New Concord Reservoir

The New Concord Reservoir is located off of Shadyside Dr. and can be found hidden from the road. This quaint little spot is perfect for a place to explore the outdoors in a smaller setting. A trail about 1 mile long wraps around the lake near the shore line. The trail is filled with great views of the Reservoir, has multiple bridges for accessible hiking, and has several park benches. If you tend to go off the beaten path, make sure you are equipped with waterproof shoes, as near the shoreline is extremely marsh-like. During our experience, there was some type of event going on on the upper level of the reservoir, with several tents set up. This would be a great place to hold a larger event because of the large amount of land and pavilion that is open to the public. One thing that I found interesting was that through different parts of the trail were posts that labeled the different types of trees nearby. Although the trail is very short, it is well maintained and a fun little walk. Overall, the reservoir is a good place to have a picnic, or to just enjoy the day for a little while.

Salt Fork State Park

Salt Fork State Park is a state park located in Guernsey County with over 17,000 acres. It is Ohio's largest state park and offers a variety of different activities for the public including camping, kayaking, swimming, lodging, golfing, and of course, hiking! In my experience, it has been a great place to spend free time exploring different trails, and hiking routes. The particular trails that I chose are Stone House Loop and Hosak's Cave.

The Stone House Loop trail is centrally located in Salt Fork and in total is 1.8 miles in length. This turned out to be a great length for what my friends and I were looking for. It was long enough to explore different areas and stop for a few snacks, but definitely short enough that we still had energy left at the end. The hike was 1 mile to the Stone House, which is a historical building built in 1840 and is now used as a monument and tourist site, and 1 mile hike back. The trail was very clearly marked and very easy to stay on track, yet had a varying terrain filled with rocks, roots, leaves, mud, puddles, bridges, and everything else that could add an obstacle on the trail. Although with this slight rugged terrain, it turned out to be very beginner friendly. On our excursion, we had passed several kids with their parents exploring the Stone House site, and even passed several dogs on the trail. I highly recommend old hiking shoes or boots for this time of year on the trail because the amount of mud we had on our shoes was insane! Overall, this loop was great and is geared towards beginners and tourists looking for the Stone House. The views of the lake on this trail were great, and although I wouldn't recommend this trail for a grand trek, we definitely had fun with this one!

The second trail we hiked, Hosak's Cave, is located more north in the park and was a short 0.5 miles long. This little trail opens up to a beautiful viewing of Hosak's Cave, and provides a massive atmosphere in which you can appreciate nature and all of its beauty. Although the trail stops well ahead of the cave, we went off-road and continued towards the cave. The path was extremely rugged, in which we had to duck under fallen trees, jump from rock to rock, and cross through several streams just to arrive at the basin of the cave. It had just warmed up after several days of below freezing, so the small waterfall coming down had collected into a giant column of ice. Of course, we couldn't just stop there and continued up under the cave to look back at the trail. One of my friends, who is fairly new to hiking and exploring trails, mentioned that she absolutely loved the view and realized that this was a freeing break from a stress-filled day. Our experience with Hosak's Cave was very positive and we all were amazed with the awesome views.

"The reward is your destination." -Marla Anders