Hocking Hills State Park

A couple weeks ago, we decided to take a weekend trip to Columbus, Ohio for my son’s 11th birthday. Our whole trip started because we just HAD to visit the Columbus Zoo after watching Secrets of the Zoo on Disney+. So, since I didn’t just want to travel 5 ½ hours to go to a zoo, I looked for other things we could do while we were there. Recently, my family has gotten really into hiking, so I looked for somewhere we could go. That’s when I found Hocking Hills. I had heard of this state park, but never visited. After reading some reviews, I was pumped. It’s about an hour away from Columbus, but I figured we’d spend a couple hours there and make a day of it.

We drove out to Hocking Hills State Park and let me tell you, that last bit of the drive there is no joke. I’m talking a 2-lane road with twists, turns, and hills. Personally, I had a blast driving, but my husband was nervous so...just be aware. It’s not right off the highway.

But Oh. My. Gosh! When we got to the parking lot (at Old Man’s Cave Visitor Center), there were cars everywhere! People were parked along the road, all over the place, in the grass. It was insane. I was not excited. I did not drive an hour to hike with 3,000 other people. But since we had driven so far, I was determined to make the best of it and we luckily found a spot right up by the Visitor’s Center. Someone was leaving, just as we pulled around.

Due to Covid, we decided to wear our masks. However, I will tell you that almost no one else did. Luckily, once we got on the trail, people were mostly spread out. The further and further we got into the trail, the fewer people there actually were.

There are so many beautiful sights along this trail. And a couple different trail options to take.

First, note that (at least at the current moment) these trails are meant to be one way.

We started out taking the Upper Falls Loop Trail where we saw the Upper Falls.

Then, we quickly diverted to the Grandma Gatewood (Buckeye) Trail, which took us to the bottom of the Falls and on to Devil’s Bathtub.

We then continued on and chose to keep going toward the Lower Falls instead of turning toward Old Man’s Cave.

I honestly had the most fun at the Lower Falls. We spent so much time here. My son and I definitely broke the rules and went off trail. But it was just so pretty. We couldn’t resist. We walked behind the falls. And we climbed a rock. Which gave us some amazing pictures.

Then we took the Lower Access Trail (which had SO many stairs) up to the Gorge Exit Trail.

At this point, we’re like, how do we get to Old Man’s Cave? I don’t know if we just couldn’t see where to go or what, but we ended up going the wrong way on the trail to backtrack to Old Man’s Cave once we saw the Visitor’s Center. This was such a fun place to explore.

 

Seriously, this whole place was very interesting and we had a ton of fun exploring it! Ideally, there would have been fewer people there, but we did somehow end up here on the first beautiful day of the entire year with clear skies in the low 70s. Plus, it was a Saturday.

There were way more trails to explore, but we were starting to get tired, so we headed back to the car.

We did end up driving over to Cedar Falls. And it was pretty. And we thought it was worth the visit. But be aware that the entire trail to this is stairs. Seriously, straight down. Look at the falls. Straight back up. It was insane. But we loved it!

Overall, I walked 14,816 steps that day. We were exhausted, but we enjoyed every second of it.

5 Tips for Visiting the Columbus Zoo

Last weekend, we visited Columbus, Ohio for a short weekend getaway to celebrate my son’s 11th birthday. We had so much fun! The first thing we did on Friday was to visit the Columbus Zoo. 

 While we were there, they were open 10am to 5pm. However, when I went to book our tickets, all of the 10am ticket times were taken so we weren’t able to get in until 10:30am. Obviously, you should try to get in as soon as possible. However, I had forgotten that spring break was occurring for a lot of schools.

So Tip #1: Plan ahead! Get your tickets as soon as you can.

Admission is $16.99 for everyone 10 and up. Plus, there is a $10 parking fee (which we bought in advance with our tickets).

We arrived around 10:15am to look for a parking space and get ourselves ready. We needed to make sure everyone had a mask and a water bottle. My husband grabbed our backpack. And then we were ready to line up and get into the zoo.

Tip #2: Pack a backpack.

