Hocking Hills Ohio ultimate Travel Guide 2022

hawking hills is an amazing free state park located in logan ohio it is full with beautiful trails and waterfalls and the best part are most of the trails are dog friendly my wife and i took a weekend trip to hawking hills back in early may of 2021 and in this video we are going to share our experience to help others better plan for their trip a few tips before heading to hocking hills one i highly recommend following hawking hills on facebook and downloading their app for the most up-to-date information two as of right now there is absolutely no waiting or swimming in any of the water i've seen reviews of people doing this in the past but as of right now that's a no-go three stay on all the trails while visiting hawking hills does a very good job on marking what is and what is not open in order to keep the corrosion down so that we can continue to preserve the state park for the future and four don't forget to pack your drone as i'm filming this video hawking hills does allow drones just remember to be safe and responsible and you can get some amazing photos and videos of some of the most gorgeous waterfalls and five be prepared to hike a lot of the terrain is narrow and difficult make sure you're physically able and bring comfortable waterproof shoes as well as water and snacks we decided to drive down on a friday night after work so we ended up at the campground at about one in the morning the front desk was already closed but we had contacted them prior to let them know that we were coming late and we were able to set up our tent although it was difficult to figure out where to go in the middle of the night we stayed at big sycamore family campground and overall it was an okay place to stay the bathrooms were acceptable they had hot showers and it's a fairly close drive to the state park the only problem we had was we never actually met anyone who worked there we left early and came back late and every time we came the front desk was already closed as for weather in the beginning of may you're going to want to wear some extra layers during the day it could be okay but at night it was really chilly especially because we were staying in a tent on the first day we headed out we found a really great local coffee shop on the way highly recommend stopping here to get your morning coffee or if you're not into coffee like me grabbing a hot chocolate it was very good and we stopped here every morning afterwards our first stop was old man's cave which is the most popular of all the trails at hocking hills and this is mostly because it has the most landmarks of all the trails be ready to hike though because round trip is over one mile and if you're trying to avoid the crowds i recommend either coming on a weekday or if you do go on a weekend get there early like 7 8 a.m or get there late just a few hours before sunset in midday it was extremely busy and basically a line to get to see anything before you go down the trails there is a welcome center where you can get some more information about the trails from employees and also as far as i know it's the only true bathrooms that you'll find in hocking hills now there are two access points to start your trail for old man's cave one is near the welcome center but i recommend going to the far entrance or else you'll miss the upper waterfalls we started on that far entrance and you get to go over a bridge as well as see the upper falls which is one of the most popular waterfalls and you'll see photos of this waterfall online everywhere it's extremely gorgeous and like i said in the past this is one place where people used to swim but they no longer allow that so do not get in the water heading down that trail you'll see some unique trees growing on the cliffs and you'll come across devil's bathtub it's very cool to just sit here and just watch the water go by once you're done here and you start heading down the trail you'll come across your first narrow stairway now for those of you with dogs we saw a lot of people having issues with getting their dog down those steps so be ready to carry your dog or potentially go in front of them to try to get them to follow you the next big attraction is the a-frame bridge you will see some other small waterfalls on your way to the bridge but they are not as big as the upper falls now before you reach the a-frame bridge there is a path to your right that will take you back up to the welcome center however this is intended as an entrance and is very narrow so only use this as an emergency to get back to the parking lot now the a-frame bridge constantly had people going on it we waited a long time to try to get some photos and videos with no one else on the bridge we ended up coming back to this bridge later in the day and we got a lot more photos without people being there after the a-frame bridge you will come through some tunnels which are absolutely amazing and once you finish the bottom of the tunnel if you take a right you'll get a good shot of a waterfall without a lot of people in the way also at this tunnel if you look to your right you'll get to see old man's cave and the video just doesn't do justice on how large this cave is it is absolutely amazing from here you have two options you can either walk across the bridge and go into old man's cave or you can continue down your path on the left and you'll eventually come to the sphinx head after some more hiking you'll come down to the lower falls which is much larger than the upper falls and just as gorgeous this is another great opportunity to