Hocking Hills State Park, Logan OH. We started with the Grandma Gatewood Trail, part of the most popular loop in the park. The trail takes you through the gorge and past beautiful waterfalls, along the river, through tunnels and unique rock formations. The wild flowers are blooming, the leaves are out and it’s just such a beautiful place to be. We took a side trail to see Broken Rock Falls, which is spectacular. The park map shows it as a dead end but the path actually loops back to Grandma Gateway Trail which we took to the OMC to Whispering Cave Loop to the actual Whispering Cave Trail. The trail takes you along a quiet stream, through stunning cave features, towering walls and boulders with delicate honeycomb weathering. Whispering Cave has a trickling waterfall and a plaque telling of early cave use. It looks out over a beautiful green valley. We loved the trail so far so much that we walked back to Old Man’s Cave Trail the same way we had came in so that we could appreciate it all over again. Old Man’s Cave is named for a man who moved from Tennessee to Ohio with his family and found the cave while out hunting with his hound dogs. He ended up living out his days in the cave and I can see why – it’s truly a beautiful spot. We ended up hiking an east 5 miles with about 400’ elevation, give or take a few feet.

Click for Trail Maps

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difficulty: 4

We are a late picnic lunch before heading to Old Man’s Cave General Store, Logan, OH which has 24 flavors of soft serve ice cream – of course we had to get a cup.

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Country Inn and Suites by Radisson, Marion, OH but with our Booking.com rewards it came out to $16 for the night. This is a lovely hotel. Our room is actually 2 rooms, with a bedroom/TV area and a 2nd separate room with a sofa, desk, TV coffee and fridge.

Price: $94/night