What’s in our backpack?
We brought snacks, hand sanitizer, extra masks (in case the ones we were wearing got wet), an umbrella (the forecast called for rain), Wet Ones, lip balm (because for some reason, ever since we started wearing masks, my lips have been chapped), sunscreen, reusable straws, hats (just in case the sun decided to show itself), Tylenol, and a charging bank (just in case all those pictures you take kill the battery on your phone).

We then walked our way around the zoo. It wasn’t too busy while we were there, but it definitely wasn’t empty either. We did end up seeing every animal that was on exhibit, but we also didn’t care if we didn’t make it everywhere. We made a list of our top animals to see, and we made sure to visit all of those.

Tip #3: Decide what’s important to you and make sure you see those things.

For example, seeing the polar bears in the underwater viewing area was high on our list of things to see. However, when we got there, they were lazing around, and definitely had no plans to get in the water. So, we saw a couple of the animals in that same area and came back. They still weren’t in the water, so we waited. We ended up waiting for about half an hour. But eventually, they got in! Actually, my husband was up top while my son and I waited down below and he texted me that they were getting ready to throw some enrichment items in the water (which he learned from an employee that probably felt bad for us because they had seen us waiting for so long haha). And we were not disappointed!

There were a couple things that were closed while we were there. Like the Africa section. The only animals out were the lions. I think it was just a little too chilly for the rest of the animals.

Overall, we really enjoyed the Columbus Zoo. We’ve visited a lot of zoos and this one really impressed us. I would highly recommend a visit here if you’re a zoo lover (like us).

This zoo is not small, though. Which brings us to…

Tip #4: Wear comfortable shoes!

I mean, I recommend this no matter what zoo you’re going to, but especially a large zoo like the Columbus Zoo. I just looked, and I clocked 18,543 steps the day we visited. And we seriously didn’t do anything else. My feet were tired the next day!

One of our favorite parts of this zoo is the Manatee tank, which is why we saved it for last (or so we thought). It’s so sweet to see the surrogate mama manatee with her transplant babies. The babies are rescues that will eventually be returned to the wild. Plus, there’s a sea turtle in there, which is my son’s absolute favorite animal of all time.

 

Tip #5: Be flexible.

This is pretty much my life model. While we at the manatee tank, the woman talking was saying that you could touch and feed the stingrays over in another part of the zoo. And while I knew we could do that, I hadn’t planned to just because we’ve done that quite a few times before. But that didn’t stop my son from begging to go that way. So even though we thought we were done after the manatees, we ended up making our way over to the stingrays before exiting.

So, I hope that this was helpful and has fully convinced you to visit this zoo! We had a blast. And my son has told us that we definitely need to return in the summer.

11-year-old Photoshoot

My son has just turned 11. How can that be? I surely can't be old enough to have an 11-year-old boy. No, young man! It seems like only a year ago he was learning to walk. I know people say things like that all the time, but it just feels so true.

Well, I can't NOT take pictures of my amazing son every year. I want to document every milestone and not forget a single year of his life.

Which leads us to the photoshoot we did before his birthday. Check out my adorable baby!

Crochet Pattern: Plastic Bag Holder for the Car

So, my family spends a lot of time in the car. We go on lots of road trips and travel to visit family. My dad lives about 14 hours away, my mother-in-law is 3.5 hours, and my mom is 2.5 hours away. And with a 10-year-old boy in the backseat, sometimes my car is just messy! I have no idea how we accumulate so much trash. I did buy a little trash can from IKEA a while back and it has really worked well, but then the car gets messy again when I inevitably forget to bring a couple more grocery bags out to put in the trash can. Lots of people have a way to organize their old plastic grocery bags in their kitchen, but I didn't see anything for the car, so I made myself something! Let's get started.

