Day trips in Ohio are amazing. In fact we try to take several in a season.
The reason? Because in Ohio you can be in many places within a few hours and experience something different in each. In fact, on some occasions, the drive from home to the intended destination can sometimes end up being the best part of the trip.
Being the navigator, I am typically to blame for us turning around or dawdling, because I invariably find some interesting fact or spot that is off a side road, down a winding lane or two. Next thing we know, we are 10 miles in a different direction than we were originally heading.
That’s exactly how we ended up on an afternoon hike at the Blackhand Gorge.
I asked Jon to turn down “Chicken Coop Road” because the name was humorous and piqued my curiosity as to what might be on a road with that name. Before we realized it we were north of interstate 70, deciding which route home we should take. We saw signs for the gorge and decided, why not?
The gorge itself is a 4-mile-long sandstone formation through which the Licking River cuts a narrow path moving east to west. It is part of a 956-acre preserve that is just a bend off the interstate, 12 miles east of Newark, near the tiny town of Toboso.
Here, one can enjoy 10 miles of trails, although they are not all connected, which allows for several shorter walks with all their own “hot spots” to explore. For those of us who love day trips, this makes for a prime return trip option.
Plus now you can explore for a day without having to feel rushed to see it all. The trail, built on a former rail corridor, has gentle grades, is paved and well-signed.
The Blackhand Gorge State Preserve has many interesting facets to it and also happens to be the only state nature preserve in Ohio to offer a bicycle trail. More than 4 miles of bike trail crosses the Blackhand preserve area. There are sights much like we have here around Richland County — a variety of terrains dotted with old woods, growth and moss covered rock walls.
It doesn’t take many steps onto the preserve’s trails to forget the moving world is not far off.
The preserve is rich in natural history as well as early Ohio. The area around the gorge was very important to both the modern Indian and the prehistoric Mound Builders in the state.
Rich deposits of flint found nearby at Flint Ridge made the Licking River system a strategically important transportation route even before the advance of white settlers. By 1929, the gorge had witnessed transportation evolving from the canal system to the steam rail engines and on to the electric interurban trolley line.
Sections of the canal towpath and canal locks may be seen from the trails along the river. The wooded hilltops are covered by oak-hickory mature woods, Virginia pine and Mountain Laurel. Yellow birch, cherry birch and eastern hemlock grow here as well. The walk to the tops of the hills is not laborious and the trek is excellent for viewing woodland spring wildflowers.
There is a simple waterfall that trickles at a good speed down the cliff face once you get past the railroad tracks.
The waters in the pools tucked among the hills throughout the preserve are turquoise at times. You don’t have to travel off the trail or far off to enjoy these pools, which are remainders of a large quarry on the south side of the preserve that was a source of silica for the Newark glass industry from the 1890s to the 1950s.
Along the north side of the river stands a massive sandstone cliff which once had a dark, hand-shaped Indian petroglyph that was engraved. This is the prime feature of the preserve and how it was named. Many Indian legends were passed on to early pioneers about the origin of the “black hand.”
It seems the most popular was that the hand marked the boundary of a sacred Indian Territory where no man was to raise his hand against another.
Unfortunately, the engraving was destroyed in 1828 during construction of the Ohio-Erie Canal towpath and the builders blasted the cliff face off to accomplish this task.
However, the sandstone cliffs are interesting to view because the sandstone has layers of milky white and smooth quartzite pebbles, causing the sandstone to resemble concrete that is streaked with reddish-orange iron stains and dark-black manganese stains where groundwater seeps out of the rock and becomes oxygenated.
The water below is not clear but varies in shades of blues. There are several vantage points where one can view these huge sandstone cliffs and I recommend seeing them from the bottom and top of the gorge because each is breathtaking in their own way.
Other places within the preserve offer views of the features of the Black Hand Sandstone. It is well exposed along both the Quarry Rim Trail and Blackhand Trail on the south side of the Licking River, particularly where the Blackhand Trail follows the path of the long-abandoned railway.
It was a great last-minute stop that we spent an enjoyable handful of hours exploring. The level of energy exerted was just what I needed to fight off the anxiousness of the approaching fishing season.
