Hocking Hills

We loved Hocking Hills and did every trail while we were there. After each one, the kids wanted to do another one. They were sad that we had to go back home. We arrived on September 5th, a Tuesday. The campground was nearly empty! The hiking trails were absolutely wonderful. Some harder than others, but the views and scenery were awesome. Each night we cooked outside and had our windows open each day. Many mornings we woke up to temps in the 40’s/50’s. I’ll take that!

Wednesday morning we headed out to the furthest hike away which was Cantwell Cliffs, it was a beautiful hike. When we were finished with it, the kids wanted to do another one, so we agreed and went to Rockhouse. That was super neat, as the name suggests, it’s a rock house. The hike was great and the kids did awesome. Kevin and I also found a wonderful winery…now, to talk Sean into babysitting, lol. He did and we had a very nice time at the winery and decided to bring the kids next time.

Thursday morning we got up for another hike! This time we tried one a little closer, Ash Cave. Then we decided that we should do another one, Cedar Falls. After a long day hiking we decided to treat the kids to the winery! Yes, the winery, we couldn’t wait to go back. I wanted to go back and the winery is kid friendly. We took Go Fish (card game) and headed to there. We ordered the meat and cheese tray and a veggie tray. Ordered the kids grape juice and Kevin picked out the wine. They gave the kids grape juice in a wine glass, the girls were in love. The kids gobbled up the food. We went back and cooked out again, our famous grilled cheese!

Friday was another hiking day :-) Have you guessed we LOVE to hike? We do, the kids do, and the dog does! Today we did Old Man’s Cave. It was really neat to think that people used the cave to make moonshine. After we got back and rested a little, Kevin and I snuck out and had Sean watch the kids and we visited a Brewery called Br3w3ry, or basically Brewery 33. Depends on how you look at it. We tried 8 different beers that they had and boy did they have good ones! We found out that night that we were parked right next to family of friends of ours. What a small world. It was nice talking to them and next time we’ll have to have a cookout mid-day! And now we know the secret to making a great fire, Thank you Sal :-)

Saturday we decided to get up early to get hiking to beat some of the crowd. We hiked Conkle’s Hollow rim trail and gorge trail that day. The rim trail was 2-1/2 miles and the gorge trail was ½ mile. It took us a lot longer to hike that than we expected. After the hike we went back and cleaned up and met my niece, Liz and her husband Bill for lunch, a late lunch, at Millstone BBQ. They had good beer and great food. It was really nice catching up with them.

Sunday we got up even earlier to hit what was labeled the hardest trail. The Hemlock Bridge and Whispering Cave. The reason is that it has steep inclines and cliff edges and drops somewhere around 270 feet in a short ¼ mile!

Monday we had to pack up and leave. While we were packing up, we met a very nice gentleman that was telling us about Canada and his trips there. We love meeting new campers and hearing their stories and experiences. He gave us a great tip and we rearranged our upcoming weeks a little bit so we can go to Amish Country!