Materials:
5mm hook
worsted weight yarn (I used grey and an ombre teal)
yarn needle

Stitches:
ch = chain
sc = single crochet
dc = double crochet
sl st = slip stitch
dec = decrease
inc = increase
sk st = skip stitch

double crochet decrease = yarn over, insert hook into 1st stitch, yarn over, pull through, insert hook into 2nd stitch, yarn over, pull through, yarn over, pull through 3 loops, yarn over, pull through last 2 loops

Pattern:
ch 24
Row 1: sl to first st without twisting, sc around (24)
Row 2: ch 2, (dc, dcinc) repeat around, sl st to close (36)
Row 3: ch 2, (dc x 2, dcinc) repeat around, sl st to close (48)
Row 4: ch 2, (dc x 3, dcinc) repeat around, sl st to close (60)
Row 5: ch 2, (2 dc in 1 st, sk st) repeat around, change to 2nd color to sl st to close (60)
Row 6: ch 2, (2 dc between paired posts, sk st) repeat around, change to primary color to sl st to close (60)
Row 7: ch 2, (2 dc between paired posts, sk st) repeat around, change to secondary color to sl st to close (60)
Row 8-Row 19: repeat rows 6 - 7
Row 20: ch 2, (dc x 3, dcdec) repeat around, sl st to close (48)
Row 21: ch 2, (dc x 2, dcdec) repeat around, sl st to close (36)
Row 22: ch 2, dc around, sl st to close (36)
Row 23: ch 4, (sk st, tc, ch 1) repeat around, sl st to close (36)
Row 24: ch 1, sc around, finish off and weave in ends (36)

Strap:
In main color, ch 60, weave chains through the tc row of the main item
Row 1: In secondary color, sl to first st without twisting, ch 1, sc around (60)
Row 2: In main color, sl st to close, ch 1, sc around, finish off and weave in ends (60)

Tip:
When crocheting the strap, you will need to continue turning the strap while it is in the loops. Alternatly, you could turn at the end of each row and then weave it through and sew the ends together.

Now, we have a pouch that can hold around 15 plastic grocery bags in the car, ready to be used for trash, or wet shoes, or anything really!

Car Camping: Our 1st Trip (and 5 tips to help on your first trip, too)

For our first car camping trip, we decided to go with a weekend away so that we could get used to the idea before taking a longer vacation.

We live in central Illinois, and unfortunately, there really aren't very many exciting places near us. Obviously, for a weekend trip, we wanted to stay within 4-6 hours from home. Any further than that, and we would need to allow more than 48 hours. So, while I wish we could have visited Glacier National Park in Montana or Arches National Park in Utah or even Pigeon Forge in Tennessee, we had to settle for someplace much closer to home. Don't get me wrong, I've visited Shawnee National Forest before, and it is pretty, but we'll talk about that more another time.

TIP #1: My first tip, if you're looking to try car camping, is to do a weekend away someplace near home to see if it's something you even like before planning some huge trip.

So, Friday at lunch time, we took off. My husband could only take a half day off from work so we couldn't leave any earlier than that. We drove the 4 hours down to Shawnee National Forest, and looked for a place to set up camp.

TIP #2: If you are able, reserve your campsite in advance. If you're going to an area with first come-first serve camping, make sure you have a back-up campground or two in case the one you go to first is full.

TIP #3: Organization is key! In order to keep from overwhelming yourself, it's best to stay organized. If you have to move everything before you sleep, that takes time. And then, if you have to move everything again in order to drive your car, that takes more time. Plus, you don't want to spend all of the rest of your time looking for things that you can't find like a lighter or bug spray.

TIP #4: Download trails before you leave home. I mean, I know that's not exactly about car camping, but so frequently, the places you're going to camp are going to be far from cell service. You definitely don't want to get lost, so if you plan to take any trails, download an app like AllTrails, upgrade to Pro, and download the trails you plan to take. It will save you headaches later.

TIP #5: Test everything before you go to make sure you know what you're doing. The very first time I tried to use our propane stove, it didn't work. I have no idea what I did wrong, but the second time I tried, it worked great. It would have been far worse had we been on our trip and realized we didn't know how to use it or that it was broken.

Crochet Pattern: 2-Tone Hot Pad

I started this pattern because I wanted to make a hot pad for our camping trip. And I really liked how it turned out, so I thought I would share it with all of you!

