Conkles Hollow

Wednesday
A great breakfast at the Inn set us up for another day’s hiking in Hocking Hills. We first visited Ash Cave, a huge recess Cave, then we drove to Conkles Hollow, a State Nature Preserve. The deep cool gorge, only 100 feet wide in places, is considered to be one of the deepest in Ohio, with its sheer cliffs of Black Hand sandstone rising almost 200 feet above the valley floor.
In several places narrow waterfalls cascade over its sandstone cliffs. The valley floor is covered with a profusion of ferns and wildflowers, while hemlocks, birches and other hardwood trees tower overhead. We first hiked the rim trail, reached by a very long flight of wooden steps, affording beautiful views, at their best in the autumn, then we did the easy trail along the gorge floor, stopping several times, as you can tell from my collage, to take photographs of some of the wild flowers. The head of the gorge is quite spectacular, with huge slump blocks littering the floor, and a waterfall tumbling over the edge. Our last hike was to Rock House, the only true Cave in the Park. It is a tunnel-like corridor situated half way up a 150 ft high cliff of Blackhand sandstone. It has 7 “windows” looking out onto the trees. I have put a photo in the extras. As we were climbing back up the hillside to the car, we decided we’d had enough hiking for the day! Before returning home, we visited a wind chime shop - I have seen the sign to it many times before and wanted to go take a look, but having been there on weekends before, it’s often been Sunday when I’ve thought of it, and of course they’ve been closed. It’s tucked away a fair distance down a country lane - not very big, but they had a lot of stuff packed in there, and I found one I liked to bring home.