Kyla's Hocking Hill Vacation

Day 1: Exploring Ash Cave 

Kyla always looks forward to summer vacation.  She loves getting to explore a new place.  This year Kyla took a road trip to Ohio to visit Hocking Hills,  a State Park that is famous for it's waterfalls.  Ohio is a good twelve hour drive from Minnesota if there is no traffic.  So it's decided to stop in Indianapolis for the night before heading to Ohio.

Even though it's only for the night, Kyla finds a place to go for a walk around a man made pond.  It's a pretty little area with places to sit, gardens, and lots of trees.

She sits for awhile under one of the trees, looking out on the pond.   It's a very relaxing area, even with all of the businesses in the background.  Kyla wonders if there are any fish in the pond as she looks over it.

Although it is beautiful here, Kyla is sure that Hocking hills is going to be much prettier.

When she arrives at the park, she settles into the cabin.  It's wonderful, with a deck, and cute decorations.  Once she is unpacked, she is off to explore.  She heads out to one of the closest waterfalls at Ash Cave.

Most of the area in the park is made of sandstone.  Because of that the water and wind have eroded it, making waterfalls, and caves.   This waterfall is in a huge cavern that explorers used to get out of the elements.

There is not a lot of water running over the waterfall, but it plunges almost 100 ft from the ledge above, forming a pristine pool of water below.

Kyla loves that she can walk behind the fall and look out at the huge cavern it adorns.

She wonders what this looked like when the first explores came through, or when the Native Americans found it before them.

It must have looked very different then. It is such a calm area with the waterfall making noise and it echoing off the cavern walls.

People are swimming in the water hole, but Kyla did not bring her suit with today, so she decides just to dip her feet in the water.

It's wonderfully cool, and refreshing as the temperature is in the 90's with a dew point in the 80's.   She stays in the water for a few minutes, then explores the rest of the cavern.

Sandstone always amazes Kyla, because it can be very hard, but is also very fragile.  It can easily crumble, especially after heavy rains.

The colors in the stone are beautiful.  So many shades of tans, offset by the green of the moss growing on the surface of the rock.  She brushes her hand against the rough surface of the rock.   What an amazing area.  She marvels at the waterfall once again before heading back to the cabin.