Lake Hope State Park

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Besides rock formations, the Hocking Hills area includes a lovely man-made reservoir known as Lake Hope. The 2,983-acre park which contains it is a rugged, heavily forested region traversed by steep gorges and narrow ridges, making it beautiful for an early morning hike. But I found the lake itself most appealing for photography. This picture features pink flowers I found growing along the shoreline.

Lake Hope

I even found a swallowtail butterfly sitting on one of the plants.

Swallowtail

Cantwell Cliffs

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The last set of rock formations in the Hocking Hills area is known as Cantwell Cliffs. It is located farthest north, 17 miles from Old Man's Cave. But it is one of the most picturesque areas in Hocking County. Large slump blocks which fell away from the main cliffs have created many narrow passageways which trails wind through today.

Narrow Passage

 

This view looks straight up from between two huge rock masses.

Crevice

 

The uneven ground requires stone steps in some places. Rock cliffs form vertical walls on either side of these stairs.

Rock Walls

Cedar Falls 2

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After capturing a number of pictures of the falls, I had to start the inevitable hike back to the car. The top of the falls is accessible by nearly 100 stone steps which swing out around the pool at the base of the falls, rising along the edge of the cliff to the top. They are known as Democracy Steps, and were specially designed by artist, architect, and mathematician Akio Huzume to provide a comfortable pace and rhythm to hikers by reflecting mathematical principles of the Fibonacci sequence and one-dimensional Penrose lattice. Personally, I thought they just seemed like . . . another set of steps.

 

At one point I passed by this enormous rock wall. It seemed to reach well above the treetops.

Rock Wall

Farther along, the trail wound between these two huge rock towers.

A Treacherous Trail

Back at the car this sign warned of the dangerous area I had just hiked through.

Warning Sign

Cedar Falls

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Our next stop was Cedar Falls, a waterfall located near the lower gorge of Old Man's Cave. Despite the name, there are no cedars in the area. The falls were named by settlers who mistook the plentiful hemlock trees for cedars. Cedar Falls is the largest waterfall in terms of volume in the Hocking Hills area. However, a lack of rain prior to our time there had reduced the flow to a trickle.

Cedar Falls

 

The light from the evening sun shining through the trees onto a cliff on one side of the waterfall made a beautiful pattern on the rock face.

Sunlight on Cliff

 

This massive chunk of rock protruding from the side of a cliff along the hike back seemed like it might be a little unstable.

Bulge on Cliff

Rock House 2

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Here are a few more pictures from Rock House. It is the only actual cave in the Hocking Hills area. It sits about halfway up a 150-foot-high cliff of Blackhand sandstone. The main corridor is about 200 feet long and 20 to 30 feet wide, with an average ceiling height of 25 feet.
 

This view shows one of the openings at the front of the cave and the cliff above it.

Cliff and Trees

Below you can see one of the "windows" from the inside of the cave.

Cave "Window"

This last picture looks up at the cliff on one side of the cave. Only moss and small ferns were able to hang on to the rocky side of the precipice.

Mossy Cliff

Rock House

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Since I'm done posting pictures from Newport Aquarium, I'll start back where I left off with photos from Hocking Hills. This next rock formation is known as Rock House. It's a long recess about halfway up a rock cliff lined with massive rock pillars along the front. It looked as if it would have made a perfect house for Native Americans hundreds of years ago.

This first picture looks out between two of the rock pillars at the forest outside. The cave was almost on the same level as the tops of the trees in the valley below.

Between Pillars

 

The view below is looking down the cave recess, with the rock pillars along the left opening out onto the cliff face.

Rock House

 

This picture shows part of the cliff on one side of Rock House. There were stone steps carved into the side of the cliff that gave access to it.

Cliff

Penguin Palooza

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The final exhibit actually held birds--and rather comical ones. It housed five species of Antarctic penguins. Unlike other birds, penguins have solid, dense bones that help keep them from floating. They're also covered in a layer of blubber and warm feathers to protect them from icy water. A penguin's diet consists mainly of crustaceans, fish, and squid.

 

The penguins mostly occupied themselves with preening their feathers or basking in the sunlight.

Penguin Palooza

These two penguins almost seemed to be involved in a conversation.

How do you do?

One penguin was brave enough to take a dip in the cold water.

Brrrrr...

Surrounded by Sharks

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The largest display, not only in terms of amount of water, but also the size of the inhabitants, was home to one of the largest kinds of fish: sharks. Unlike other fish, sharks must be constantly swimming in order to send water over their gills and keep themselves afloat in the water.

Sandbar Shark

 

This next fish is actually called a shark ray. The Newport Aquarium has more shark rays on display than anywhere else in the world.

Shark Ray

 

This loggerhead sea turtle was also at home in the shark exhibit. These turtles are considered an endangered species, not only because of increasing danger to the turtles, but also due to loss of suitable nesting beaches.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle

 

Here's another shark. I wouldn't want to get caught near those teeth! Sharks have multiple rows of teeth, so when one tooth is lost, another one moves forward to take its place.

 

 Sand Tiger Shark

Jellyfish Gallery

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In the next display, dozens of jellyfish floated in ceiling-high round tanks, making them observable from all sides. Different colored lights made the jellyfish stand out in rainbow colors against the dark background.

 

In this tank the light constantly changed color.

Jellyfish Tank

 

This lighter-colored jellyfish was in another tank, slowly swimming up and down the front.

Pink Jellyfish

 

Like the jellyfish, these anemone use their tentacles to capture food, but they anchor themselves to rocks or gravel.

Anemone

Coral Reef

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The coral reef section of the aquarium featured another walk-through glass tunnel surrounded by brightly lit coral, beautiful fish, and even a few manta rays.

The yellow fin on this little fish was a striking contrast to its blue body.

Blue Fish

Here's another colorful fish I found swimming among the coral.

Striped Fish

Several manta rays were gracefully gliding through the water as well.

Manta Ray