For those who enjoy hiking by cliffs, outcroppings and caves, Saltpetre Cave State Nature Preserve is a tiny preserve in Hocking County with an abundance of such features. Although it is only 14 acres in size, it contains four significant recess caves. Two of the caves have 8-foot tall ceilings, mouths that are more than 100 feet wide, and chambers which extend back more than 120 feet into the bedrock. Another cave actually consists of three, vertically stacked recess caves. And a final cave has Read more ➜ Saltpetre Cave State Nature Preserve
For those who enjoy hiking by cliffs, outcroppings and caves, Saltpetre Cave State Nature Preserve is a tiny preserve in Hocking County with an abundance of such features. Although it is only 14 acres in size, it contains four significant recess caves. Two of the caves have 8-foot tall ceilings, mouths that are more than 100 feet wide, and chambers which extend back more than 120 feet into the bedrock. Another cave actually consists of three, vertically stacked recess caves. And a final cave has Read more ➜ 
In this post we describe a hike that begins at the parking lot that used to service the dining lodge. Initially we follow the Hemlock Bridge Trail. There is an optional hike on a spur trail that leads to Whispering Cave. However, in this post we instead continue on until we reach Hemlock Bridge. After crossing the bridge we follow the Grandma Gatewood Trail to the Old Man's Cave region. After exploring this area, we retrace our steps back to where we parked. The round-trip hike is 4.2 miles.
Getting 
We participated in the 53rd Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike on Saturday. This was our eighth time participating in this winter hike that runs from Old Man’s Cave to Rose Lake, Cedar Falls, and ends at Ash Cave for a total distance of 6.5 miles. A bus returns participants to the starting point.
The weather for the winter hike was perfect, there was a nice base of snow throughout the Hocking Hills. Weather for the prior few weeks had varied above and below freezing creating huge icicles. 
There's a newly opened attraction at the Hocking Hills State Park: Whispering Cave. It is a recess cave that's nearly 300 feet wide with a drizzling, 105-foot waterfall pouring from its upper rim.
Getting Oriented
The new trail is called the Hemlock Bridge Trail. It begins near the parking lot for the Hocking Hills Dining Lodge which is closed for the time being. You'll find a kiosk for the new trail toward the northwest end of the parking lot (the end opposite from the lodge). 
We recently visited Robinson Falls (aka "Corkscrew Falls") at Boch Hollow State Nature Preserve. The waterfall is located off-trail at the preserve, so we obtained a free permit from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to visit the falls. Along with the permit, they sent us a map showing the falls, where to park, directions, and preserve rules.
The ODNR-provided map directed us to a small pull-off from the road that holds a couple of cars. We located the trail-head across the 
We participated in the 51st Annual Hocking Hills Winter Hike on Saturday. This was our seventh time participating in this winter hike that runs from Old Man's Cave to Rose Lake, Cedar Falls, and ends at Ash Cave for a total distance of 6.5 miles. A bus returns participants to the starting point.
The weather for the hike, like most of this winter, was warmer than usual. There were some small patches of snow here and there, and small icicles. But the temperature was above freezing and 
A couple of weeks ago we visited Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve to view fall foliage. It was a pleasant sunny day and fall color was in its early stages. The preserve parking lot was packed to overflowing. We hiked the 2.5 mile rim trail. Its a big preserve so once we got started it wasn't particularly crowded. Conkle's Hollow is a nice spot for viewing fall color and the area should now be at or near peak.
Additional information
TrekOhio: Conkle's Hollow
TrekOhio: 
We are going to describe one of our favorite loop trails in the Hocking Hills State Park. The outbound portion of the the trail follows the Grandma Gatewood Trail, named after the famed Emma Gatewood. The Grandma Gatewood Trail is a segment of the 1,500 mile Buckeye Trail and is marked with blue blazes or blue marker posts.
Below is a screenshot of the GPS trace of our hike courtesy of Google's My Tracks app. We started at the red marker near the Upper Falls and traveled counter-clockwise. 
Like a lot of other people, I'm totally ready to leave winter behind at this point. However Bob convinced me to open myself to winter's beauty once more by hiking in the Hocking Hills this past Friday. It was sunny, but cold (around 20° F, -6.7° C), so we had to bundle up. We visited two attractions in the Hocking Hills State Park: Ash Cave and Cedar Falls. Then we hiked the Gorge Trail in the Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve. To make things easier for ourselves, we reduced our hiking by parking 
We visited Boch Hollow Nature Preserve again last week. The weather was just about perfect. Here's a few pictures from our hike.
This opossum was slowly wondering up a dry stream bed when he decided to stop and pose for a picture.
Additional information
TrekOhio: Hocking County Parks & Preserves — This is the county where Boch Hollow is located; check out this page for links to the official site and for information