Fall is a beautiful time of year and great for traveling to see the turning leaves, enjoying the scenery and snapping some great photos of the fall foliage. Last fall we took a long trip around Michigan, exploring small towns. This time we had a shorter trip planned and since it was a bit later, we went a bit more south for the Ohio fall foliage. We both have relatives there, we see them every now and then, and we’d driven through the state on our way to other places, but we had never really taken the time to see what else Ohio had to offer. Having only 5 days, we narrowed our choices down to Southeastern Ohio, and the Amish countryside.

Specifically, we went to the Hocking Hills in Ohio, a beautiful area where the most amazing gorges and caves have been carved out over eons by water and wind. There are six to explore, well laid out paths and stairs to climb down into the gorges and back up, and trails around the perimeter of the gorges as well, but we found those not as scenic as going down into them. In the spring there would be rivers and waterfalls, but in the fall there is only a trickle and puddles through the rocks, boulders and caves.

We had a gorgeous day to explore all of the caves, and we quickly realized that while all of our photos would be great, the only way to really tell how huge and magnificent the caves were was to have a person in them for reference. Entire villages could live in the shelter of each cave, and I’m sure they did. Above is just a sample of the beauty we saw that day.

We spent a full day in the Hocking Hills, but could have easily spent a week, there are cabins to rent, campgrounds, horseback riding, canoeing, zip-lines, and loads of trails to explore in the area. While our dogs would not have enjoyed it, there were lots of dogs with their families throughout the park.

After leaving that lovely area, we drove northward to Coshocton, and checked out historic Roscoe Village to do some shopping and take in a bit of history. Roscoe Village is on the site of a lock on one of the Ohio Canals, an important era in the history of the state. Nearby is the remains of the lock, part of a park, and we enjoyed walking down into it and visualizing what it must have looked like back in it’s heyday.

Then, it was on to Amish country, driving down windy, twisting roads- up hill and down, through the glorious fall weather, seeing farms, fields, cows, sheep, and the occasional horse and buggy.

We stopped in a few small towns and did some shopping, and of course spend a lot of time in Lehman’s Hardware in Kidron, an amazing place with the most useful stuff imaginable.

The trip back had us stopping to see a friend, checking out a local potter who uses a wood-fired kiln to finish all his work, and since it was on the way back, the Picking Copper Kettle Works in Bucyrus- the last remaining hand hammered copper kettle manufacturer in the US. The owner- 97 year old Helen, greeted us in the office and made arrangements for our personal tour. A really knowledgeable man gave us a tour of the place and we heard the history and loved seeing all of the machinery they were still using from 1912 in their original building.  Great place to visit!

It was a short but great trip, full of adventure and spontaneity, very inspiring. We had nothing planned but a loose route and a couple of destinations, the rest we made up as we went along, using the GPS to get from place to place. How fun is that?