By Trish Barber, Reader's Digest
Route Details
Length: About 170 miles.
When to go: Pleasant year-round.
Nearby attractions: Serpent Mound State Memorial, featuring an Indian mound built in the form of a huge snake, about 50 miles southwest of Chillicothe. The Wilds, a 9,100-acre conservation center with rare and endangered animals, about 20 miles north of McConnelsville on Rte. 284.
Further information: Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism, 77 South High St., P.O. Box 1001, Columbus, OH 43216; tel. 800-282-5393, www.ohiotourism.com.
When to go: Pleasant year-round.
Nearby attractions: Serpent Mound State Memorial, featuring an Indian mound built in the form of a huge snake, about 50 miles southwest of Chillicothe. The Wilds, a 9,100-acre conservation center with rare and endangered animals, about 20 miles north of McConnelsville on Rte. 284.
Further information: Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism, 77 South High St., P.O. Box 1001, Columbus, OH 43216; tel. 800-282-5393, www.ohiotourism.com.
Star Route
Covered Bridge Scenic Byway
A surplus of rural charms enhance the rolling terrain of the easternmost sector of Wayne National Forest, where the Covered Bridge Scenic Byway—Rte. 26—winds northward from Marietta. Tracking the Little Muskingum River, the drive passes family farms, small towns, and four of the old-time spans, one of which you can drive across. Here and there the road climbs ridges that provide sweeping views until, 44 miles later, the drive reaches its end in lovely Woodsfield.
Ohio sheds its urbane modern mask and reveals some of its old-time pioneer spirit along this drive, which threads through a region as varied and colorful as an antique mosaic. History is part of the landscape here, where covered bridges and mellow old buildings nestle in valleys that once echoed with the blasts of steamboat whistles. But the area’s past goes deeper still, back to a time when long-vanished Native American civilizations were a flourishing presence in these rugged hills.
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Ohio sheds its urbane modern mask and reveals some of its old-time pioneer spirit along this drive, which threads through a region as varied and colorful as an antique mosaic. History is part of the landscape here, where covered bridges and mellow old buildings nestle in valleys that once echoed with the blasts of steamboat whistles. But the area’s past goes deeper still, back to a time when long-vanished Native American civilizations were a flourishing presence in these rugged hills.
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Chillicothe
Named with a Shawnee tribal word that means “town,” Chillicothe first became the capital of the Northwest Territory, then the state of Ohio in 1803. It has since grown into a manufacturing center, with many reminders of its past still standing, including a number of stately 19th-century Greek Revival mansions. You’ll also find the home of Thomas Worthington, one of Ohio’s founding fathers. The lush grounds surrounding his 18-room mansion, known today as Adena State Memorial, overlook the Scioto River valley.
Only three miles separate Adena from Mound City at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. In terms of time, though, the distance is actually some 2,000 years. The grassy mounds, surrounded by an earthen wall, were built by Hopewell Indians for burials and other ceremonies. Excavations have unearthed a treasure trove of artifacts, yet no one knows for certain where the Hopewells came from or to whence they disappeared.
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Only three miles separate Adena from Mound City at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. In terms of time, though, the distance is actually some 2,000 years. The grassy mounds, surrounded by an earthen wall, were built by Hopewell Indians for burials and other ceremonies. Excavations have unearthed a treasure trove of artifacts, yet no one knows for certain where the Hopewells came from or to whence they disappeared.
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Hocking Hills State Park
From Chillicothe the drive heads east on Rte. 50, then follows Rte. 327 north to the access road for Tar Hollow State Park, named for the tar that pioneers collected from the shortleaf and pitch pines that grow on the ridges. Motorists can pause to sample the area’s mix of lakes and forests or continue north to Laurelville and Rte. 180 in quest of other treasures of the region.
A turn southeast on Rte. 374 leads to Hocking Hills State Park, 2,000 acres filled with waterfalls, deep gorges, and unusual caves and sandstone formations that give this part of Ohio a grandeur as dramatic as it is unexpected. Eastern hemlocks, mountain laurels, ferns, and rare wildflowers thrive in the moist, wooded hollows—the haunts of both red and gray foxes and more than 100 species of birds.
The park is divided into six separate areas, each named for a distinguishing landmark—Rock House, for example, or Conkle’s Hollow. At Old Man’s Cave the visitor center overlooks a creek, whose racing water has carved a gorge two miles long, with several waterfalls. From the Lower Falls hikers can traverse the Buckeye Trail through a series of rugged, hemlock-shaded valleys. At trail’s end the view takes in the 50-foot-high veil of Cedar Falls.
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A turn southeast on Rte. 374 leads to Hocking Hills State Park, 2,000 acres filled with waterfalls, deep gorges, and unusual caves and sandstone formations that give this part of Ohio a grandeur as dramatic as it is unexpected. Eastern hemlocks, mountain laurels, ferns, and rare wildflowers thrive in the moist, wooded hollows—the haunts of both red and gray foxes and more than 100 species of birds.
The park is divided into six separate areas, each named for a distinguishing landmark—Rock House, for example, or Conkle’s Hollow. At Old Man’s Cave the visitor center overlooks a creek, whose racing water has carved a gorge two miles long, with several waterfalls. From the Lower Falls hikers can traverse the Buckeye Trail through a series of rugged, hemlock-shaded valleys. At trail’s end the view takes in the 50-foot-high veil of Cedar Falls.
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Lake Hope State Park
The drive slices into the wooded valley of Big Sandy Run on Rte. 56, then dips southward on Rte. 278 to reach Lake Hope. Cradled amid low, rounded hills, the lake is a favorite with swimmers and boaters. Birders also flock to the surrounding parkland, where cardinals (Ohio’s state bird) flash through foliage, wild turkeys gobble in the underbrush, and the hollow tappings of pileated woodpeckers, largest of their genus, reverberate through the forest.
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