Materials:
4mm hook
100% cotton worsted weight yarn (in 2 colors)
yarn needle

Terms:
ch = chain
sc = single crochet
inc = increase
blo = back loops only

Pattern:
In COLOR 1, ch 39
Round 1: sc inc in 2nd ch from hook, sc x 36, sc inc, sc inc on the other side of ch, sc x 36, sc inc (80)
Round 2 - Round 20: sc around (80)
Switch to COLOR 2
Round 21: sc around (80)
Switch to COLOR 1
Round 22 - Round 23: sc around (80)
Switch to COLOR 2
Round 24: sc around (80)
Switch to COLOR 1
Round 25 - Round 26: sc around (80)
Switch to COLOR 2
Round 27 - Round 40: sc around (80)
sc in blo x 4
To finish, sc across the top to crochet the ends together. (40)
Finish off and weave in ends.

Loop:
Attach yarn in the right most front loops of those 4 sts you did in blo.
Row 1: ch 1, sc x 4 (4)
Row 2 - Row 20: ch 1, sc x 4 (4)
Finish off and sew to the top where you sc'ed across the top.
Sew in ends.

A Camping Weekend At Shawnee National Forest (March)

My family needed a weekend away! And now that it's March, the weather is finally starting to give us a bit of a break from the constantly freezing temperatures. Plus, we wanted to try our hand at car camping to see if it was something we'd be interested in and thought a trip only 4 hours from our house would be the perfect way to try it out.

So, here's how we spent our weekend:
My husband took a half day on Friday so that we could head down and get there before dark. At around noon, we loaded up the car and drove to Pharoah's Campground. There are only 12 campsites ($10/night) here and it's first come, first serve so we had to stop here first to see if there were any spots available. While the weather was starting to get warmer, it was still a little chilly, so we were hoping it wouldn't be too busy. We were able to secure ourselves a spot, unloaded a couple things, and then headed off for our first "hike".

Sunset hike around the Garden of the Gods Observation Trail:
This trail is technically only about 0.5 mile, but my son is a climber and it was definitely longer than that. We made sure to take our time and take in the beautiful sights you get at sunset. It was a great start to our trip and I highly recommend doing this "trail" if you're visiting the area. It's incredibly easy. Just be careful if you climb out on the rocks. It's about a half mile walk to get to the trailhead from the campsite.

For dinner, we made a fire and cooked some hot dogs. As a side, we made a pasta side on our stove. And of course, we had to have s'mores for dessert. Easy peasy!

We then cleaned everything up from dinner, inflated our car mattress, and got ourselves ready for bed.

Saturday morning, we made pancakes and sausage for breakfast with some coffee to give us that boost we would need for the many hikes we had planned for the day.

Then we headed out for our first hike. Or so we thought...

We had wanted to see Cave in Rock, but unfortunately, it was flooded.

So, we headed to Rim Rock after taking in the views of the Ohio River.

Rim Rock:
On AllTrails, it says it's 1.7 miles, but we didn't do the whole thing. Instead, we headed up the trail in the middle, took the steep downhill off to the left, and then took the stairs into the cavern. We explored there for a while (which is obviously the highlight of the trail) and then headed back up the stairs and continued the trail around back to the parking lot. In total, it was probably about a mile, but maybe more with our exploring. I highly recommend this trail! It was so much fun exploring. Overall, I would say it was fairly easy.

After we finished there, we headed back towards camp. We stopped at the Outpost to pick up some firewood. While we were there, we looked around and ended up buying a postcard and a coffee mug as souvenirs. There were also a few food options in case you forgot something and other souvenir options like t-shirts and sweatshirts and shot glasses. It's a cute little store that's worth a stop if you're in the area. Plus, I didn't feel like their prices were outrageous.

Across the street from the Outpost is the Shawnee Bigfoot so of course we had to stop for a picture! There are a couple parking spots just for this photo op, so you don't have to cross the busy street on foot.

Then, we headed back to camp to make some lunch (sandwiches, chips, and apples). It wasn't anything exciting. Just enough to fuel us up for our next hike.

