Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
Try:
The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
›
Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
›
Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
›
Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
›
Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
›
Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
›
Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
›
Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
›

Explore Ohio

One map for every park, mound, historic site, beach, cave, waterfall and oddity in the app.

Lake ErieWest Virginia27 places277 places77 places73 places35 places519 places1913 places1319 places1916 places168 places810 places1010 places109 places98 places820 places204 places43 places3Barkcamp State Park4 places47 places77 places76 places69 places917 places173 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places2Forked Run State Park3 places32 places26 places610 places103 places32 places2

Tap a symbol for a preview, or search for a place. Open the key to show or hide categories.

117 parks in 7 regions

Hocking Hills State Park

Logan · Southeast Ohio
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
2,356acres
25trail miles
1924established

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
ODNR park finder (search this park)
Location confidence
Verified entrance or visitor center
Hocking Hills State Park Visitor Center, 19988 OH-664, Logan (Google Places)
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
ReserveOhio — camping and cabin bookings
Hunting or permits
Not permitted inside the state park itself, but allowed in the adjacent Hocking State Forest (squirrel, grouse, deer, turkey, raccoon, rabbit) with a valid Ohio hunting license.

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The story of this land

Stand at the bottom of Old Man's Cave gorge and you're looking at a cross-section of deep time. The walls around you are Blackhand sandstone — layer on layer of silt, sand, and pebbles laid down when a shallow sea covered Ohio, cemented by iron oxide and silica into a stone that's hard at the top and bottom and soft in the middle. Water found that soft middle and patiently ate it away, leaving a roof and a floor behind. Geologists call it sapping. You'll call it a cave. The gorge cuts through all 150 feet of that sandstone in about half a mile, which is why the walk feels like descending into the earth rather than across it.

People have been sheltering under these ledges for a very long time. Adena-era peoples moved through more than 7,000 years ago, and the recess caves later served as stopovers for Shawnee traveling between West Virginia and their villages along the Scioto. Two brothers, Nathaniel and Pat Rayon, built a cabin thirty feet from the cave mouth in 1795. But the name that stuck belongs to Richard Rowe, whose family came up from the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee around 1796 to set up a trading post. Rowe roamed the Scioto with two hounds looking for game, wandered up Salt Creek one day, and found this place. He never left. He lived out his life under that ledge and, by most accounts, is buried beneath it — the old man of Old Man's Cave.

By the 1800s the hills had a powder mill and a grist mill, and preachers were using the big rock at the mouth of Ash Cave as a natural pulpit, the acoustics doing the work of a sound system. Then the land got hard use — hill farms and wildfire left it worn out. Ohio started buying it back in 1924 specifically to heal it, and in the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps did much of the replanting and built trails you still walk today. The park split off from the state forest in 1949. The six-mile Grandma Gatewood Trail linking Old Man's Cave to Cedar Falls to Ash Cave honors Emma Gatewood, an Ohio grandmother who at 67 became the first woman to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail solo — in Keds, carrying a shower curtain. Cedar Falls, incidentally, has no cedars. Settlers saw the hemlocks and guessed wrong, and the name stuck anyway.

Things to do in the park

  • Hike the seven main areas: Old Man's Cave, Ash Cave, Cedar Falls, Rock House, Conkle's Hollow, Cantwell Cliffs, Whispering Cave
  • Archery range with static and 3D targets
  • 9-hole disc golf course near the Whispering Cave trailhead
  • Carry-in boating and fishing at Rose Lake

Trails

Maps, reviews and recent trail reports for Hocking Hills State Park.

Find trails on AllTrails →

Things to do nearby

  • Clifton Gorge–style zip-lining and canopy tours operated by area outfitters
  • Hocking Hills Canopy Tours and cabin-country ATV trails
  • Rockbridge State Nature Preserve, Ohio's largest natural rock bridge
  • Lake Logan State Park, a short drive away

Hiking trails

More than 25 miles of trails in the state park itself, plus additional trail in the adjoining Hocking State Forest. See ODNR's official trail map for current combined mileage.

