Whispering Cave

Written by Dani and Andrew Livelsberger

Photography by Andrew Livelsberger

Background:
The newest area in the Hocking Hills State Park region, Whispering Cave Trail and Hemlock Bridge Trail take you 250+ feet down to the second largest cave feature in he park.  Once there, you will see a 105 foot waterfall.

Impression:
From the beginning of Hemlock Bridge Trail, you'll start your decent.    There is a sign at the beginning preparing you for the hike.

Both new trails and the cave will get you about a 2.5 mile journey put and back.

Moderate difficulty?  Check
Good footwear?  Check
Plenty of steps?  Check

Still ready to go?  Trust us...you'll want to make the journey.  The day we went, was just after a storm.  The rocks and paths were still a bit muddy, but footing was solid.   Just do yourself a favor and don't be in a hurry.  One, for safety reasons, but the others is to take in all the sights and sounds.

After the initial descent, the trail goes through some wooded areas and brings you to a series of steps.  Just before we descended the steps we could here a rather large woodpecker putting in some work!!

At the bottom of the steps, you follow the trail off to the right.  A short ways down you'll be treated to a large sandstone cliff face.

The image above shows a sign directing you.  Following the trail closest to the cliff face will take you to Whispering Cave.  It's roughly 0.3 miles from this location.

Here is a wider view of the cliff face.  You can get a good judge of the size of it from the couple to image right.

Following the path, you'll need to decent some rocks.  They are step like, so you have some good foot holds.  You'll then come to a set of stairs.  Descend those to get into the cave itself.

From there, you'll be able to cross through the cave and see if from the other side.  When we were there, we found this Cairn, a human made pile of rocks used for various purposes throughout history.

And, again, from the far side of Whispering Cave, looking back.

Churches In Logan Ohio

Written and photography by:

Andrew Livelsberger

Background:

St. John's Catholic Church
351 North Market Street
Logan, OH 43138

First Presbyterian Church of Logan
2 West Hunter Street
Logan, OH 43138

Impression:

It was an unusually warm day for February in Ohio.  We woke to 30F, and the day showed promise of reaching 52F.

We were originally going to participate and cover the Winter Hike starting at Old Man's Cave, but after reading some reviews of last year - participation being 5000+, and word of this year being 7000+, it was decided that we would explore elsewhere.

Don't get us wrong, the Winter Hike is a great event, with a 6 mile hike, and drinks and bean soup at the half way point!  It was just not for us today.

Instead we hit downtown Logan area and decided to take a walk into some places we have never been before.  We've traveled into Logan quite a bit as we get into the Hocking Hills area a lot.  On this day, we decided to go into it and concentrate on some of the beautiful church exteriors.  2 in particular, the First Presbyterian Church of Logan and St. John's Catholic Church.

The sky was a beautiful blue this day and there were a few cloud formations throughout that day that made for interesting backgrounds for our images.

History on the First Presbyterian Church of Logan can be found on their website and is quite detailed for those interested.

What struck us about the building was the shine on the exterior bricks.  Looks like they were treated with some kind of varnish or clear coating.  Our guess is that this was done to protect the bricks from erosion.

Another point to investigate is the bell tower.  I've not encountered one like it before, which is enclosed and has several bells and not just one.

There are also some nice details in stone to investigate as well.

Now, we move on to the St. John's Catholic Church.

Up on one of the hills in Logan, you can see 2 of the large cemeteries from here.  Quite a bit taller than the First Presbyterian, due in large part to the bell tower.  The sidewalk in front of the church is below the level of the church on the hill, so you get an interesting angle.

Lots of "mini" towers and a fresco of Jesus Christ over the front door also set this church apart from others we have seen.

Above is a close up of the bell tower.

Here are some side and rear angles of the church.

If you would also like to see these and other images of the churches in color, you can visit our VisualOhio group over at Flickr.