Date: 03/20/2021 – Distance: 0.9 mi – Elapsed Time: 0.75 hr – Ascent: 157 ft – Descent: 128 ft – Difficulty: Medium
Here’s some cool ancient stone carvings and an incredible gorge in southern Ohio. Leo Petroglyphs is a small preserve near Leo, Ohio, managed by the Ohio History Connection and Friends of Buckeye Furnace. The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of the finest examples of ancient american indian carvings in Ohio. There are nearly 40 separate images carved into a sandstone slab of bedrock exposed on the surface, excluding the graffiti/vandalism left by ignorant asshole visitors.
The petroglyphs sit right at the top of a dramatic gorge with a short nature trail, which explores it’s 60 foot depths, including some caves. Someone told me a sasquatch lives here, which kinda resembles a couple of the petroglyphs. You be the judge, but I didn’t run into sasquatch.
Sign marking the entrance on Park Road.
The parking area with the shelter protecting the petroglyphs.
A map of the trail, with some information about the park.
Shelter with the petroglyphs.
There is a fence around the site.
At first they are hard to see, but you have to look close.
Sign above the rock.
This image is very puzzling, and no one knows what it is for sure.
The lower left looks like a bear track.
Some more info about the site.
Human, Bigfoot, or Bear tracks.
Deer tracks?
Vandalism?
Looks like a bird.
Some suggest this is a bird carrying a man.
It’s guessed to be a shaman or supernatural being, maybe bigfoot.
Estimated to be 1,000 years old and the work of the Fort Ancient culture.
I ventured into the gorge next.
Right away there is a small cave with a tiny waterfall. This is not the main creek that carved the gorge.
The gorge looks deep and dark from above.
The closer you get, it becomes clearer.
Soon the cliffs are towering overhead.
And kinda scary.
You can get pretty close to them.
They hang over you.
I actually walked up the gorge a little way before returning here to the trail.
The sandstone is picturesque.
Sometimes having small caves in it.
This is about as far up the gorge I went before returning to the trail.
The trail continues along the creek down the gorge.
A slump block which fell.
The gorge is deep and narrow.
Amazing this little creek carved this gorge. I’m sure it’s had it’s moments of rage.
Good view looking down the gorge. The trail crosses the creek a couple times.
It’s amazing how the sandstone erodes the softer areas and leaves the harder areas jutting out.
Continuing down the trail. There are lots of Hemlock pines here.
That’s a pretty good sized recessed cave.
Towering Hemlocks perch high above.
Conglomerate. The pebbles are quartz embedded in the sandstone.
More pockets.
This was a cool section.
The colors are cool.
Something lives in there.
Amazing colors and textures.
There are a few of those little caves where things are living.
Wow.
Some info on the process of erosion and succession.
Another animal home.
I was waiting for something to come jumping out.
Description of the erosion process.
Honeycomb weathering.
Some type of Bittercress.
Climbing out of the gorge on the opposite side.
Hawk sitting on a nest. I couldn’t get a good view of it and I didn’t want to disturb it.
Spring Beauty.
The gorge is right there.
This is the stream at the head of the gorge.
A bridge gets you over to the other side.
More about erosion and how the gorge forms.
There is a waterfall from a side stream which really shows how the more resistant layer on top remains while the softer underlayer erodes, creating a recessed cave.
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