Catchup: Hockling Hills
Finally, the last of my catchup posts about my summer travels. It's only taken me two weeks to get around to all of them!
The week after I got back from my trip, I found out that an annual camping expedition some of my college friends go on was coming up. Tracy, who lived down the hall from us at Ohio Wesleyan, was going to spend the night at Dan and Colleen's house and then go down to Hocking Hills state park, south of Columbus about 60-90 minutes. Dan and Colleen weren't camping with them, since their baby is only a few months old, but they were driving down to spend a day there, so I joined them. It gave me the chance to spend a little time with Tracy and her old roommate Jess again, and meet Jess' husband and baby daughter (named Raina, just like one of my favorite cartoonists!). Dan's sister Cheryl was there, too.
The park was really pretty. It's all chasms and cliffs and stuff dating back to the ice ages. Reminded me a bit of Purgatory Chasm near Whitinsville in western Massachusetts, actually, but it was tiny compared to Hocking Hills. So, naturally, I took a ton of pictures. Mostly nature, but a bunch have people too.
After we arrived at the campsite and all caught up a little bit, we went to do an easy hike in a chasm called Conkle's Hollow. It's a paved, level path, which was nice since we had two babies in strollers with us.
Here's looking up to one edge from the path:
It was pretty dim down there, so it was hard to get sharp pictures a lot of the time...
Note that in the picture above you can see Colleen walking along under the overhang on the left.
And again, my friends are around the bend, there, near the end of the chasm. You can sort of get an idea for how big that rock in the foreground with the tree growing out of it is.
Another view of that big rock. The fallen tree on the right is the same as the tree in the picture with Colleen, above.
That's the group, standing near the end of the trail. It's a pretty deep feature for how narrow it is. Also, for being in the middle of Ohio. The chasm ends here at a little cave, which in the next picture...
Dan and John are disappearing into. It's not really much of a cave. More like a large overhang.
A view back from the cave, again with the fallen tree visible.
Dan admiring the trees.
Everybody walking away without me while I take pictures.
Near the trailhead there were all these tall yellow flowers. Dan knew what they were called but I don't remember anymore.
After Conkle's Hollow we went back to the campground to hang around a bit and eventually eat dinner. As we sat around I took pictures of the circle. Here are Jess and Tracy:
And Dan holding baby John, with his sister Cheryl next to him:
And, then Cheryl with Dan's wife, Colleen:
Jess' husband David was in their camper, which is a souped up black ambulance:
After dinner we went on another walk, this time leaving Raina behind. It was so nice and cool in the chasms that Dan and Colleen brought John along in his babybjorn (a carrying pouch thingy, like a papoose, but you wear it on your front instead of your back). This was the "Old Man's Cave" trail, which is right near the campground. It is another area of chasms and giant boulders. They also have lots of stone bridges and walls in parts, which gives it an almost otherworldly atmosphere at times. Dan likened it to the "Lord of the Rings" movies' portrayal of Rivendell.
That's the main stream that runs through this hollow, working its way down a series of terraces. Or, it should be. It was pretty dry. Just wait 'till you see the "waterfalls". But you can at least see there's some water at the bottom. It's also visible in the next picture...
So there was at least *some* water flowing. I saw some pictures of when it's not so dry, and it looked pretty neat.
That rock feature above -- also slightly visible in the previous picture -- is apparently the "old man" for whom Old Man's Cave is named. We didn't actually see the cave, though... we walked a while down one branch and then turned back, and went another way past the waterfalls on our return to the campground. Anyway, I thought it looked more like a gorilla.
Next, is the lovely "lower falls"...
What? You can't find the falls? Here's a closer shot...
Ta da!!! Breathtaking.
At this point we turned around and went back to the starting area with all the walls and bridges. Here is another shot of the stream coming down those terraces:
We followed along this way until...
The upper falls! Also not very impressive. But the bridge up there's kinda cool.
That's Dan and Cheryl.
And Dan, again, walking along the edge.
Colleen and John went on ahead while we were admiring the falls and stopped on the bridge to say "hi". And lastly, there was this neat wooden bridge crossing the chasm at the very end of the loop before we got back to the starting point:
Anyway, as I said, it was a really lovely area. The lighting wasn't great and I didn't have a monopod or anything so I think the pictures don't really do it justice, but you can get some idea of the topography.
That brings me to the end of my summer-travel recaps... Now I can actually get back to posting other stuff. Like, I got "Metroid Prime 3" for my Wii today...! Huzzah! Time to go back to playing that...
