saw on this trip, but this was certainly near the top!
Cedar Falls is not far from Old Man's Cave - I think there's actually a walking trail connecting the two, so not more than a couple of miles. Cedar Falls is another valley type formation carved amazingly in the sandstone - with, yes, a fantastic water fall. The trail to the falls was beautiful, and I especially enjoyed the
informational markers on this trail. There was a lot of information about the Hocking Hills region, the geographical features there, and "how it happened." There also apparently was a very large flood in the area about 10 years ago that especially decimated the Cedar Falls area. The valley was changed dramatically, and evidence of that recent change is everywhere. The informational bits said the sort of flood that happened 10 years ago isn't unusual - just not common. I believe it said it was the kind of flood that happens in the area about every 100 years.
The falls themselves are beautiful. The "Rock Man" seen at the end of this post is actually a stone pedestal thing with an informational sign perched on top. I don't know that it's supposed to look like a man made of stone wearing a hat, but it sure did to me!
The trail we chose away from the falls (there are two ways to approach and/or leave, and we took the "loop" pattern that took us in by one and out by the other) was interesting at the least! The picture here is me heading into a dramatically narrowing path. I wasn't certain it was going to take me anywhere other than into a corner, but eventually we came through. I should mention that there are no cedar trees at Cedar Falls. Settlers to the area who named the falls mistook the hemlock trees that surround the falls for cedars.
All in all, of course - our escape to the Hocking Hills area south of Columbus was great fun and we will likely return!
Our second full day in Hocking Hills took us to not one, not two, but Three beautiful places! The morning was rainy - not a heavy rain, but grey misty light rain. The lovely corners and bits of the Hills were still so beautiful, and there weren't too many people in any of the places we poked around.
The descent to our first spot was a little scary... but absolutely worth it! I shared the same picture a few posts ago, but I'm going for a theme here. At the suggestion of a coworker we decided to visit Rock House. The stairs here are not the ones we went down, but you get the idea. Our path down seemed to have had some relatively recent destruction and were fairly
precarious. I'll be the first to admit that I was a little terrified. We made it safely down, and were not disappointed! These are the most cave-like caves I've seen in the Hocking Hills area. So beautiful and yes - a little bit spooky. With the overcast skies, the darkish spooky caves were even moreso. And then the owls started hooting! Yes, owls. There were at least 3 in the caves and they weren't exactly happy with our time spent
looking into the dark. We finally bid them farewell and left when our spectacular curiosity turned toward nerves. If you're ever down that way consider going to Rock House - but choose the path down to the right from the top instead of to the left!
Our second stop for the day was Old Man's Cave, and John snapped this picture of the roadside horse having a snack on the way there. Mmmm, snacks.
Old Man's Cave remains the most popular and sort
of iconic Hocking Hills destination. The trails there are beautiful, and the site is most developed for visitors with maintained stairwells, visitor information, and lots of great things to see all on one trail set. They also have a snack bar - with corn dogs!
Still to come here - one more set of pictures and yammerings from our trip.
Our first site visit in the Hocking Hills area was to Conkle's Hollow. Two other guests at the Bear Run Inn recommended it after their visit there the day before. (Two fun people from Westerville, OH who made it a point to wear their matching Ohio State sweatshirts to breakfast the second morning of our stay after meeting us Michiganders the day before!) All of the pictures here should open to larger versions if you'd like to peek - all of these were taken by John.
Conkle's Hollow is a ravine, essentially - with a paved accessible path through the middle of the ravine, and a rather intense but incredibly beautiful rim path around the top of the ravine. Note the Danger sign at the beginning of the ascent to the rim path. This path is not for the faint of heart, or anyone with balance/vertigo issues. It is, however, incredibly beautiful!
The view from on high is simply amazing. Fall colors were abundant while we were there, and the crisp cool air was perfect. We visited Conkle's Hollow on our first full day in the area, before the rain took over for most of the week. (Even after the rain came, our days were beautiful.) There were many spots along the rim trail when we stepped right over or next to crevices in the rock - and could see all the way down to the ravine floor right between our feet. The rim trail travels along one side of the ravine, then across the narrow point (the ravine is sort of a pie-slice shape, closed off at the point end) and back along the other side. Near the closed-off end, you can see directly across to all the rock formations you will walk on after you make the turn.
Almost as awesome to see in the Hocking Hills area as all the sandstone caves and formations are the trees. There are trees everywhere that seem to be growing out of solid rock, and hanging onto solid rock precariously. On top of Conkle's Hollow, there were
also a lot of great collections of vegetation - some that didn't seem to go together. This red/green picture was a group of plants that made me laugh. They looked like a lovely lush tropical plant, growing right alongside a beautiful warm fall-color woodsy plant. We saw more than a few trees everywhere that
had eventually given up the fight with gravity. This one was so twisted from the effort to stay standing - he obviously put some valiant effort into the task!
One side note if you think about visiting Hocking Hills - all of the sites we saw were within about 10 miles of each other. It's a very easy area to navigate (with a map) and to see as many or as few things as you like. More to follow...
And so The Reeds have returned from our vacation week escape to the Hocking Hills of Ohio! We've been home since this past Friday, of course - but the settling in from a trip always takes a bit longer than I anticipate. John has posted a great album of our adventuring pictures on Facebook, some of which I'll duplicate here. I may add an album here too, we'll just see how the posting pans out.
If you aren't yet familiar with the Hocking Hills area of Ohio, I highly recommend a visit there. As John's mom said - "And they say Ohio is flat!" I had been to the area a number of times before, but not for quite a while. John hadn't been there at all.
We stayed at a wonderful welcoming bed and breakfast in Logan, OH - Bear Run Inn. The Myers family have been hosting guests in their B-and-B home and in several rental cottages on their nearly 600 acre property for something like
16 years! The rolling fields around their home (and we didn't even explore the hiking trails and scenery all over their land) were teeming with birds of every kind, a beautiful pond, and dozens of deer at any give time. John and I stayed in the
"Victoriana Rose" room. Breakfasts served by Marcia were amazing. I didn't think they could possibly get better than the basil souffle served our first morning, but I didn't know the caramel apple french toast was yet to come on our second day! We found dinners each evening primarily at small local family restaurants - with no shortage of pie at any of the places we chose.
Still to come in future posts: some pictures from the incredibly beautiful trails and Hocking Hills features we took in. We visited Conkle's Hollow, Rock House, Old Man's Cave, and Cedar Falls all in our few days. No wonder our legs are still sore!
So far on the Reeds' escape to Hocking Hills: 1 lovely B-and-B stay, 2 fabulous breakfasts from our hosts, 1 luxurious spa bath for each Reed, dozens of deer sightings, 2 dinners at local restaurants, 2 pieces of pie each, 2 Scrabble games, 4 incredibly beautiful hikes & sights, and countless photos to share. Priceless!
Happy nearly-anniversary, Mr. Reed.
Good Tuesday morning to you! John and I are headed away to the Hocking Hills area of Ohio for an Anniversary week escape. We'll return on Friday, and the computers are not traveling with us. Photo here is from our honeymoon 4 years ago on the UP - Taquamenon Falls, as taken by John. Weather permitting, we'll bring some pictures to share from down south!
Be well and see color!
