Saturday, May 12, 2018. Bi-centennial Park, COSI Museum, Columbus, OH

From Alum Creek campground it was a short drive into the heart of downtown Columbus, OH. The city has enjoyed some revitalization along the river with lush parks, walkways, fountains, dining and museums.

It was our plan to just visit the riverfront park today and return later, without Sam, to visit the science museum. Since we were parking in a garage and the temperature was very nice we left Sam in the car and we checked out the exhibits at the COSI museum. COSI was short for Center Of Science and Industry - I would have bet it was Columbus Ohio Science and Industry and I would have lost.

The museum was designed for kids and included a lot of interactive exhibits. In the "Ocean" section we saw King Neptune watching over water cannons that were supposed to demonstrate the relationship between the range and the altitude of the stream. It was a good thing there was a limited range of those things because all the kids wanted to do was drench each other.

The chick below had no clothes and no skin either! She had organs and systems that lit up with a narrative about the function of each - I was spellbound.

There was a collection of x-rays in the Health section and we found one that reminded us of what just happened to our daughter, Kate.

 Velvet Hands Illusion Place one hand on each side of the mesh. Touch your hands and fingertips together with the mesh in between.  Keeping them together, move your hands in a circular motion.  Yes, your hands feel like velvet!

As we were looking at the outdoor sculpture we noticed movement. That dinosaur was crawling with squirrels! One scurried right up into the poor dino's skull - he literally had squirrels running around in his head. Maybe that was the real reason dinosaurs went extinct.

The park area in downtown Columbus was certainly a gem that I hope its residents appreciate and enjoy - I know we will be back.

Friday, May 11, 2018, Move to Delaware, OH

Alum Creek State Park in Delaware, OH, just outside of Columbus, was just 60.2 miles (86,587.6 total) making it an extremely easy driving day. 

Check in told us to go around the corner and back in.  I did just that, requiring an Austin Powers, 12 point turn on the narrow road to back into our spot as. It would have been nice if the camp host had told us to drive around the corner, turn left and go around the block to approach our site from the other side. I cannot imagine the kind of things being said about me by the people waiting for me to get out of their way.

Once we were settled into site F-22 it was pretty nice - a mix of sun and shade and some wild neighbors across the street. We heard them partying until well after 11 and saw their mountain of empties the next morning. I think there were 6 people helping to down what I estimated to be 6 or 8 six packs of beer. They were a lot more reserved the next night - either still nursing hangovers or they had blown through their entire alcohol allowance for the week.

As luck would have it (I don't think Joani planned this) we were only a few miles from an IKEA. Of course, that meant we weren't cooking at home - Swedish meatballs tonight!

Thursday, May 10, 2018, Dawes Arboretum

While we were in Lancaster we visited the Dawes Arboretum a few miles to the northeast. The arboretum was founded by Beman and Bertie Dawes in 1929. Their love of trees and nature inspired them to surround their country home with 2,000 acres including forests, wetlands and grasslands. Today the Arboretum "is a museum without walls with nearly 17,000 plants" in their collection.

Entry to the grounds was free. A small fee was required to tour the Daweswood House that is now a museum. There were more than 12 miles of hiking trails and a 4-mile auto tour on the grounds. Sam was welcome to hike along with us.

We started our tour with the Japanese Garden. It was certainly peaceful sitting on a bench in the garden with the dappled sunshine and the gentle breeze, but we had too much to see so we had to keep moving. 

Acer palmatum "Wolff" Emperor Japanese maple

(Aceraceae maple family)

Across the field, we saw the Red Barn Reserve and the landscaped campus - not part of the grounds open to visitors. I think the area was used by the maintenance crews.

I have always found old farm implements abandoned in a field to be picturesque. Maybe there is some karmic message about the earth reclaiming the machinery that once was used to work the land or the inescapable march of time or something.

There was a whole grove dedicated to Magnolias. We were lucky enough to see most of them still in bloom. There were so many it was difficult to pick a favorite.

Magnolia Randy Magnolia

(Magnoliaceae Magnolia family)

Aronia arbutifolia Red Chokeberry

(Rosaceae, rose family)

The bushes below trailing off to infinity spell out "DAWES ARBORETUM". It was a good thing they had an observation tower or we would not have been able to recognize any letters.

I think the cypress tree below was aptly named - it reminded me of the exhaust trail behind a rocket headed into space.

