20190902: Hocking Hills – Rockbridge State Nature Preserve

Date: 09/02/2019 – Distance: 3 mi – Elapsed Time: 2 hrs – Ascent: 418 ft – Descent: 419 ft – Difficulty: Easy

I decided to catch one more hike on my way home from this amazing weekend. I wanted to do the Rockbridge State Nature Preserve. The entrance for this park is just west of Logan one exit west of Laurelville on the north side of US 33. The road is called Dalton Road and there is a small brown and white sign for Rockbridge. To be clear, it’s not the green and white Rockbridge sign, which is for the town called Rockbridge which is nearby. The trailhead is about a quarter mile down Dalton Road.

This is not a big park. From the parking area you hike along a right of way, going down the Access Trail which gets to the park between privately owned pasture fields.

You come to a split in the trail with a Blue Trail going to Rock Shelter, and an Orange Trail going to Rock Bridge. I took the Rock Shelter trail first. There is another split to the right which is the continuation of the Blue Trail to Rock Shelter and another sign for the Orange Trail to Rockbridge. It turns out there are two trails which both converge just before Rockbridge.

The Rock Shelter cave is down a hill through a series of three switchbacks. It’s nearly at the level of the Hocking River at the bottom. There was a little water coming over the falls. The trail seems to continue from here and loop back to this position, but I decided to turn around here just past the cave.

When I got back up the hill to the second split, I took the Orange Trail toward Rockbridge. It’s only about a half mile to the natural stone bridge. The bridge spans across and right in front of a recess cave with a waterfall. This cave is much bigger than the Rock Shelter cave. The bridge is big enough to walk across. There is a trail going to the left on the other side, but I’m not sure where it goes. I asked a couple of girls who I saw coming down it and they said it ends at a fence line for the Canopy Tours zip line course. So I decided to return across the bridge and continue on the trail past Rockbridge.

On the eastern side of the bridge the trail continues past the bridge. To the left there is a small trail which leads to a observation area below the bridge for a completely different view of this magnificent feature.

Continuing down the trail, It quickly ends at the Hocking River.

I returned back up the Orange Trail and took a right fork, which I knew would take me back to the first fork in the trail at the end of the Access Path. From there, I returned to my car for a total of about three miles. There are a few hills on these trails but they aren’t too challenging.