Wildlife you might see

  • White-tailed deer
  • Wild turkey
  • Barred owls
  • Bobcats (rarely seen)
  • Black bears (uncommon)
  • Over 200 recorded bird species

Fishing

  • Rose Lake (17 acres, carry-in access): bluegill, bass, and other panfish stocked for park anglers

Hunting

Not permitted inside the state park itself, but allowed in the adjacent Hocking State Forest (squirrel, grouse, deer, turkey, raccoon, rabbit) with a valid Ohio hunting license.

Who Was the Old Man?

The gorge has a hermit, and everybody agrees on the outline. Late in the 1790s a trapper named Richard Rowe walked up from the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee with his dogs and made the big recess cave his winter camp. He trapped, traded pelts, and lived alone. One cold morning he went down to the creek to water, as he had a hundred times, and broke the ice with the butt of his musket. The gun went off with the muzzle under his chin. Trappers found him days later, wrapped him in oak bark and buried him in the sand on a ledge in the cave. Nobody living knows which ledge.

Locals add the rest. The ghost of the old man is said to walk the creek in the gorge with his dog, Harper, and hikers say they have heard a dog howling where there is no dog. There is also the money: Rowe supposedly told friends he had a stash hidden in the gorge, and no one has found it. Ash Cave, a few miles away, has its own mystery. When settlers first came they found heaps of ash under the great overhang, the biggest about 35 meters long, and no one could say where it came from.

Behind the legend

The real record is thinner and stranger. Two brothers, Nathaniel and Pat Rayon, were documented in the area in 1795 and built a cabin just north of the cave, and they are rumored to be buried in or near it. The old man of the name may not have been Rowe at all. According to local historians, the cave was first called Retzler's Cave, and by the 1870s and 1880s travelers were coming to see the bones of an old man found there lying with a flintlock rifle. By 1907 the trapper had a name, Retzler, and a loyal dog, Harper. By the 1960s the name Retzler had faded, and Richard Roe, a stand-in name lawyers use the way they use John Doe, had taken its place. Rowe is now the standard answer, but it is a legend that grew for two hundred years.

The deeper history is not in doubt. Archaeologists have documented people visiting this gorge about 7,000 years ago, and the Shawnee, Wyandot and Lenape all lived in the region in the 1600s and 1700s. At Ash Cave, an 1877 dig into the ash turned up arrowheads, animal bones, pottery, flints and corn cobs. The ash may be centuries of campfires, or it may be leftover from smelting or from making saltpeter; nobody has settled it.

If you go

Walk the Old Man's Cave trail early, before the crowds, and stop at the recess cave. Ash Cave is the easiest walk in the park, a paved and accessible path to a huge hollow where the ash once lay. Stay on the trails: the gorge is protected, and the ledges and bluffs are the reason people worry about the stories in the first place.

Road trips through Hocking Hills State Park

Scenic byways and heritage drives that pass this park or run close to it.

Hocking Hills Scenic Byway

Southeast Ohio
The heart of the byway.
Scenic byway26.4 miles
Half a day · Hocking Hills State Park to Rockbridge

Ohio Art Corridor

Appalachian Ohio
Gorges and caves near Lancaster and Athens.
Heritage driveVaries
2 days · Circleville to Portsmouth

Caves near Hocking Hills State Park

Caves, rock shelters and cave attractions within reach of this park. Stay on marked trails and official tours.

