Coopers Rock State Forest

Where: Coopers Rock State Forest
Trail: Underlook, Rattlesnake, Rock City, Ridge, Mont Chateau, Clay Run...
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 5.5 miles (I think)
Adventure Rating: 4 Stars
Pets: not sure...

First, let me just say that the trail markers aren't very good. Originally, we were supposed to hike the following trails: Underlook, Rattlesnake, Rock City, Rhododendren, Eagle, then take the road to the stone stairs, and finally to the Overlook Trail. We definitely hiked the first three trails and then I don't know what happened. As far as we can ascertain, we ended up on the Ridge Trail and then on the Mont Chateau Trail. I believe the last trail we were on was the Clay Run Trail, but I don't know for sure. What I do know was that briefly, we were lost in the mountains of West Virginia. So, it was only natural for us to decide to take a short cut--which actually worked out. Unfortunately, the shortcut was across an open area that was hot and sunny, as well as covered with thorn bushes. We got a little scratched up and I fell off a tree, but other than that, it was awesome.

We started out at the Coopers Rock Overlook, where I saw a bald eagle for the first time (in the wild). Then we headed down the Underlook Trail, which went below the overlook. The Rattlesnake Trail and Rock City Trail were very cool, with lots of rock scrambling.

Buttermilk Falls at Cuyahoga Valley NP

Blue Hen Falls

Where: Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Trail: Unmarked Trail
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: ?
Adventure Rating: 4 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

We parked at Blue Hen Falls, which were very cool. Originally, we were going to hike to them from the Boston Store Visitor Center, but we ended up just parking there. I found a website that mentioned Buttermilk Falls and knew we had to check it out. It's not marked on any maps that I could find, but if you hike downstream from Blue Hen Falls, you'll find it. There is a rough unmarked trail heading that direction, but we spent most of our time walking on the rocks along the stream. The water was shallow enough that we could cross back and forth across it. It was way fun.

Buttermilk Falls

The linked website says that you should visit Brandywine Falls before spending time on this one. If you're judging the falls on size, then sure, I guess they are right. However, I completely disagree with this statement. I found the Brandywine falls so uninteresting that I didn't even take a picture of them. Nor did we bother to do the hike. The Buttermilk Falls might not be amazing, but the adventure of finding them was amazing. I say don't even bother with Brandywine.

Ritchie Ledges at Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Where: Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Trail: Ledges Trail
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 2 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 3 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

We started at the parking lot and hiked 0.2 miles to the first fork in the trail. We took a right, hiking 0.3 miles to the Ledges Trail, just south of the Ice Box Cave. We hiked past the cave, going north until we came to the steps that cut across the top of the Ledges Trail. After that, we hiked south to the overlook. From there, we hiked north on the connector trail and then cut across the field to the parking lot. I think the whole trip lasted about 2 hours, but probably because we stopped a lot to climb on rocks and explore off trail. It was definitely an awesome short hike.

Joaquin Miller Park

Where: Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California
Trail: Big Trees Trail
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: ?
Adventure Rating: 2 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

Joaquin Miller Park

Where: Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland, California
Trail: Sinawik Trail
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: ?
Adventure Rating: 2 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

El Malpais National Monument

Where: El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico
Trail: Sandstone Bluffs
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: n/a
Adventure Rating: 4 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

There isn't a trail per se, but there are plenty of places to climb all over the boulders.

BE VERY CAREFUL, THERE ARE STEEP DROP-OFFS. THIS AREA CAN BE DANGEROUS.

Petroglyph National Monument

Where: Petroglyph National Monument, New Mexico
Trail: Piedras Marcadas Canyon
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 1.5 miles round trip
Adventure Rating: 2 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash
 
The Petroglyph National Monument wasn't the most exciting hike, at first. The monument is located right outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. The parking lot for the monument is in a neighborhood, but once you get out there, you sort of forget about the city.

We hiked the Piedras Marcadas Canyon trail which is dog-friendly and free. According to the NPS website, the trail is "Easy to moderate unpaved trail." We didn't find anything even moderately strenuous about the trail--which is probably why we went off trail.

