Waterfalls At Old Man's Cave Gorge - Hocking Hills State Park - Ohio

The waterfalls at Old Man's Gorge here in Hocking Hills State Park were all dry a few days ago when we hiked through. But we had a storm last night, and I was hoping to get some photos with water flowing over the three waterfalls before we left that afternoon. I got lucky and there was at least a moderate amount of water in the pretty waterfall settings.

Cedar Falls - Hocking Hills State Park - Ohio

With plans to leave Hocking Hills today, I wanted to go down into the Old Man's Cave gorge to see if last night's created enough water for the waterfalls. Since the falls were all dry when we visited a few days ago, and it was a beautiful day, I wanted to get a few photos with water flowing if possible.  

Rather than battle the steep, muddy trail from the campground, I drove to the Old Man's Cave day visitor parking lot.  From there I first went to the Upper Falls.  Yep, there was water flowing - not much, but it was a waterfall.

 

 

I took a couple shots from the ridge above and then some classic shots with the stone bridge above the falls from below.

 

 

Then I hiked along the creek through the gorge down to Old Man's Cave.  Linda & I had skipped the Upper Falls and that part of the hike when we took it almost a week ago.

 

 

There was a little water trickling (lower right) over the cascades at the base of Old Man's Cave.

 

 

It wasn't much in the way of running water, but even that little bit made the experience of the Old Man's Cave gorge more interesting.

From there I hustled up and down steps and made my way to the Lower Falls. 

 

 

Again, it wasn't a lot of water, but I was pacified.

 

 

From there, I hustled my way back to the parking lot.  Whew.  I was running up and down lots of rock steps, and I was sweating pretty good by the time I got back to the Jeep. 

I needed to get back to the campground, but I made the snap decision to drive the two miles to the Cedar Falls parking area.  From there I hustled down the trail to the base of Cedar Falls where, thankfully, there was a decent flow.

 

 

It was very pretty and I'm glad I took the time to go.

While I was at Cedar Falls, there was a minister from The Traveling Chapel preparing for another wedding.  He told me the volume of water coming over these falls in the early Spring, March & April, is amazing.  He said it's so loud with the rushing water echoing off the rocks, that it's really hard to do weddings there - no one can hear anything and any video recordings have nothing but the sound of the water.

I would love to come back to the Hocking Hills area in the early Spring and experience all the waterfalls gushing and the gorges roaring.  Someday we'll do that, but for now I'm just glad to get a glimpse of what the waterfall look like with a little flow.