Cupressus nootkatensis Moon Shot Nootka Cypress

(Cupressaceae cypress family)

Pinus bungeana Silver Ghost lacebark pine

(Pinaceae pine family)

We had absolutely perfect weather for our visit today. I don't know how it would be to visit this place other times of the year, but I suspect they have something special in every season. Definitely a place worth seeing.  

Tuesday, May 8, 2018, Hocking Hills Rock House, Ash Cave, Cedar Falls

Today we returned to Hocking Hills State Park to see more of the natural beauty of this area. First up was something called "Rockhouse". The hike to Rockhouse was about a 1-mile round trip. "Situated midway up a 150-foot cliff, Rockhouse is a tunnel-like cavern 25 feet high and roughly 200 feet long." It gave you the impression of a cave, but there was enough light to see where you were walking. That was fortunate because there were plenty of puddles and mud that you really wanted to avoid.

We love that Sam was able to hike everywhere with us today, but I was very concerned when we had to pass a Pit Bull on the trail that nearly weighed as much as its owner. She was barely able to control it, but I was pretty sure it wanted Sam as a snack. I will never understand the desire to adopt such a vicious breed of animal.

Just a few miles down the road we hiked to Ash Cave. The trail was paved and just over a half mile round trip. The panorama shot below spans nearly 180 degrees so you can see it was a large recess cave. The falls to the left was approximately 100 feet high.

We finished our day with a final hike of just under a mile to Cedar Falls. I think there was more water over Cedar Falls than any of the others in the park. It also had one of the larger crowds looking on. Fortunately, I was able to frame a shot without the sunbathers and visitors trying to get selfies with the water in the background.

Today made two days in a row with perfect weather - we could not have asked for anything more for our first exploration of Hocking Hills State Park.

Monday, May 7, 2018, Hocking Hills State Park

We had heard good things about Hocking Hills State Park and our stay in Lancaster was designed, in part, to allow us to check it out. We both thoroughly enjoyed our visit! The park was pet-friendly so Sam hiked along with us. Today we explored the area around Old Man Cave. There were so many features along the trail and seeing everything probably was no more than a two-mile hike.

Not understanding the map very well, we started our tour in the middle of the trail and backtracked a bit, but it only added maybe a quarter mile. The cascades below did not even have a name. The Upper Falls Loop trail encompassed both this and the falls below the bathtub, so maybe they just refer to this as one of the upper falls.

The water was amazingly still in this little grotto. The tiniest ripples sent shimmering reflections to the rock overhead which were poorly captured in any of our pictures.

Below is "The Devil's Bathtub". I don't think it was very deep and it actually looked like it might be a lot of fun to splash around in on a really hot summer day - not that I ever would since swimming and wading were prohibited.

This falls did not seem to have a name - it was just below the bathtub. There were a lot of folks on the trail, but with a little patience, I was able to snap a picture that made it look we were all alone.

This was named "Upper Falls". All of the falls started to look similar so there could be some mislabeling, but the name is not important - it's all about the natural beauty of falling water.

I should have used a tripod for a long exposure to give the illusion of moving water but this handheld 0.3-second exposure was all I was able to get. I guess it worked pretty well.

The trees were often situated on top of solid rock, so they had to send roots down any way they could to reach a little dirt. This tree reminded me of Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (the pirate with the face that looked like an octopus).

We crossed the water on one unique bridge I named the "Stepping Stone" bridge since it didn't seem to have an official name. Each step was separated from the others and there was no railing. It seemed more like modern art instead of just a practical way to get to the other side of the stream. 

This view of Stepping Stone bridge taken from 30 feet overhead might show better the individual steps. 

Probably the most picturesque was the Lower Falls. It was also where we started our trip back to the car. We could have continued on a spur trail another 2 miles to Cedar Falls, but we opted to see that another day.

Another try at a long exposure - I think I was leaning against a tree.

To get back to the top of the gorge the trail included steps, but sometimes the steps were engineered steel in a winding arc instead of simple carved stone.

Throughout most of our hiking we were never far from a class field trip. It was pretty easy to pinpoint their location in the gorge by the noise that two school bus loads of Elementary kids make as they enjoyed their day away from classwork.

When there was finally no other way around, they just tunneled through the rock and put in a staircase. I was happy most of the climbing was near the end of our hike.

Our loop finally made it to Old Man's Cave which was not really a cave at all but just a big rock overhang. As you might expect there was an old man who lived here years ago.

We could not have asked for any better weather than we experienced today making our visit all the more memorable. With so many features within such a short distance in the gorge it was no wonder this park is one of Ohio's most popular State Parks.