Whispering Cave HikeTrailhead Elevation: 986 ft.
Distance: 1.00 mi. (1.71mi on Garmin)Elevation Gain: 265 ft.
Start Time: 1:58pm
End Time: 3:09pm
This was a great family hike for us. We made it to the park to do lunch at the Lodge Cafe and then were looking to get outside to explore. It was more hot and muggy than we would have liked but we decided to give this a go. We followed what was a fairly obviously walkway downhill and east from the Lodge which was a connector to the Whispering Cave to Old Man's Cave trail. There was a nice trail staircase to take us down the hill. We had Ben, Noah and Anya as littles to aid along the hike. All of us adults took turns helping them along and holding hands. The first bit of the trail was a nice forest trail. It then headed down a rocky-like staircase area to a small overhang area with a nearly dried up waterfall. This led to a section where we were along the base of a cliff area. The trail rounded a corner in here and then a tenth of a mile later it ended at Whispering Cave which was an even larger overhanging cliff area with some waterfall going. The Hocking Hills area had been dry lately and so the waterfalls were not flowing very heavy. Anya was a great hiker the whole time and on the hike out was leading the way and full of energy. Ben also hiked most of it and by the end even dropped my hand and was moving over some difficult trail on his own. It was fun to see them take up the adventuring. The heat was real and I could see it affecting everyone which meant the hiking would be brief today. We all carried water for this hike to help out. As our first hike in Hocking Hills this was enjoyable and a nice introduction.
Visitor Center Hike
Lodge to Visitor Center via the Whispering Cave-Old Man's Cave Trail to Hemlock Bridge Trail to Grandma Gatewood/Buckeye Trail to Lower Falls Access Trail to Gorge Exit Trail.
Distance: 1.70 mi.
Elevation Gain: 274 ft.
Start Time: 3:30pm
End Time: 4:12pm
This hike was a fun one for me and the older boys. Luke, Jonah and Seth all joined. We sent the rest of our crew in the two vehicles to the visitor center while we hiked it. We retraced some of our previous hike to Whispering Cave only hit the junction with the Hemlock Bridge trail to head to the bottom of the canyon and follow the main trail from there. It was pretty chocked up forest trail at first and then the canyon widened a bit and we were hiking along the creek with some sight lines. We bumped into a few other hikes moving through. We had a fun casual hike with the boys talking the whole time. When we neared the Lower Falls area we began the ascent up out of the canyon. This led to some well defined trail with rock steps and eventually a carved out staircase tunnel. Some great engineering was done to get that trail out of the canyon. It made for a fun hike that we would definitely revisit.
Track:
I have a track and waypoints from the activity all contained in the embedded Google Map. Check it out and use at your own risk.
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