Along the 1.5 mile (out and back) trail, you can see hundreds of petroglyphs. They tend to be really cool at first, but by the 20th one, I was much less interested. Unless I saw a funny one like the one to the right.

Overlooking Albuquerque

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.

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.

Monument Hill & Kreische Brewery

Where: Monument Hill & Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites
Trail: all trails
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: less than 1 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash


We started in the parking lot and headed for the Kreische Woods Nature Loop, crossing a tiny bridge over a tiny creek. At the trail kiosk, we switched over to the Schulenburg Ferry Trail. We took that to the upper bridge and crossed over to the Brewery Lane Trail, which took us to the brewery ruins. After that, we took the Kreische Stairway Trail. This was pretty cool because it had stone stairs to climb. We passed a barn and a smoke house as we took the Scenic and Historic Trail to the Scenic Overlook. After that, we took the trail back around to the parking lot. This was a great hike for kids--it wasn't too strenuous and it was visually interesting with bridges, rocks, stones, stairs, etc.

Highbanks Trail to Iargo Springs

Where: Huron National Forest, Oscoda, Michigan
Trail: Highbanks Trail (Canoer's Memorial to Iargo Springs)
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 3.5 miles round trip
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

The Highbanks Trail is 7 miles long (one way). Because I was hiking with an 8-year-old and a small dog, I chose not to hike the entire length. Instead, we hiked from the Canoer's Memorial to Iargo Springs, which is about 1.75 miles one way. Iargo Springs was a good place to stop, rest, and have a snack, before hiking back to the car.

The hike is pretty easy, mostly flat dirt paths. We did wander off the path in a few places to check out the sand dunes.

The most strenuous part of the hike was when we took the 294 steps down to the river at Iargo Springs (and then had to climb back up them). After that, we still had to hike almost 2 miles back to the car at Canoer's Memorial.

Taughannock Falls State Park

Where: Taughannock Falls State Park, New York
Trail: Gorge Trail
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 1.5 miles round trip
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

The trail is wide and well-groomed. Because of the short distance to the falls, there were a lot of tourists. The water was low and we ended up walking in the creek-bed--hopping rocks and wading in the water until we got closer to the falls, which made the "hike" a lot more fun than if we'd just stayed on the trail.

Generally, I am all about getting as close to the waterfalls as possible [which is probably why I almost fell off a waterfall once], but in this case, I heeded the warnings and stayed on the right side of the barrier. Rocks are constantly breaking and falling into the pool at the base of the waterfall (sometimes injuring or even killing tourists who decide to get too close). This is one place that I would highly recommend following the rules on.

Pine Haven Recreation Area

Where: Pine Haven Recreation Area, Sanford, Michigan
Trail: Pine Haven Loop, Mud Creek Loop, Riverside Ravine
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Distance: 1.5 miles, 1 mile, .2 miles
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

Pine Haven has over 13 miles of trails in its 325 acres. The main trails are wide enough to hike side-by-side as a group.

Here is the route we took: [see map] Parking lot to marker A to B to C to H to I to J to K to L to M to N to O to P to the parking lot.

Bluffs of the North Fork San Gabriel River

Where: Bluffs of the North Fork San Gabriel River, Lake Georgetown, Texas
Trail: Goodwater Trail
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Distance: ?
Adventure Rating: 3 Stars
Pets: Allowed on leash

We started at mile marker 11 of the Goodwater Hiking Trail and hiked out a couple miles (I'm not how far we went) and back. [The Goodwater Trail is a loop that goes all the way around Lake Georgetown and is 28 miles long.] Our hike started out along the San Gabriel River and then entered the surrounding forest. After a short distance, we came to a creek with a tree stretched across it. Judging by the boards attached to the tree, it was meant to be crossed.

A couple of the people in our hiking party were hesitant to cross [unlike me, who couldn't wait to cross it and wishes every hiking adventure had one of these]. They did make the crossing, but when it was time to turn around and hike back, they chose to cross the San Gabriel River, which was pretty cold.