chasing waterfalls in Ohio

Toward the beginning of summer Jeff and I made a little goal to visit as many waterfalls in Ohio as possible. We’re two people who are easily defeated by the heat. It’s super easy for me to feel anxious about wasting a beautiful day just because I don’t have a solid plan. This waterfall goal turned out to be exactly what we needed!

“Let’s go find a waterfall!” became the go-to when we didn’t know what to do on the weekends. It was a reason to get out of bed early, and an excuse to get some exercise. Most parks usually had geocaches so that was an awesome bonus. Lets not forget the post-falls donuts and coffee either! Seriously, I’m going to be sad when we’ve hit them all. It’s been a blast!

We’ve crossed ten waterfalls off our list so far, which I think is a pretty darn impressive number. The majority of others left in Ohio are a bit more of a drive so they’ll have to be planned a little better. Everything we have seen could probably be revisited after a large rain though. It’s been a very dry summer here which obviously means all the falls are looking a little weaker than normal. Most were still definitely worth the trip but I don’t think there is anyone who wouldn’t prefer a roaring waterfall as opposed to one just trickling.

East Falls of the Black River

so far this summer we’ve visited – Indian Run Falls, Paine Falls, Great Falls of Tinkers Creek.
Honey Run Falls, Hayden Falls, Brandywine Falls, East and West Falls of the Black River, and Big and Little Lyon Falls.

most impressive – West Falls of the Black River. Oddly enough, not pictured in this post.  Half of the falls were shaded and the other half in bright sun at the time we visited. I took a crappy photo just to have but the lighting was all wrong. It was easily my favorite we visited though. It’s a beautiful hike to get to it and even after a very dry summer it was still pretty impressive. I’m very much looking forward to going back!

least impressive – Little Lyon Falls… well, Big Lyon too! Also not pictured in this post. Okay, so perhaps the lack of rain attributed to this, as well as the heat of the day but daaang, that was a long hot hike just to see water drip over the edge. It didn’t help that Jeff wasn’t feeling very well, due to aforementioned heat, so when we finally got there I couldn’t help but let out a defeated whimper of a laugh. Maybe visiting after a huuuuge rain would be best for these two? I don’t know. All I know is I’m in no rush to go back.

I’m still struggling to love summer. I think I’d like it at least a little bit more if I had air conditioning. It’s just hard to enjoy anything when you’re sweating for no reason, ya know? Visiting waterfalls definitely made summer a million times more tolerable to me though. I can’t wait to hunt down a few more.
xoxo