8/20: SE Ohio's Cantwell Cliffs, Rock House & Parkersburg, WV

As Steven and I drove along the back roads of southeastern Ohio and headed toward the state of West Virginia last August, we sure knew we were in the country when we spotted signs for Opossum Hollow Road, etc. This was definitely Trump country judging by all the yard signs, too.

I was more of an admirer of the unique quilt patterns on the sides of barns in the area as we drove along Highway 374, also known as the Ohio Byway.

Outside the town of Logan was Hocking Hills State Park, a 2,356-acre area that included huge cliffs, a river, waterfalls, and lots of trails. 

Because of Covid-19, there was no park map or any description of any of the trails in the park. We sure hadn't done our due diligence to learn about the park and its trails in advance as we should have.

There was initially a pretty steep climb down the rocks to reach the Cantwell Cliffs, something I was not a huge fan of. I remember feeling at a distinct disadvantage wondering exactly what we'd gotten ourselves into and whether we might have overextended ourselves, or more to the point, my abilities. 

Walking down the steps between the towering cliffs made us feel so minuscule. 

Not much sun managed to enter the hemlock-shaded gorges.

The trail was definitely not one of the easiest ones we'd been on and required a lot of very careful attention. Normally, the park's trails were two-way but with the pandemic raging, the decision had been made to make each one-way only. 

As we hiked in the park, I was reminded of how small man is compared to the forces of nature. 

I was so relieved getting back up to the higher ground and in one piece a while later! Also in the park, about a mile away, was a trail that led to Rock House, a set of caves where there was evidence showing Native Americans visited or lived during the 1700s. They called the river Hockhocking because of its gourd-shaped valley. 

The profound effects of time, weather, and the historic Ice Age contributed to making the Hocking Hills region a unique and diverse place. 

Many plants found in the deep gorges surrounding the Rock House were northern species that had been pushed south by glaciers as they moved across the continent. 

Once again, we noticed no park map in this section of Hocking Hills State Park indicating the trail's difficulty, the elevation gain, or the length of the trail.  

Evidence of the ancient Adena culture dated back to more than 7,000 years ago as we reached Rock House, in the face of a perpendicular cliff that served as a dwelling. 

While it was illegal to carve into stone walls of the Rock House today, visitors of previous generations had thought it acceptable to leave their mark. We spotted carvings of names that dated back almost two hundred years. Mortars carved into the walls' recesses were also witness to the Indigenous people who had once used this 'house.'

With some of the graffiti dating to the mid-1800s, it made us wonder about the lives of the people who lived so long ago. Who were these people who traveled to this part of Ohio? How had they heard of the Cantwell Cliffs and the Rock House? How far had they come and how long did they spend where we stood 175 years later?

This photo gives you a sense of how huge the cave or house was with Steven way off in the distance! It made perfect sense that, more recently, outlaws also used the caves as a hideout. 

I loved the colors at the mouth of the cave. 

Steven and I had 'planned' or hoped to stop at three other areas that piqued our interest on the Ohio Byway but we realized the time had gotten away from us. We selected Cedar Falls from among Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave since we were determined to make it to Parkersburg, West Virginia, for a ride on a sternwheeler at 4 pm.

In terms of volume, Cedar Falls was the greatest waterfall in the Hocking Hills area although it appeared to be little more than a trickle on that August day. The stream flowing over the cliffs was named Queer Creek because of the stream's very odd northern backward flow.

There were trail markings at regular intervals on the trees in this section of the state park. It was sort of ironic, though, that they were largely unnecessary here because we simply had to follow the people in front of us as there was literally no other place to go!

The trail leading to Cedar Falls passed through some of the most austere areas in the Hocking Hills. The remote, primitive gorge was full of hemlock trees hemmed in by steep rock walls and small caves and waterfalls. 

In January of 1988, a once in every hundred years flood occurred, with the water ripping its way through the gorge, destroying and removing almost all the manmade structures. It did continue its never-ending work of carving the surrounding sandstone.

The trail to the falls had been used by the Shawnee, Wyandot, and Delaware tribes. Early visitors to the region found painted, black handprints on cliff walls like a roadmap. That was why the park's unique rock was of course called Black Hand Sandstone. It was formed during the changing of the shallow sea that once covered much of Ohio. Deposits of eroded sand, silt, and other materials had accumulated and compacted to form this unusual stone. 

Early settlers made the mistake of misidentifying the hemlock trees as cedar trees and even though the area was called Cedar Falls, there was not ONE cedar tree anywhere here!

Even though it looked like a fun area to be in, because of the pandemic we deliberately opted to stay away from the crowds who had congregated under the cliffs. 

Sadly, only a handful of the many people who had flocked to the park that day were wearing masks which was frustrating as our mask wearing protected others and we hoped their mask wearing would likewise help to protect us. 

We thought that by leaving the state park by 2:40, we'd certainly left enough time to drive east to the town of Athens and then on to Parkersburg in West Virginia to board the sternwheeler at 4. However, because of road construction, we were faced with an unanticipated 25-mile detour via Albany that meant we missed the last sternwheeler to Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park at 4 pm. That was a huge bummer as Steven and I love unusual boat trips and that would have been our first time on a sternwheeler. 

There was no need for locals to go on a rollercoaster as all they had to do was drive their local roads which was pretty much the same thing!

Welcome to wild and wonderful West Virginia!

This was as close as we got to the old-time sternwheeler we'd wanted to take to the island - we arrived just as it was pulling away from the dock! Perhaps, if we're ever this way again, we'll make the ferry in time. 

These interesting murals by the Oil and Gas Museum caught my eye.

Since we hadn't made the ferry, the bonus was we did have time to drive past some gorgeous old homes located in the Julia-Ann Square Historic District, an important center in West Virginia's early history. Julia-Ann Square was home to approximately 126 homes and included some of the finest examples of Victorian architecture in the state. The largest and oldest historic district in West Virginia was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

I read that the majority of the district’s homes were in the 19th century Eclectic and Queen Anne styles and dated from circa 1850 to 1910.

This stately home belonged to Peter Van Winkle who was born in New York in 1808 and moved to this West Virginia county a quarter-century later to practice law.  He became a delegate to the Virginia constitutional convention in 1850 and was one of West Virginia's first US senators in 1863. Van Winkle was known for opposing the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson in 1868.

I noticed several of the mansions were for sale and all interestingly enough by Berkshire Hathaway, the company owned by Nebraska billionaire Warren Buffet.

Looking on the bright side, having the opportunity to drive through Parkersburg had been quite delightful as Steven and I have always been intrigued by beautiful architecture and this part of Parkersburg certainly had that in spades!

Early signs of fall as we drove toward our hotel:

Next post: Clarksburg-Elkins, West Virginia via Blackwater Falls State Park.

Posted on February 21st, 2021, a lovely sunny day in Denver after experiencing scary, almost whiteout conditions, last night while coming home from a wonderful anniversary dinner. I hope you and your loved ones are safe and warm and not affected by the terrible storms that have hit Texas.