Devil’s bathtub!

Wednesday
With the promise of a couple of days of sunshine, a rare commodity so far this winter, we made a last minute decision to drive to Hocking Hills State Park for an overnight. It’s about a 2 1/4 hour drive, towards the southeast of the state, and one of our favourite places to visit for a short getaway. We have camped there many times during the warmer months, and stayed at bed and breakfasts for special occasions, but this time we booked a night in the new State Park Lodge, just opened last October. The previous lodge was a dining lodge only, and burned down in 2016. When plans were made to rebuild, the decision was made to add guest rooms, as well as cabins. I had seen pictures of the lodge and it looked beautiful, and has the added advantage in that they offer a significant discount for seniors Sunday through Thursday nights! I’ve put an extra collage with some photos from the lodge. It’s beautifully designed, using a lot of stone and wood, and with a double story lobby area/ great hall, with floor to ceiling windows front and back. As you can see in the collage, there is an outdoor pool and hot tub, and indoor pool and hot tub. We arrived late morning, and were able to check in there and then - they are obviously not busy mid week during the winter. Then we went off hiking in the Old Mans cave area. It wasn’t a long hike, but we had to take it gingerly in some places, as it was quite icy, and we were glad of our nano spikes and hiking poles, and then of course there were stops for multiple photographs, and just absorb the peace and beauty. My main blip shows in the foreground the feature known as the Devil’s bathtub. I You can walk through from Old Mans Cave through to Cedar Falls (see main picture in second extra), and we have done so numerous times, but given the conditions, we walked for about three miles return, and then drove down to Cedar Falls, which entailed about another mile of walking. I have added another collage of other scenes from our hike. We then returned to the lodge for a swim and some relaxing time in the hot tub. We enjoyed a drink in the beautiful lobby area before dinner, then enjoyed a relaxing evening. A beautiful day!
Step count: 12,961