Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio
The scenic features of the six areas of the Hocking Hills State Park complex are carved in the Blackhand sandstone. This bedrock was deposited more than 350 million years ago as a delta in the warm shallow sea which covered Ohio at that time. Subsequent millions of years of uplift and stream erosion created the awesome beauty seen today.
Hocking Hills State Park features caves, towering cliffs, waterfalls, and deep, hemlock-shaded gorges. Ice age glaciers never reached this area but changed the climate of all Ohio to a moist, cool environment. Upon their retreat, this condition persisted only in a few places such as the deep gorges of Hocking County. Therefore, the towering eastern hemlocks, the Canada yew and the yellow and black birch tell of a cool period 10,000 years ago.
The sandstone varies in composition and hardness from softer, loosely cemented middle zone to harder top and bottom layers. Old Man’s Cave is carved in the softer middle zone.
Rock House is about 6 miles from the Old Man’s Cave area. This House of Rock has a ceiling 25 feet high while the main corridor is 200 feet long and 20 to 30 feet wide. Rock House has seven Gothic-arched windows and great sandstone columns which bear its massive roof. There is ample evidence this cave was used by Native Americans.
