Date: 08/04/2019 – Distance: 3.7 mi – Elapsed Time: 2.25 hr – Ascent: 325 ft – Descent: 331 ft – Difficulty: Medium/Easy
After checking out of the campground, I decided to drive to Yellowsprings and have some lunch. After that I drove back down SR 343 and stopped at the first parking area right before getting into Clifton. From there I walked toward the gorge, stopping at the Nature Center. There is a crosscut from a tree there which started in 1691 at the John Bryan Campground area, and lived 294 years until it had to be cut down in 1985. This tree predates English settlers and lived to see all of the American wars. It would also have seen the booming industry that was this gorge in the industrial revolution, I think I read that there were 6 mills here at one time, two mills survive, but there are only a few weathering scars from others.
If you park at this point in this park, you are in the middle. Make sure you take both directions, the experience is completely different. From the Nature Center if you go left, you follow the Narrows Trail, to the right you follow the North Rim Trail, and straight, down the stairs, is the Gorge Trail aka John L. Rich Trail. I recommend them all, but the North Rim was closed when I did this hike.
I began by descending the stairs, into the gorge. Wow, this is impressive. If you stopped at the nature center, and saw the exhibit on how this place was formed, you know these are dolomite cliffs and are primarily limestone. It’s a contrast to the sandstone I’m used to seeing on the east side of the state, even though at times the cliffs look similar.
After the cliffs section, the trail levels out a little down at the river. This needle nose gar fish I found floating in the Blue Hole.
After the Blue Hole, the trail really levels out and shortly gets to a large intersection. Left across the bridge, is the South Gorge Trail, straight is the Pittsburg-Cincinnati Stagecoach Trail, and right is the steep North Rim Trail connector. I covered this area in previous blog post.
Once back at the Nature Center, I turned right and continued along the Narrows Trail, toward Clifton. The gorge gets really narrow through this half mile section. There’s even a dramatic plaque which tells a story of someone who jumped across the gorge here. It looks too wide to me, but maybe there was a tree which helped.
There was a mill called Patterson Mill built in 1803 which stood across this gorge. It was sawmill and grist mill. A flood in 1970 demolished the structure and in 1876 another flood took out the dam seen in the photo on the plaque at the location. Cloth from this mill clothed American soldiers fighting in the War of 1812. The square holes in the rock in the picture below are stilts, which held up the main structure, and are all that is left.
Clifton Mill sits on Water Street in Clifton, right west of SR 72. It’s one of the only two mills left in this gorge, the other being Grinnell Mill further down river and is a bed and breakfast. They do some amazing Christmas lights here at Clifton Mill in the winter and their restaurant is open for breakfast and lunch and is a tasty source of nutrition before a hike or even midway.
Waypoints;
- Clifton Gorge Parking 1 – N39° 47.994′ W83° 50.161′
- Clifton Gorge Parking 2 – N39° 47.692′ W83° 49.708′
- Clifton Mill – N39° 47.638′ W83° 49.541′
- Grinnel Mill – N39° 47.011′ W83° 52.534′
- South Gorge Trail East Bridge – N39° 47.445′ W83° 50.450′
Links:
Leave a Reply