Ash Cave

Logan · Hocking County
Ohio's largest recess cave, a horseshoe of sandstone 700 feet across with a seasonal waterfall, reached by an accessible gorge trail.
Recess cave (sandstone)
Part of this park

Old Man's Cave

Logan · Hocking County
A gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center.
Recess cave (sandstone)
Part of this park

Rock House

Logan · Hocking County
The only true cave in Hocking Hills State Park, a roofed sandstone passage with window openings, reached by a stepped trail.
Sandstone cave
Part of this park

Whispering Cave

Logan · Hocking County
A cave in the Hocking Hills gorge country with a 105-foot seasonal waterfall, reached by the Hemlock Bridge Trail from Old Man's Cave.
Sandstone cave (open alcove)
Part of this park

Waterfalls near Hocking Hills State Park

Falls inside or within reach of this park. Stay behind railings and on marked trails; wet rock is slick in every season.

Cedar Falls

Logan · Hocking County
Hocking Hills' broadest waterfall, a wide sandstone cascade with the biggest year round flow of any falls in the park.
50 ftModerate hikeLegend
Inside this park

Ash Cave Falls

South Bloomingville · Hocking County
Ohio's largest recess cave, with a thin seasonal waterfall spilling 90 feet from its rim.
90 ftEasy walkAccessible overlook
Inside this park

Upper Falls at Old Man's Cave

Logan · Hocking County
The first waterfall in the gorge, viewable from an accessible ramp and deck just steps from the parking lot.
15 ftEasy walkAccessible overlook
Inside this park

Lower Falls at Old Man's Cave

Logan · Hocking County
A deep plunge pool at the far end of the Old Man's Cave gorge, reached down a steep stone stairway.
25 ftModerate hike
Inside this park

Whispering Falls

Logan · Hocking County
Reported as the tallest falls in Hocking Hills at around 100 feet, reached on a newer, five mile loop trail past a swinging bridge.
100 to 105 ftStrenuous hike
Inside this park

Buck Run Falls at Cantwell Cliffs

Rockbridge · Hocking County
A seasonal curtain of water that can spill more than 100 feet down the cliff face at Hocking Hills' most remote, least crowded unit.
Up to 150 ftStrenuous hikeLegend
Inside this park

Conkle's Hollow Falls

Rockbridge · Hocking County
A narrow waterfall at the head of a gorge with cliffs nearly 200 feet high, reached on a mostly flat, partly paved trail.
20 to 25 ftEasy walkAccessible overlookLegend
About 2 miles from this park

Rockbridge Falls

Rockbridge · Hocking County
A little known seasonal waterfall that drops beneath Ohio's longest natural stone bridge, away from Hocking Hills' crowds.
40 ftEasy walk
About 9 miles from this park

Robinson Falls

Logan · Hocking County
A tucked away canyon waterfall, also called Corkscrew Falls, that can only be visited with a free access permit from the state.
12 ftEasy walk
About 15 miles from this park

The Buckeye Trail at Hocking Hills State Park

Ohio's 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop passes through or beside this park. Tap a section for its route, camping, water and resupply.

10 Old Man's Cave Section

53 miles · Hocking, Vinton
The most famous stretch of the trail
3 parks

Campsites

Full hookup site
Electric, water, sewer · pads to 50 ft
$37–56/night
Electric site (20/30/50 amp)
122 sites · paved pad
$37–41/night
Walk-in tent site
30 sites · pit latrines
$23–27/night

Cabins

Camper cabin
Bunk beds, mini fridge, A/C · shared bathhouse
$55–70/night

On site

  • Heated showers
  • Laundry
  • Camp store
  • Seasonal pool
  • Playgrounds
  • Dump station
Continue to ReserveOhio →
Field Notes Ohio isn't connected to ReserveOhio, so it can't hold a site or take payment. Tapping through opens it in a new tab — search "Hocking Hills State Park" there to finish reserving.
Prefer the phone?740-385-6842

Restaurants nearby

58 West
Brewery/restaurant in historic downtown Logan
Directions
TheFeed
Burgers and comfort food, highly rated
Directions
Olde Dutch
All-you-can-eat buffet, close to the park entrance road
Directions

Gas stations nearby

Harper's Gas and More
Closest station to Old Man's Cave / Ash Cave
Directions
Murphy USA
Near the campground entrance road
Directions

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.