The week after I got back from my trip, I found out that an annual camping expedition some of my college friends go on was coming up. Tracy, who lived down the hall from us at Ohio Wesleyan, was going to spend the night at Dan and Colleen's house and then go down to Hocking Hills state park, south of Columbus about 60-90 minutes. Dan and Colleen weren't camping with them, since their baby is only a few months old, but they were driving down to spend a day there, so I joined them. It gave me the chance to spend a little time with Tracy and her old roommate Jess again, and meet Jess' husband and baby daughter (named Raina, just like one of my favorite cartoonists!). Dan's sister Cheryl was there, too.
The park was really pretty. It's all chasms and cliffs and stuff dating back to the ice ages. Reminded me a bit of Purgatory Chasm near Whitinsville in western Massachusetts, actually, but it was tiny compared to Hocking Hills. So, naturally, I took a ton of pictures. Mostly nature, but a bunch have people too.
After we arrived at the campsite and all caught up a little bit, we went to do an easy hike in a chasm called Conkle's Hollow. It's a paved, level path, which was nice since we had two babies in strollers with us.
Here's looking up to one edge from the path:
It was pretty dim down there, so it was hard to get sharp pictures a lot of the time...
Note that in the picture above you can see Colleen walking along under the overhang on the left.
And again, my friends are around the bend, there, near the end of the chasm. You can sort of get an idea for how big that rock in the foreground with the tree growing out of it is.
Another view of that big rock. The fallen tree on the right is the same as the tree in the picture with Colleen, above.
That's the group, standing near the end of the trail. It's a pretty deep feature for how narrow it is. Also, for being in the middle of Ohio. The chasm ends here at a little cave, which in the next picture...
Dan and John are disappearing into. It's not really much of a cave. More like a large overhang.
A view back from the cave, again with the fallen tree visible.
Dan admiring the trees.
Everybody walking away without me while I take pictures.
Near the trailhead there were all these tall yellow flowers. Dan knew what they were called but I don't remember anymore.
After Conkle's Hollow we went back to the campground to hang around a bit and eventually eat dinner. As we sat around I took pictures of the circle. Here are Jess and Tracy:
And Dan holding baby John, with his sister Cheryl next to him:
And, then Cheryl with Dan's wife, Colleen:
Jess' husband David was in their camper, which is a souped up black ambulance:
After dinner we went on another walk, this time leaving Raina behind. It was so nice and cool in the chasms that Dan and Colleen brought John along in his babybjorn (a carrying pouch thingy, like a papoose, but you wear it on your front instead of your back). This was the "Old Man's Cave" trail, which is right near the campground. It is another area of chasms and giant boulders. They also have lots of stone bridges and walls in parts, which gives it an almost otherworldly atmosphere at times. Dan likened it to the "Lord of the Rings" movies' portrayal of Rivendell.
That's the main stream that runs through this hollow, working its way down a series of terraces. Or, it should be. It was pretty dry. Just wait 'till you see the "waterfalls". But you can at least see there's some water at the bottom. It's also visible in the next picture...
So there was at least *some* water flowing. I saw some pictures of when it's not so dry, and it looked pretty neat.
That rock feature above -- also slightly visible in the previous picture -- is apparently the "old man" for whom Old Man's Cave is named. We didn't actually see the cave, though... we walked a while down one branch and then turned back, and went another way past the waterfalls on our return to the campground. Anyway, I thought it looked more like a gorilla.
Next, is the lovely "lower falls"...
What? You can't find the falls? Here's a closer shot...
Ta da!!! Breathtaking.
At this point we turned around and went back to the starting area with all the walls and bridges. Here is another shot of the stream coming down those terraces:
We followed along this way until...
The upper falls! Also not very impressive. But the bridge up there's kinda cool.
That's Dan and Cheryl.
And Dan, again, walking along the edge.
Colleen and John went on ahead while we were admiring the falls and stopped on the bridge to say "hi". And lastly, there was this neat wooden bridge crossing the chasm at the very end of the loop before we got back to the starting point:
Anyway, as I said, it was a really lovely area. The lighting wasn't great and I didn't have a monopod or anything so I think the pictures don't really do it justice, but you can get some idea of the topography.
That brings me to the end of my summer-travel recaps... Now I can actually get back to posting other stuff. Like, I got "Metroid Prime 3" for my Wii today...! Huzzah! Time to go back to playing that...