Rocky Fork State Park & Paint Creek State Park

Rocky Fork State Park and Paint Creek State Park are both close to each other in the southwest corner of Ohio. We really enjoyed Rocky Fork State Park and unfortunately did not get to spend a lot of time at Paint Creek State Park.

Stamina = IMPORTANT

One of the struggles we are experiencing with hiking and toddlers is their stamina. While we might have the enthusiasm, we struggle with the walking. When our littlest is done hiking he just will sit in the middle of the path. Doesn't matter where we are or how we the ground is, he just sits. Either way, what ends up happening is mom carrying this little boy the rest of the way. He doesn't last quite a mile or at least a little over before he is pooped. One of our long term goals is to visit the National Parks throughout our life and these travels and adventuring that we take to our State Parks is the way we are building up STAMINA and learning the best ways to.... everything.

The best scavenger hunts, learning activities, things to bring, things you don't need to bring, and more. So while we learn, we are also building up stamina for longer walks and longer hikes. We are becoming official to, look below at my AMAZING hat --->

Rocky Fork State Park, according to OhioDNR, "Rocky Fork State Park is an area steeped in Ohio’s rich Native American history. The land provided abundant game and a ready transportation system in the nearby creeks and rivers. “Seven Caves” and nearby Rocky Fork Gorge attracted visitors even in the mid-1800s. At the turn of the century, Colonel Walter H. Hutchins, a regular visitor to the area from Cincinnati, first dreamed of creating a lake near McCoppin’s Mill."

One of the cool features of Rocky Fork State Park is their Bird Observation Area and Trail. We spent the majority of our time at this part of the park and we did a quick exploration of the campground for future plans! Along the trail was a bird blind that overlooked the (overflowing) lake and within this little protection we were able to look out and watch for bird or even frogs jumping into the water. Amazingly, we were able to get both boys quiet for 30-second periods of times we could hear a woodpecker!One of the things that we experienced on this trail was footprints. We used our animal tracking cards, printable here, and identified "who coulda made that footprint?!" E loves CAT IN THE HAT and I think I have seen that episode enough times that I could sing the little song and so every-time we come across a footprint that song is stuck in my head for a few hours. It is from season 1 of Cat in the Hat called "Chasing Rainbows and Follow the Prints."

Little one was way too tired to explore much of Paint Creek State Park so that is on the list to revisit, but we did get to take a "driving tour" of Cave Rd. Cave Rd is part of these two parks and have a lot of c o o l rock formations and CAVES to see and E loved to guess which animals lived inside of them.

It was a one lane road and we were able to see THICK vines, small bridges forgotten by time, and part of the gorge (which was our original goal) when we set out to see Paint Creek State Park.

Here is what OhioDNR has to say, "The Paint Creek region lies at the very edge of the Appalachian Plateau. This escarpment marks the boundary between the hilly eastern section of the state and the flatter western portions. Most of the plateau in southeastern Ohio was never reached by glaciers, although the Paint Creek area bears evidence of glacial activity. One stream near the park, Rocky Fork Creek, was blocked by glacial ice and reversed direction, rapidly cutting the 75-foot gorge seen today."