Trail Review - Rock House at Hocking Hills State Park

We weren’t really sure what to expect, but this was an unexpected gem and my favorite of the three hikes we did. It was also the longest, but not by much. Maybe a .6 or .7 mile loop. It was a big parking lot with multiple levels, and not crowded at all. I thought there were bathrooms up the stairs from the parking lot, but it was a giant pavilion. Just when I was thinking I might have to drive somewhere else to pee, we saw the bathrooms. These were not nearly as nice as the ones at the other trailheads, but functional.

The Rock House, which I’d guessed was some historic home, turned out to be rock formations. The trail started behind the bathrooms and went downhill. This was the most dangerous path with small children because the trail really was on the edge of the cliff. So many of them love to run and have no fear, even of falling, and these were long dangerous drops.

When you get down there, it is exactly like there are little houses made of rock.

You can climb up in and peek out through gaps in the rock that look like fancy shaped windows.

It was a lot of climbing up and down rocks, so really fun for kids.

Ours had a blast and connected up with some other kids of similar ages to run around inside the rock house, to gather in smaller spaces that were like individual rooms, and to slide down different rocks.

They also had a terrific time trying to disturb the pigeons that were sitting in niches high up, looking like statues in a temple.

There were some terrific views from up above on a nearby overhang/cliff in the side of the rock.

After you cross the bridge...

There's a side trail (not much of a trail, but not too hard to navigate, though we did scale a fallen tree trunk) to get up there. The moss on the rocks made everything beautiful. But it wasn’t slippery, not like the wet rocks near the waterfalls we saw earlier.

This view was spectacular. You could see the bridge, ravine, and the stairs leading up to the rock formation on the other side, from where you’d just come.

On the way back, we spotted a family where the kids were using a downed log as a balance beam, so of course ours had to try that, too. This whole hike was really fun and the one I most highly recommend of the three we did here.