get some amazing photos and i flew my drone here to get some footage you will see a lot of people get in the water here again please stay out of the water we are trying to preserve these waterfalls and they're asking for the time being to stay out of it once you're done with the lower falls there are a few different trails you can take most obvious one will be going up the stairs towards old man's cave you'll see a fork in the road and if you go to the right it'll take you to the parking lot however if you go to the left you'll come to broken rock falls after a little bit of hiking this waterfall is nice because we didn't see as many people there and there was a path for you to walk up and touch the water and it even had a staircase so i think at some point or at least in the past they allowed people to come and hang out in the water here now after seeing broken rock falls i recommend going back to the parking lot you can continue to hike to go see other waterfalls and trails but all the waterfalls and trails that you will want to see all have a parking lot nearby so instead of hiking for miles and hours i recommend just going back to your vehicle and driving to what you want to see unless you're up for a lot of hiking that's just the easier way to do it when we headed back up we stopped up the welcome center and we talked to one of the employees who told us we had enough daylight to check out cedar falls and ash cave if we hurried so we headed over to cedar falls next and it is much larger than either of the waterfalls at old man's cave and it was definitely my favorite waterfall the entire trip we spent some time here just enjoying the waterfall and once again i had to fly my drone here it was just so beautiful on our way out we saw a small parking lot as well that led to a really cool bridge and that trail leads to the top of cedar falls however you cannot get close to the edge to see cedar falls from above so just keep that in mind if you want to go down that trail we had just enough daylight to head over to ash cave and it is massive i did not realize how big ash cave was and is simply gorgeous it was really cool to see some of the pigeons living in the cave and i really wanted to fly my drone here as well however it was starting to get dark i didn't want to risk my drone in low light and low gps signal but i am definitely going to return here to fly my drone in the future and hopefully by then i will also be able to do fpv i think doing a dive here would be so amazing we decided to stay here until it got dark because it's a very short walk back to your car after ash cave we decided to make a quick stop at a local bar to get some food not much was open and the food was okay we then stopped at walmart to grab some extra blankets and supplies because we were very cold the first night the next morning we got up early and headed to cantwell cliffs and this was definitely our favorite location of the trip but fair warning the bathrooms here are outhouses and not bathrooms so just be prepared for that now a really great thing about cantwell cliffs is there are basically no crowds compared to old man's cave with just a little bit of patience you can get some amazing photos and videos here and make it look like nobody else was on the trail there are two different paths you can take we actually did both of them but the gorge trail was definitely our favorite the cliffs are absolutely amazing to look at and if you're lucky and there was some rainfall recently you'll even be able to see some waterfalls after hiking cantwell cliffs we decided to head over to rock house which is the only true cave that you'll see in the park the cave stands at 25 feet tall and 200 feet long it is absolutely massive and you can even feel the temperature difference when you walk in it is very cold so bring a hoodie a little tip the entrance to the cave is a little difficult to find there is a small opening at the end of the cave which if you're small and athletic enough you can enter here but it's far easier to enter from the side of the cave that has a stairway after the rock bridge we decided to hit the rest of the trail before heading back the lower part of the trail is pretty gorgeous but once you climb to the top there's not a whole lot to see but it is cool knowing that you're standing right above the cave now this ended our trip at hocking hills we stayed the night to drive home the next morning and for those who were driving close to columbus i highly recommend stopping at blood dairy food hall it was an amazing place to eat you get to choose your table and there's a variety of themes and a waitress will come by and grab your drinks but in order to order your food you actually order online and you get to choose from their 10 different kitchens there's plenty of options so everyone can get what they like once your food is ready they will send you a text so you can go pick it up and bring it back to your table i hope this video has been helpful if you have any questions please feel free to comment down below and if you enjoyed this style of video please give it a like and subscribe we have more travel videos coming in the future the next video we'll be making is about our trip from new york

Channel: Traveling with Grecas

Views: 3,274

Keywords: hocking hills ohio travel guide, 2022 travel guide hocking hills ohio, tips on how to have the best experience in Hocking Hills Ohio, bucket list places in Ohio, travel guide2022, ohio travel guide, traveling with grecas

Id: DuXl2JqghXQ

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 23 2022