Hiking Rockstall Falls
Apr. 25th, 2026 04:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOhio Waterfalls Travelog #20
Bremen, OH · Mon, 20 Apr 2026. 12:30pm
This morning we checked out of our hotel in Hitlerville and drove around, yet-again, toward Logan. Probably we should have just picked a hotel in Logan but this was cheaper. We had one hike firmly in mind, Rockstall Falls. After that, we weren't sure. But we started with Rockstall.
Just finding this little nature preserve took some doing. It's in a very rural area. There are no signs for it until you're in the little parking lot. And it's privately owned, not a public park, so it's not well indexed on maps. Fortunately the private owners allow hiking without a permit.
The trek starts out as a pleasant, if somewhat boring, walk through the woods. There's a loop trail so you can see different things, making it slightly less boring. The point of the hike, though, isn't to see the loop. It's to see the creek and grotto at the bottom of the hill.
Stairs lead down into a small gorge at the bottom of the hill. The falls isn't right there; you have to walk upstream a bit along the creek bed. It's not hard. And after 100 meters or so you reach the falls at the back of the canyon.
It's possible that during the really wet season there are more falls than just this one. Some of the hikers' notes on AllTrails state there are three falls. We only saw this one. And yes, we looked. As you can see from the trickle of the falls in these photos, we are not here during the really wet season.
We lingered in the grotto for a while, sitting on a fallen tree across from the falls. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves. When we arrived at the parking lot nobody else was there. After we were at the falls for a while, one small group, a pair of hikers and their dogs, appeared above the lip of the little gorge. While they were trying to find the stairs to descend we decided our time was up and we should head on to the next thing, whatever that might be.
As we returned to our car I said to Hawk, "Here's a wild idea: how about we go to Wheeling, West Virginia, next?"
To my surprise she said, "Okay," with a happy shrug.
That means... ROAD TRIP!
Stay tuned....
Bremen, OH · Mon, 20 Apr 2026. 12:30pm
This morning we checked out of our hotel in Hitlerville and drove around, yet-again, toward Logan. Probably we should have just picked a hotel in Logan but this was cheaper. We had one hike firmly in mind, Rockstall Falls. After that, we weren't sure. But we started with Rockstall.
Just finding this little nature preserve took some doing. It's in a very rural area. There are no signs for it until you're in the little parking lot. And it's privately owned, not a public park, so it's not well indexed on maps. Fortunately the private owners allow hiking without a permit.
The trek starts out as a pleasant, if somewhat boring, walk through the woods. There's a loop trail so you can see different things, making it slightly less boring. The point of the hike, though, isn't to see the loop. It's to see the creek and grotto at the bottom of the hill.
Stairs lead down into a small gorge at the bottom of the hill. The falls isn't right there; you have to walk upstream a bit along the creek bed. It's not hard. And after 100 meters or so you reach the falls at the back of the canyon.
It's possible that during the really wet season there are more falls than just this one. Some of the hikers' notes on AllTrails state there are three falls. We only saw this one. And yes, we looked. As you can see from the trickle of the falls in these photos, we are not here during the really wet season.
We lingered in the grotto for a while, sitting on a fallen tree across from the falls. We had the place almost entirely to ourselves. When we arrived at the parking lot nobody else was there. After we were at the falls for a while, one small group, a pair of hikers and their dogs, appeared above the lip of the little gorge. While they were trying to find the stairs to descend we decided our time was up and we should head on to the next thing, whatever that might be.
As we returned to our car I said to Hawk, "Here's a wild idea: how about we go to Wheeling, West Virginia, next?"
To my surprise she said, "Okay," with a happy shrug.
That means... ROAD TRIP!
Stay tuned....
