December at Cedar Falls

Cedar Falls in the Hocking Hills State
Parks is freezing now and it is looking
so beautiful. While Ash Cave’s falls is
not quite as pretty yet  but it should
look beautiful by the time the Winter
Hike rolls around the latter part of
January.

The water runs through a tunnel in this
ice formation and looks so pretty snaking
down through the frozen waterfalls.

 

With a five inch covering of snow and the cold
weather freezing the creek in the gorge everything
is sparkling and beautiful and so worth the walk
down into the gorge to view it all.

Every season at Cedar Falls  dresses the gorge in
beauty with the changes.

Sparkling ice formations now grace the
rock walls in the gorge.

A Frozen Old Man’s Cave

 
A walk along the upper trail of Old Man’s
Cave last Friday was a pretty one.
All of the waterfalls and run off around
the cave and trails are freezing now
and the effect is beautiful.
I was glad to get these pictures when I
did since on our way back out there were four
teenage boys with big limbs clubbing and
Knocking down all of the icicles.
I told them they were ruining it for the other
visitors to the park who want to see the
formations and take pictures but brats will
be brats. You say all this fuss about some ice,
well hundreds of tourists come in the winter
to take pictures and enjoy the beauty of the
parks in the winter.
Please do not destroy what you came in the
first place to see and enjoy like those
big teenage boys did. Those after you
may want to see and enjoy it too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sun Rising Behind The Hills

 

 

 

 

Another Fall Day Along The Upper Trail

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope Furnace

The Hope Furnace is near Zaleski, Ohio at Lake Hope.

  In the 1850’s the furnaces were used to
produce iron for the nation’s growing railroad system.
The railroads in turn provided transportation for iron
exports linking the southeast Ohio to distant markets
that could be reached by way of the Ohio River, or the
Great Lakes. During the Civil War the furnaces provided
iron for canons and other military equipment used by
the Union Army, including the iron plating that
sheathed the army’s famous iron-clad warship, the Monitor.
Hope Furnace closed in 1874 and the last of the furnaces
closed in 1916.
The forest’s around the furnaces provided  wood to
fire the furnaces and provided jobs for this area
of the state. Though it provided jobs for the area
and towns grew around the Furnaces the homes 
and stores built there  were owned by the
companies that paid the workers with company script.
The script was suppose to be used to purchase over priced
goods from the company owned stores but in fact the script
was worthless and could not be used in the stores.

  

Autumn Hike at Lake Hope

 

Lake Hope is not a wide lake but it is a long lake.

This is from the beach area looking across to the highway
which leads to the entrance of the park.

The Furnace Trail was our hiking path that day but there
are several trails to hike at Lake Hope.

Some of the hiking trails are rugged and narrow
going around the lake area and some are wonderful
for a vigorous walk.

Geese and other water fowl make the lake
their home.

 

Evidence of Beaver at the lake were present but none were spotted.

Beautiful textures and leaves were spotted
along the trail.

 

Scarlet maples glowed in the sun.

Berries were plentiful on shrubs and nuts of acorns
and hickory were falling all around us and laying
upon the ground.

Once stems of blooming flowers were now
fuzzy with seeds heads.

Persimmon’s were hanging from limbs over the water
that had not yet been eaten by critters and birds.

 

Ferns in the shady areas on hillsides were starting
to back for the winter.

 

Golden grasses swayed in the breeze.

The lake is almost chocked in the upper ends from
water lily pads which were now turning yellow.
There were just paths through the lilies where
kayakers were paddling through.

Blends of orange and yellows were all around the
lake mixed in with the pines.