TigerQuilter: Our Short 2019 Vacation at Lake Hope

We finally got a way for a few days of R&R, up until now our overnight trips this year have been to either visit one of our sons, move one of our sons or take some piece of furniture from Roy's parent's house to one of the sons. Monday we went to Lake Hope State Park here in Ohio. I was amazed when Roy said to make the cabin reservation for 3 whole nights! Right now for us that is a vacation. Monday dawned, I have my clothes packed, I have food packed, I have all the extras packed including a corkscrew (which we didn't need the bottle had a twist off cap) And I'm waiting for Roy to pack his stuff. After having packed for family trips all these years I'm sure that every expedition had a woman in the background somewhere with her list and making sure everything needed was packed while the men focused on only one or two things. Anyway we were on our way. Since we had time Roy suggested we take 50 to Vinton Furnace State Forrest. We have seen pictures of the ruins of old iron furnaces there. We figured we would go look. Well easier said then done. Google took up to a gate in the forest. The app I was using to find the trail (we close enough to 50 to get a great 4G signal) had us walking almost a mile up a gravel road. That took us to the Forest headquarters. It is also an experimental forest and it looked like there might have been some living quarters there but we saw no one. By now it was getting later and although I was pretty sure that if walked the around the whole headquarters's are we might find the trail we were looking for but the trail was 1.9 miles one way and we had a 3/4 of mile to walk back to the car so we knew we didn't have time. So we hiked back to the car. We did make a return trip but more on that later.
We arrived at Lake Hope and checked in. Our cabin is one Roy always wants me to get because he can get a decent phone signal there if he hangs his phone in certain window.

It is a steep walk way.
After some supper we went for a short hike before it got it dark on a trail close to the cabins called the Greenbriar . We only followed it until it went steeply down hill.
Day 2 Alright! We've been saying we wanted to check out a trail at Hocking Hills State Park in the Old Man's Cave area since they opened the trail in 2017. However last year and the year before when we were at the cabin it rained and rained and rained. In 2017 we didn't get out to hike until the last day we were there. And last year when we started out to Old Man's Cave the roads were closed due to high water. This year it was dry, unseasonably hot but dry. If you have been to Old Man's cave but haven't been there for a few years things have changed some. St route 664 no longer runs right through the entrance to the park. They've re routed the road to above the parking lot for the Visitor Center and most of the trails.
To find the Whispering Cave trail however you have to turn up the road to the cabins. Follow that road to the old parking lot for the lodge that burned down. Park there . The trails start at the bottom of the parking lot where the road continues up the cabins. You will be on the Hemlock bridge trail at first. It takes you behind where the lodge used to be down a long flight of steps (is there any other kind at Hocking Hills) at the bottom of the steps you go right. left takes you to the Old Man's cave park area. The trail is not very difficult, there are about the 3 areas that are steep, the steps just mentioned, another set of wooden stairs down into the recessed rock overhang that is the Whispering Cave and another section along the trail that attempts to provide steps carved out of stone. So wear hiking boots or shoes and heed the warnings about steep drop offs and cliffs. And take water. At some point the Hemlock bridge trail continues off to meet up with the trail between Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls. I'm not sure if we just missed the split or what but we were on a lower trail when I looked up and saw signs above us, we were on the Hemlock trail and the the trail to Whispering Cave was above us. No problem we could get to the trail. A few more minutes and we were at the steps leading down to the cave.

These are views looking out of the cave. It is the I think the 2nd largest in the park. If it is a hot day go to back of cave and cool off in the lowest part, as a woman hiker said it was like being in a basement the temperature change was that different. After spending some time looking around, drinking water ( unseasonable temps remember) looking around more and drinking more water we started back. This is the hard part, all the steep steps we walked down and steep slopes we now had to climb.

What two 65+ years old look like on a almost 2 mile hike in 90 degree weather. We made it up to the parking lot, ate the lunch we'd packed and went to check out the new visitor center.
The Visitor Center just opened this year. I unfortunatly did not get any pictures of the outside from a distance but it is 2 stories, bottom level has restrooms with outside entrances. Inside the lower level has displays on the wall about the history going back to the first people they have evidence of living in the area, around the last ice age. They also have pretty detailed illustrations of the rocks in the area. Like this illustration of the rock layers that make up the gorges. There are also explanations of how these gorges were formed and what they have figured out happened when the last ice age ended. Very interesting, some of it I hadn't heard before. They also cover the era when iron furnaces were common in the area

Best thing about the Visitor Center lots of chairs to on the patio below and the deck above to chill out in after hiking out of the gorge.

I did see a lot of dogs with people. I really would have liked to see how the two dachshunds I saw manged all the steps and rocks.
Oh yea we also checked out the John Glen Astronomy Center just past the road up to the cabin. I want to go back there when they have a program or on a clear night to stargaze. It is usually open 24 hours and you can bring your own telescopes (maybe not when they are doing a program), they have outlets if you need them for telescopes.