For the summer of 2008 I decided to take our vacation closer to home. Last year in Myrtle Beach was wonderful but the long drive with only one adult driver, and the high cost of gas, made me decide to try something different. At first I thought about Tennessee. Unfortunately, or should I say fortunately, none of the vacation rentals I contacted aver contacted me back. I figured they must not want my money. A friend told me about Hocking Hills. From Kettering, Ohio the Hocking Hills area is a little over 100 miles or two hours which was great for gas savings and solo driver concerns. Upon our return I realized that if it had been three to four times that amount it would have still been well worth it! I am writing this from my personal perspective and you can be assured that our experiences were real.
Where to stay:
Camping: The entire Hocking hills area has a multitude of camping facilities available. There are private primitive campsites as well as sites available in the State Park. Most of these camp grounds also have full hookups if you choose to bring your home with you on wheels. The State park also has "camping cabins". These cabins are a one room shelter type with a microwave and mini-fridge. They each have an outdoor faucet and there is a communal bath house nearby.
Cabins and Inns: Hocking Hills provides a magazine with listings for all types of lodging and activities that you can receive free of charge. There are an immense number of cabins available for rental. Cabin types vary from romantic couple type to rentals that will accommodate large family groups. Some of these cabins or Inns will even provide spa and massage services if you are looking for a get-away-from it-all trip.
Hotels - motels: The town of Logan is only about 20 minutes from the State Park area and does have hotel - motel accommodations. This is also convenient as swimming is available in Lake Logan itself.
Our choice: I wanted a camping type trip for my daughters, ages 12 and almost 15. Also with that in mind I thought having a cabin with our own bathroom would be most appropriate. I also want some kitchen facilities to save on food costs. I also needed to do this on our somewhat tight budget. Amazingly enough this was not as difficult as I first thought. I found Hocking Hills Cozy Cabins. They have three cabins available, a regular cabin, an A-frame and an 1800's rebuilt log cabin. When I made our reservation all three were available and I choose the log cabin as it sounded like the most fun and a more memorable experience for the kids. At the time of this writing the cost was $100 per night, plus tax, during the season. This was a great price compared to the more luxury type cabins available. As far as I was concerned it was a luxury cabin. It had a private bedroom, a bedroom loft and a nice size living room with a sofa a plenty of floor space for an extra kid in a sleeping bag. The bathroom had a shower stall and the kitchen was fully loaded with a fridge, microwave, stove, coffee maker, toaster and all utensils. The outside was just as nice, with a fully covered porch, four person hot tub, gas grill picnic table, rocker bench and fire pit. It was also nicely secluded and we were never bothered by anyone. I originally did not think we would use the hot tub but it was great after an afternoon of hiking and other activities. The only downside was that this cabin, and I would assume most in the area, has well water. The water has a slight sulfa smell and the kids did not like it. If you are sensitive to water types I suggest you bring your own bottled water but I used it for my coffee with no problem and as long as I have my coffee I am a happy camper! (There are numerous places to buy bottled water in the area)
What to see and do:
It would be easier if I started with what we did not do. We did not go rock climbing. Rock climbing and rappelling are available in several areas.
We did not go on the Zip line, one of the newer attractions available and it sounded like great fun. Unfortunately I promised to bring all kids back home alive.
Archery, available across from the state park, for free. At this time you must provide your own bows and arrows, there are no rentals available. I would have loved to try this, but the kids promised to bring me home alive.
Horseback riding; There are many places available for horse back riding but we ran out of time for this.
Fishing: Fishing areas abound and if you do not have your own rods they can be rented or purchased at numerous locations.
What we did do:
Swimming: Swimming is available at Lake Logan and is free. It has a nice beach and clean water. Lake Hope also has swimming available but is further away from the Hocking Hills area. Rose Lake, located in the State Park, does not allow swimming, only fishing and boating.
Gem Mining!: Way cool! This is available at Scenic View Family Campground. You do not have to stay at the campground for this activity, although the grounds looked very nice with all forms of camping available complete with a swimming pool and an arcade game room for kids. At Scenic View you buy various size bags or buckets of material and then get to wash them through a 75' foot sluice. We ended up buying two buckets of material because we were having so much fun. We really did find a large selection of gems, minerals and arrow heads. Well worth the money spent. I would not expect to find hundreds of dollars worth but really worth the money for what we did find and the great experience!
Canoeing: Great experience. There are many places for renting canoes, kayaks, pedal boats and motor boats. We went with Hocking Hills Canoe Livery, just inside of Logan. I decided on the shortest trip as this would be the first canoe experience for my daughters. A five mile trip that lasted over 1 hours with two canoes was $60 and very well worth it. You can paddle as fast as you want or just enjoy a lazy trip down river back to the starting point. They have a variety of trips available ranging from the 1 to 2 hour trip up to an overnight camping adventure. This is definitely on my do it again list.
Hiking and Exploring: This is a great reason to go to Hocking Hills. We could have spent days just hiking and exploring and enjoying the incredible scenery. The availability of trails are endless and range from very easy to the more experience hiker. Our first trip was to ASH CAVE. Ash cave is a short and easy hike and ALSO handicap accessible! It has a beautiful small waterfall and is great for sitting and just relaxing. Our next trip was to ROCK HOUSE. Rock house is outside of the State Park area but only a few miles away. This did come under the category of a more difficult hike but well worth the extra exertion. It is the only true remaining cave in the area and the scenery is breathtaking. Our third adventure was to OLD MAN'S CAVEitself. There are many trails available to explore and maps are available at the welcome center. None of the hiking was very difficult and hikes can be lengthened or shortened as desired because several of the paths loop back to other areas. Unfortunately during the blizzard of 1978 part of Old Man's Cave itself collapsed and that area is no longer available to the public. The rock formation, water falls and scenery in general make this a spectacular hike. Our fourth trip was to CEDAR FALLS, which can be reached through the trails of Old Man's Cave or driven to for a shorter hike. The falls here are magnificent and a great photo or art opportunity. Picnic areas are available in all these areas and the welcome center has maps and a gift shop.
Dining: The town of Logan has several of the common fast food restaurants and grocery stores. There are also a large number of finer dining establishments throughout the region. We also found a wonderful Deli. The kids wanted pizza, saw the sign and we pulled into Old Man's Cave General Store. Once inside we found they were out of pizza. Fine by me. What they did have was very large deli menu and we choose from a variety of deli sandwiches and burgers with sides. Everything was made fresh to order and absolutely delicious. Even better was the price which I found to be the same or less than we would have paid at any fast food restaurant.
Shopping and Souvenirs: First, on the oopps, I forgot it list, both Old Man's Cave General Store and Grandma Faye's have an incredible selection of everyday needs items. If you forgot it, they probably have it. They also both have lovely souvenir items and are located close to the main State Park area. We also found excellent fudge; don't forget to try the fudge! The town of Logan itself has a Big Box store that would probably have everything else you forgot and did not even want to bring. This is also where we found a great craft mall and antique mall area. Really an amazing selection of crafts, gifts and souvenirs are available and the craft store also had the craft store cat resident and we were able to cuddle him and alleviate some of the missing of our own feline friends. Bear did not mind at all and I think he was well used to being the center of attention.
In summary I would say that the Hocking Hills area is a great vacation spot for any type of vacationer. It is very affordable and offers many types of things to do from relaxing to adventuring.
Hiking through Ash Cave FREE
Hiking through Rock House FREE
Hiking through Old Man's Cave FREE
Leaving worn out teenagers at the rest area while their 48 year old mother hiked back up to get the car PRICELESS!