Trip North - Hocking Hills - Old Man's Cave

I had taken a sneak peak of the Old Man's Cave hike earlier with Tucson and 

was very psyched to get going this morning.

The hike starts at the beginning of our section and it is a short but steep hike down through the woods to the trailhead.

 The bridge over the gorge to Old Man's Cave

 Gary takes a peek down

 a really cool cantilever bridge.

 Gary is ready to go search for his  _ _ _ Man Cave

 Yeah!  Stairs

 It's just around the bend

 The Old Man's Cave is named for the old man Richard Rowe who made his home in the cave in the 1800's.  It was used by natives for centuries before that.

 It is incredibly beautiful here.

 A small tunnel through the rock

and another bridge on the other side

 View looking back to the Cave

 I just love the tree roots they grow right around and through the rocks

 We head to the Lower Falls

They call this rock formation the Sphinx Head - it overlooks the 

plunging Lower Falls.

 We have more bridges to cross

 and stairs to climb

 and cliffs to maneuver around

Eventually the Falls come into view

 Of course what goes up must come down

 Which way do we go?

 Gary sits down and contemplates that

 Then we cross that bridge

and up again

 I took a little side trip and got this picture of the boys continuing on.

 I catch  up

Tucson says "I hate tunnels but this way doesn't look good"

 Go to the light!

and soon we are back at the bridge we started at - 

this is the view down the other side.

Can't wait for tomorrow's hike!