Nov 5

Nov 5 Hiking the Old Man's Cave Area in Hocking Hills State Park

The Old Man’s Cave area in Hocking Hills State Park is the most popular spot in the park and consists of more than just the cave. It also includes quite a few waterfalls, a couple of caves, carvings, and more in the beautiful gorge.

Getting here is easy, simply search for Old Man’s Cave and the map will take you to the large parking lot. Here you’ll find the Visitor Center, picnic areas, a shelter, bathrooms, and other sitting areas, along with a few trailheads (all leading to the same trail).

The best time to visit this part of the park is the morning or late afternoon, while parking might not be an issue if it’s busy, you’ll have to constantly wait for other people on a lot of the trail, and honestly, it’s hard to admire the beauty with a hundred people yelling or packed together. If you’re a photographer like me, going early also provides fewer people to be in your photographs.

Things to note: Hocking Hills and the surrounding area have almost no cell service, so be sure to download an offline map. Although the Visitor Center does have WiFi if you need it for a short period of time. It is also prohibited to go in the water at the base of the falls and the river. Do not go off-trail, it is illegal here in the park and with how dangerous Hocking Hills can be, you don’t want to get lost or accidentally fall off the cliff.

The Hocking Hills Visitor Center is newly constructed as of 2019, and in there you’ll find a gift shop, restrooms, history of the area, trail conditions, and more, including allowing you to visualize what the trails look like. There’s also maps available, and employees to answer any questions. Outside of the visitor center is seating areas and some views of the gorge, there’s also a couple of trailheads behind it, all leading to the same areas.

Starting in the large parking lot, you’ll find the Visitor Center, and a few ways to enter the gorge. The most popular way is from the trail furthest from the Visitor Center, where you’ll walk across the bridge and head into the gorge. Keep right on the trail to head down some steps and you’ll find Upper Falls, one of the park’s most picturesque spots. Most of the trail is thin, so in some parts, you may have to wait to let others pass if it’s busy.

Continuing on, you’ll walk along the trail in the gorge viewing the beautiful landscape (it really doesn’t feel like you’re in Ohio). The gorge is made of Blackhand Sandstone. You’ll find a few hidden gems, from rock carvings/shapes and waterfalls. Shortly after Upper Falls though, there’s the Devil’s Bathtub. Rumor is that the water goes down to Hades, though it just goes to the other side of the bridge into the river.

Shortly after that, you’ll come across the A-Frame Bridge, which you walk under while continuing on the trail. A bit past that, and there’s a tunnel you have to walk through. At first, it looks like you won’t fit, since you have to walk down some stairs, and the angle makes the tunnel look small, but this is the only way to Old Man’s Cave from the trail you’re on. Upon walking through it, on the other side, you come to another bridge and a fork. Here you’ll see the Cave, where you can either take the bridge to walk through a short tunnel to the cave or take the fork to continue to Lower Falls.

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If you take the bridge through the cave, you have a few options, you can head left onto the trail to take another tunnel and a set of metal stairs down to Lower Falls. Or you can head right, which will lead you to the Visitor Center and parking lot. If you continue on at the fork though, you’ll have a fairly short walk to Lower Falls. You’ll walk down a decent amount of stairs and then you’ll hear the falls.

Once you’re done viewing the falls, you have a few options again. You can head back the way you came, through the gorge back to Upper Falls, or you can cross the bridge and head up the stairs and tunnel previously mentioned back to the parking lot (on the right), or you can go left to head to Broken Rock Falls, a small waterfall that needs a heavy rainfall to be flowing. You can either turn around back to the trail you just came from, or continue on down a different set of stairs then cross the water (it’s shallow) back to the original trail.

But if you want to continue from Lower Falls, the trail to the left of the bridge will lead you to a few places. This part of the trail isn’t too hard, but it’s lots of tree roots and rocks on the trail you’ll have to hike over. About half a mile further down, you’ll come across another fork, going right will lead you to Whispering Cave via the Hemlock Bridge Trail, and going left will lead you to Cedar Falls. From here, it’s less than a mile to Whispering Cave or about 1.5 miles to Cedar Falls. The hike to Whispering from the fork is mostly uphill after crossing a canopy bridge and walking a short distance. Once uphill, you’ll hike next to the cliffs and the trail is pretty rocky, so watch your footing. Similar to Old Man’s Cave, you can walk through it to the other side before heading back the way you came. Whispering Cave does have its own parking lot and trailhead, where it’s about a half-mile to the cave from there.

Whispering Cave is an out and back trail, so when you’re done viewing it, you can head back the way you came, either back to Upper Falls where you started or the shortcuts through Lower Falls or Old Man’s Cave.

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