On our way back out of the Garden of the Gods, we saw an area where you could pull off to the side. Across the street from there was a cool rock feature that you could climb inside of. So, we stopped. It was just a fun little 15 minute detour, but I feel like it's worth noting, just to say that you don't even have to go on a hike to see some of these beautiful rocks.

We then continued on our way to Stone Face.

Stone Face:
If you're using Google Maps to get you here, it only takes you most of the way. Continue until you see a sign for it. Then turn. There is a gravel road that takes you a couple miles to the tiniest little parking area. From there, take the trail. The trail itself isn't too long. I believe it actually keeps going past the actual Stone Face, but I wasn't expecting the trail to be as strenuous as it was, so we just turned back around after we got there and went back. This trail is listed as easy on AllTrails and it is NOT! Don't listen to the lies these people have told you. Read the reviews. It's rough. And at one point, we were literally climbing. But it's beautiful. And there are some pretty great views.

Needless to say, I was extremely tired after that hike, so we decided to forego any additional hikes that day and just head back to camp. We were done a little earlier than we had originally anticipated, so we filled our time by reading and playing cards.

For dinner, we made campfire dip, which we ate with fritos. It's cream cheese, shredded cheese, taco meat, and chili beans. It was so good. Plus, this day was National Oreo Day so we had brought a package along to indulge in for dessert.

The rest of our night was spent hanging out by the fire, just talking and laughing and enjoy each others company.

The next morning, we made scrambled eggs, turkey bacon, and coffee for breakfast. This is honestly, our traditional Sunday breakfast anyway, so we decided not to break from tradition. Plus, this is a super easy breakfast and I'm all about those simple meals while camping.

We packed everything up and made sure we left our campsite cleaner than we left it. Then, we headed out to our first hike, Burden Falls.

Burden Falls:
Getting here was a bit of an adventure. We seriously traveled MILES on a gravel road. I don't know why I kept picking these "middle of nowhere" hikes. But that's where we were. The trail isn't overly marked (as some people have pointed out in reviews on AllTrails) but there were a couple ties on trees that led us to believe we were on the right path. We started by taking the path to the left. It led us through the forest, then down a very steep hill, and then along the stream until we reached the waterfall. Now, technically, I don't think the trail leads all the way up to the waterfall, but that didn't stop us! When you get close, you'll see a large rock (I mean, huge rock). Go to the left of it, and all of a sudden, it will open up to the bottom of the falls. We climbed all over the rocks to get fun pictures. On our way back, we didn't really know which way to go and we had just seen a couple descend from some rocks, so we took that way. I think it's more of an unofficial trail, but enough people had taken that way, that it was obviously a trail. We were literally climbing rocks, but we had so much fun! It was hard, but so worth it. Then, when you get to the top, you'll see the top set of falls, which are small, but beautiful in their own right. Overall, a great trail. Probably a moderate.

I felt invigorated after that trail, so we headed off for one more. This one was a little far if you're staying in the Garden of the Gods area, but it was on our way home. We went to Big Rocky Hollow Trail. Or at least that's what it's called on AllTrails. Although, if you let Google guide you, you will end up in the wrong area. Navigate to the Ferne Clyffe Waterfall Trail. This is a super popular trail, though, and we were lucky to find a parking space.

At this point, we were starting to get hungry for lunch, so we made ourselves some sandwiches and ate at a picnic table right by our car.

Then, we were off again.

Big Rocky Hollow Trail:
This trail is very short: less than 3/4 of a mile out and back. It's very wide, allowing for lots of people to travel on it. I would even say it's handicap accessible. But don't take my word for it. That's just how flat and easy this trail is. It does become even more scenic as you near the waterfall at the end. There are plenty of places to explore and (dare I say) go off trail. The waterfall at the end was only a mild trickle while we were there, but still a fun little hike nonetheless.

At this point, it was starting to get warm, we still had a 3 1/2 hour drive home, and we were all a little tired, so we loaded up the car, and made our way back. We had a great trip and I hope that our experience can help you plan your next trip to Southern Illinois to visit the Shawnee National Forest.