Bay City State Recreation Area

Where: Bay City State Recreation Area, Michigan
Trail: Lagoon Trail
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: less than 1 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

If you're looking to go for a walk, it's a good place to do it. If you actually want to hike, it's pretty lame. The trail isn't very long and it's pretty uninteresting.

Ludington State Park

Where: Ludington State Park
Trail: Lost Lake Trail, Island Trail, and Ridge Trail
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Distance: 1.5 miles, 4 miles (both)
Adventure Rating: 2 Stars
Pet: Allowed on leash

We started at the parking lot near the beach and the boat launch. We started on the Island Trail, which involves boardwalks that span across the Lost Lake onto several tiny islands. The Lost Lake is peaceful and some day I'm going to go back without my dogs and kayak the lake.

We hiked the entire Lost Lake Trail until it ended at the Ridge Trail. Most of the Ridge Trail is on top of sand dunes which makes the trek a little more difficult. But from up there we saw a raccoon in a tree as well as a group of deer down in one of the valleys. We watched a couple of fawns hopping around playing for about ten minutes.

A flight of wooden stairs brought us down from the Ridge Trail and connected us to the Lost Lake Trail, which took us back to the parking lot. Of the three trails, the Island Trail is the most visually interesting. The Lost Lake trail is the easiest and the Ridge Trail is the more strenuous.

Old Man's Cave

Where: Hocking Hills, Ohio
Trail: Grandma's Gatewood Trail & Exit Trails
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: ?
Adventure Level: 4 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

We sort of got lost on this hike and therefore, I have no idea what trails we were on exactly or how far we traveled.

We also crossed a creek and found a trail that was closed due to fallen rock. That, of course, didn't stop me. We climbed up rock steps and were soon stopped by the destroyed trail.


So, I found a way across the middle, over boulders and downed trees. When I went back for Marc, I stepped on a downed tree that was damp and mossy. I don't really know what happened next, but I fell off the boulder and tree and landed hard on my hip and elbow. The bruise on my hip ended up being the size of my hand (not my palm, the whole hand). This was the first time I ever used my first aid kit hiking, though, so that was pretty exciting.

This is the area we crossed. In the upper left corner, you can see my blue shirt behind a tree--that should help give perspective on how big the boulders were that we were hopping.

After we made our way across that mess of boulders, we met up with a trail that took us to wooden spirl-ish stairs that led up to the rim trail. We decided to call it a day. It was late afternoon and the pain in my hip was making me walk funny.

Ash Cave Gorge

Where: Hocking Hills, Ohio
Trail: Ash Cave Gorge
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 1/2 mile round trip
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

The Gorge Trail is easy, much of it being paved and wheelchair accessible. There is a small, but tall waterfall that makes for interesting pictures. Ash Cave also has a Rim Trail, but we didn't hike it.

Cedar Falls

Where: Hocking Hills, Ohio
Trail: Cedar Falls
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 1 mile round trip
Adventure Rating: 2 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

Of the places we visited in Hocking Hills, I think Cedar Falls was the least interesting to me. It had the most tourists in a small area and there just wasn't as much to see. We parked in the lot, walked a short ways on the trail before we climbed 59 steps and then crossed a sunny field to a bridge over Queer Creek. We followed the trail around until we were at the top of the waterfall. There was a small pool far over 100 feet away from the top of the waterfall, and we felt it was safe to venture into it. It was extremely slippery and icy cold. Thankfully, neither my sister nor I fell in. And then because I clearly haven't learned my lesson about hanging out at the top of waterfalls, I did just that. Thankfully, this time I was much more careful.

Rock House

Where: Hocking Hills, Ohio
Trail: Rock House
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 1/2 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 2 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

Marc is afraid of heights and there was one place in the cave (towards the end), where I was standing close to the edge and it was making him worry. I wasn't concerned at all--in fact, there was a place that I was able to jump down to and then to get back up, I had to have Dennis help me. I wanted to climb all the way down from the Rock House... it didn't look that far from where I was. Once on the ground, I could see that it was way higher and I never would've been able to make it.

I earned my first injury of the day when I jumped through some trees and banged up my wrist. It ended up scraped and bruised.

Cantwell Cliffs

Where: Hocking Hills, Ohio
Trail: Cantwell Cliffs
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 1 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 3 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

There isn't a lot of hiking at Cantwell Cliffs, but what they have is pretty cool. We descended stone steps, made our way through Fat Woman's Squeeze. There are tons of steps on this trail and boulders to climb on. It was a great start to our Hocking Hills adventure.