Hiking Cedar Creek Falls
Apr. 20th, 2026 04:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOhio Waterfalls Travelog #11
Hocking Hills State Park · Sat, 18 Apr 2026. 11:45am
This morning we got out early and headed straight to Cedar Creek Falls first thing. Well, "early" is a relative term. I think I got up with my 7:30am alarm, took a drink of water, then went back to bed for 30 more minutes. Then we went downstairs for breakfast and puttered around a bit before getting together our packs for the day and heading out to the car. Add in the 45 minutes to an hour to drive to the trailhead and it was already 10:45 by the time we started hiking.
It's overcast this morning. The forecast shows rain all afternoon and more rain tomorrow. We're trying to squeeze in as many short hikes as possible this morning before the rain hits.
I've got six photos to share from this hike. Rather than flood your reading page I'll put them behind a cut. Here's a selfie at the falls to give you a sense of what's there.
The other 5 photos are not selfies, I promise.
While I went straight for the falls in my teaser photo, the trail loops around a bit. It kind of forces hikers to enjoy the stream canyon.
There's no problem with that, as the canyon walls here are interesting. They're the same Black Hand sandstone that makes up the other canyons in the park. This is the same sandstone formation as in the Old Man's Gorge. This creek is just a different tributary that flows into that one further downstream from where we hiked yesterday.
This hike is also one-way. ...Meaning, the trail is one-way. It's a loop trail, so it takes you back to pretty much the place where you started (modulo the other side of the parking lot). I remember some parks in the Bay Area tried this back during Covid. I say tried because my recollection is that at least 1/4 of the people on the trail ignored it. And the restrictions were taken down within a year.
Ohio parks probably started this one-way business around the same time, but they've kept it. And it works. A higher percentage of hikers obey the directional signs; I'd say it's upwards of 95% compliance. I figure that's because the park has signs everywhere, not just a few small signs printed on plain paper tucked inside page protectors. And it's really useful for keeping these trails from turning into a total scrum on busy days like today.
We reached the falls and they were busy. I composed this photo (above) including maybe 1/4 of the people who were enjoying the falls with us. The rest are behind us, surprisingly. Something about Ohio has people not running headlong into every natural pool of water they see to go swimming. In California there'd be 3 or 4 people and 2 dogs in the water. In North Carolina there'd be that plus four little kids in diapers in there. (Eww.)
We stayed at the falls for a while. We could've pushed on sooner; after all, we are kind of in a race against the weather today to see how many hikes we can finish before it rains this afternoon. But why hurry? We're here to enjoy the falls, not complete some kind of trail rally. So I spent time making photos of the falls from different angles.
Soon enough it was time to move on. I mean, these falls are nice... but there are also other falls we want to see today, too. 🤣 So I folded up my tripod, stowed it, and finished hiking the one-way loop back to the parking lot.
Hocking Hills State Park · Sat, 18 Apr 2026. 11:45am
This morning we got out early and headed straight to Cedar Creek Falls first thing. Well, "early" is a relative term. I think I got up with my 7:30am alarm, took a drink of water, then went back to bed for 30 more minutes. Then we went downstairs for breakfast and puttered around a bit before getting together our packs for the day and heading out to the car. Add in the 45 minutes to an hour to drive to the trailhead and it was already 10:45 by the time we started hiking.
It's overcast this morning. The forecast shows rain all afternoon and more rain tomorrow. We're trying to squeeze in as many short hikes as possible this morning before the rain hits.
I've got six photos to share from this hike. Rather than flood your reading page I'll put them behind a cut. Here's a selfie at the falls to give you a sense of what's there.
The other 5 photos are not selfies, I promise.
While I went straight for the falls in my teaser photo, the trail loops around a bit. It kind of forces hikers to enjoy the stream canyon.
There's no problem with that, as the canyon walls here are interesting. They're the same Black Hand sandstone that makes up the other canyons in the park. This is the same sandstone formation as in the Old Man's Gorge. This creek is just a different tributary that flows into that one further downstream from where we hiked yesterday.
This hike is also one-way. ...Meaning, the trail is one-way. It's a loop trail, so it takes you back to pretty much the place where you started (modulo the other side of the parking lot). I remember some parks in the Bay Area tried this back during Covid. I say tried because my recollection is that at least 1/4 of the people on the trail ignored it. And the restrictions were taken down within a year.
Ohio parks probably started this one-way business around the same time, but they've kept it. And it works. A higher percentage of hikers obey the directional signs; I'd say it's upwards of 95% compliance. I figure that's because the park has signs everywhere, not just a few small signs printed on plain paper tucked inside page protectors. And it's really useful for keeping these trails from turning into a total scrum on busy days like today.
We reached the falls and they were busy. I composed this photo (above) including maybe 1/4 of the people who were enjoying the falls with us. The rest are behind us, surprisingly. Something about Ohio has people not running headlong into every natural pool of water they see to go swimming. In California there'd be 3 or 4 people and 2 dogs in the water. In North Carolina there'd be that plus four little kids in diapers in there. (Eww.)
We stayed at the falls for a while. We could've pushed on sooner; after all, we are kind of in a race against the weather today to see how many hikes we can finish before it rains this afternoon. But why hurry? We're here to enjoy the falls, not complete some kind of trail rally. So I spent time making photos of the falls from different angles.
Soon enough it was time to move on. I mean, these falls are nice... but there are also other falls we want to see today, too. 🤣 So I folded up my tripod, stowed it, and finished hiking the one-way loop back to the parking lot.
