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Hocking HillsState Park
19852 St. Rt. 664 South
Logan, Ohio 43138
Park Office (740) 385-6842
Reservations (740) 385-6841
1-866-644-6727 for cottage, camping,
and getaway rental reservations
Hocking Hills provides a variety of recreational opportunities in a splendid
natural setting. Towering cliffs, waterfalls and deep hemlock-shaded gorges lure
the hiker and naturalist and serve as a backdrop to popular facilities and
accommodations.
Cottages
40 gas-heated, air-conditioned, family housekeeping cottages sleep up to six
persons
Each cottage has two bedrooms (one with two twin beds; one with a double
bed), bath with a shower, living room with a trundle sofa, gas-burning
fireplace, microwave, complete kitchen, dining area and screened porch.
Camping
- 159 electric sites, with 20, 30 or 50 amp electric
- 13 non-electric sites
- Each site has a paved pad and can accommodate up to a 50' unit
- Heated showers
- Flush toilets
- Laundry facility
- Camp store
- Swimming pool
- Playgrounds
- Volleyball court and horse shoe pit
- Reservations are required for the group camp areas which allow tents
only. There are also 30 walk-in family sites with pit latrines.
GetAway Rentals
- Three Camper Cabins equipped with cots and bench beds, a cooler, stove
and camp light
- Available May through October
- Reservations can be
made online or by calling 1-866-644-6727.
 Dining Lodge
(Seasonal)
The dining lodge contains a restaurant, meeting rooms, TV lounge, game room,
snack bar and an outside swimming pool. There are no
sleeping facilities at the lodge. The park office on State Route 664
South is open year-round.
Hiking
There are miles of trail located throughout the park and adjacent state
forest. These trails are beautiful as well as potentially dangerous: caution and
common sense are advised.Young children should be closely supervised while in
these areas. All park visitors must remain on the trails at all times.
Picnicking
Picnic areas with tables, grills, latrines and drinking water are located at
each of the recess caves. The shelters at Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave may be
reserved by calling the park office at (740) 385-6841. The shelters at Rock
House and Cantwell Cliffs are first-come, first-served.
Fishing
A valid Ohio fishing license is required to fish in Rose Lake. Access is off
State Route 374 via a 1/2-mile hiking trail.
Swimming
The swimming pool outside the dining lodge is free to cottage guests 11 a.m.
to 6 p.m. daily, Memorial Day to Labor Day, and open to the general public for a
small daily fee. Special evening swims are often offered at an additional
fee.Registered campers only may use the outdoor pool in the family campground.
More To Do
A variety of special events and nature programs are offered year round.The
visitor center at Old Man's cave features interesting displays and a gift shop.
The campground offers horseshoe pits, a volleyball court and playground. A rock
climbing/rappelling area is available in the adjacent
Hocking State Forest.
 Nature of the
Area
The natural history of this region is as fascinating as the caves are beautiful.
Here, in these sandstones and shales, one can read Ohio's history from the
rocks. The scenic features of the six areas of the Hocking Hills State Park
complex are carved in the Blackhand sandstone. This bedrock was deposited more
than 350 million years ago as a delta in the warm shallow sea which covered Ohio
at that time. Subsequent millions of years of uplift and stream erosion created
the awesome beauty seen today.
The sandstone varies in composition and hardness from softer, loosely
cemented middle zone to harder top and bottom layers. The recess caves at Ash
Cave, Old Man's Cave and Cantwell Cliffs are all carved in the softer middle
zone. Weathering and erosion widened cracks found in the middle layer of
sandstone at the Rock House to create that unusual formation.
 Other
features of the rock include cross-bedding, honeycomb weathering and slump
blocks. The first is noticeable as diagonal lines in the rock intersecting
horizontal ones. It is actually the cross section of an ancient sand bar in the
delta and was caused by changing ocean currents. Honeycomb weathering looks like
the small holes in a beehive comb. They are formed by differential weathering
which comes about when water, moving down through the permeable sandstone,
washes out small pockets of loosely cemented sand grains. Finally, the huge
slump blocks of rock littering the streams tumble from near by cliffs when
cracks widen to the extent that the block is no longer supported by the main
cliff.
Although the glaciers never reached the park areas, their influence is still
seen here in the form of the vegetation growing in the gorges. The glaciers
changed the climate of all Ohio to a moist, cool environment. Upon their
retreat, this condition persisted only in a few places such as the deep gorges
of Hocking County. Therefore, the towering eastern hemlocks, the Canada yew and
the yellow and black birch tell of a cool period 10,000 years ago.
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