Tar Hollow State Park & Forest

Tar Hollow State Park and Forest was BEAUTIFUL even in the middle of winter. We explored about 60% of the park between hiking and driving. If you aren't able to hike or hike far, driving around (during the day and slowly!) was a very beautiful drive. We both agreed the drive in the fall would be SPECTACULAR!

We ended up staying for the "weekend" and celebrating New Year's Eve doing our family's favorite thing to do: adventuring! Our cabin the Cedar Cabin #HOCK which has an interesting historical background. According to their own page on the OhioDNR website, "During the Depression, recreation facilities like the resident camp facility at Tar Hollow State Park were built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the National Youth Administration (NYA) programs. In 1939, the Ohio Division of Forestry accepted operational control of the land, which was then known as Tar Hollow Forest-Park. The Tar Hollow Resident camp was considered by some to be the most beautiful log structure in Southeastern Ohio at the time.  It was built with chestnut logs and stone with a handmade roof of wooden shingles.  The resident camp has timber beams joined together using mortise and tenon joints and immense stone fireplaces. Door hinges were hand-wrought iron, and the lighting fixtures were also handmade. The resident camp received a significant renovation in 1983."

Frozen Suncatchers (Winter Fun Activity)

Step 1: Collect interesting twigs, acorns, leaves, and other nature items and place in bag or bucket.

Step 2: Place in a paper or plastic plate. You can make patterns with colors or sizes. You can also just toss it in toddler style! Once you have your nature items placed on your plate fill with water to the rim.

Step three: Place plates outside to freeze!

Step four: Wake up and go outside to check on your creations! Pop them off your plate and you can hang them if they froze really well. Our's froze, but it started to rain and it was melting them slowly.

Final result!

Tar Hollow would be an amazing park to visit during season because they have a lot of things to do, you could spend 1 day, a weekend, and even a week exploring and doing different things. Besides camping, fishing, hiking, and hunting there is also the ability to go boating, swimming, and picniking. If that wasn't enough there is also a full sized playground which looked really cool, basketball courts, 18 hold miniature gold course, bike and boat rentals, game room, and if you stay on the campground there is additional games and equipment you can rent.

The drive INTO the park, even in winter, is breathtaking!

We ended up spending two nights and were able to see a lot of the park (by driving) and some by hiking. One of the activities the boys enjoy doing on hikes besides collecting items in their buckets is trying to find animal tracks, animals or insects, and sometimes animal homes. We end up having discussions on what animals we think made them and sometimes when we fill in our field journal we look up the tracks to compare them and decide who made them. With the muddy and rainy weather we didn't find a lot of tracks, but we did find these two homes. The first we decided might be home to a snake or another small animal and the second home in the tree we decided might be a raccoon or fox. Most likely we are not correct, but it is fun to imagine. We watch "The Cat in the Hat" and "Wild Kratts" and between those two shows E knows quite a bit of animal trivia which makes the conversation even more interesting!

It was the perfect "weekend" to say good-bye to an adventurous 2020 and welcome a new fresh 2021!

#guentheradventures!