Worth the Wait, Part 1

Last week I headed down again to the hollows in the state forest just north of Cantwell Cliffs. Without the leaves on the trees or much undergrowth I had a better chance to get the true lay of the land. I headed back there on Tuesday to make sure I visited the last hollow, the one I’d always gotten turned around for when I’d tried to visit it before.

I succeeded, and it was worth the wait.

[I’m going to be writing about this hike in two parts. I got so many good pictures I want to split them between two blog posts. The funny thing is, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have any pictures at all. In my viewfinder, they were all looking distorted. Fortunately, it looks like that distortion was related to the viewfinder, not the camera lens.]

Here in central Ohio we got about 1½ inches of rain that just ended Tuesday morning. But then the sun came out, so it was worth heading out for a hike before the rains returned late in the evening.

And of course, bare feet don’t care whether you’re hiking on wet or dry ground.

Down in the hollow, the creeks were pretty full.

Post-Rain Creek Bed

Admittedly, it’s not like that’s a river, but it is a lot more than is usually there. The other nice thing about this hike is that all the creeks had more water than usual, including the waterfalls.

Let me put up a map of the route I took.

Into the Last Hollow

I traversed it counterclockwise, and really didn’t have a lot of trouble keeping track of exactly where I was. Once I oriented myself at the juncture of the two major creeks, I headed up to point “M”.

Along the way the iridescence of this beetle caught my eye.

Blister Beetle

As far as I can tell, that is some sort of blister beetle. No, I did not antagonize it to find out for sure.

I’d been up at point “M” before. Here’s the picture I took back in July of 2013, from Into the Cantwell Cliffs Wilderness.

Prong

This trip I took a picture up into that gap.

The λ Crack

This is just one of the typical features one sees throughout the Hocking Hills.

From there I headed along the south side of Henley Hollow, just below the rock faces. At point “T” I came across a small gap in the rock that I think I’ll call “the grotto”.

Approaching the Grotto

There was a fair bit of water coming down this . . . from somewhere.

It was the inside that was most fascinating.

The Grotto

You can see why I call it “the grotto”. It was quite unique to me. Somehow that cascade of water (when it was running) managed to carve out that bowl-shaped crevasse with a little bathtub at the bottom.

Near the grotto was this interesting formation. It’s as if some sort of chalky, poorly-cemented material had gotten mixed in with the normal Blackhand sandstone.

Super-Flake

When I was there last week, I found quite a few white trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum). This time I found myself in red trillium (Trillium erectum) territory.

Red Trilliums

There were also jack-in-the-pulpits (Arisaema triphyllum) coming up. Here’s one with its hood.

Jack-in-the-Pulpit

But slightly further along I came upon one that hadn’t opened up yet.

Shy

Fascinating.

I found that one farther up the hollow towards the waterfall, but also farther down the hollow (in elevation) as I approached the stream.

As usual when these hollows narrow down, the only easy place to walk is right in the stream bed. Bare feet to the rescue! Then I turned a corner and the entrance to the waterfall area came into view. Now I am getting really close to approaching point “U”.

Approaching the Waterfall

That photo is a stitched composite. [Click for the larger version.] You can maybe see that the water itself is originating farther on the left, up underneath the rocks there.

But if you look closely, you might also spot a field of trilliums right near the bottom of the photo. Here they are closer up.

Field of Trilliums

Those are all red trilliums, even the white ones. (?) You can tell because white trilliums have a white center, regardless. Red trilliums can come in a white-petaled variety, but the center is always red.

At this point I headed up the flow, where it was emerging from under a rock overhang. There was plenty of room. And walking along there is done best in bare feet.

This is what it looked like looking back from where I’d entered.

Creek Bed Under the Overhang

And here I’m going to leave you for a bit. This is about half my pictures for the hike (and it was a lot). You’ll see the rest of this spectacular hike next week.