Every time we travel down to the Hocking Hills, I kick myself for not getting down there more often. The drive is so quick from Columbus, and in no time at all you’re amongst the rolling hills, the caves, trails, restaurants, and cabins.
While we’ve enjoyed the breweries, hikes, and food of Hocking Hills, especially our stays at The Inn & Spa at Cedar Falls, there’s one regional specialty we have not yet enjoyed:
The Hocking Valley Scenic Railway!
I have always, always loved trains. And I’ve passed that love on to my boys. We’ve ridden subways, holiday trains, monorails, but we just haven’t made it to the Hocking Valley railway. An early weekend in November afforded us a unique opportunity to ride the train pulled by their newly restored steam engine.
The restored depot in Nelsonville is your meeting place for the train. You can usually buy tickets the day of, but it’s recommended purchasing them ahead of time, especially for specialty rides like the steam engine, holiday trains, or the fall scenic tours. Try to arrive early so you can enjoy the small museum inside the depot and check out the other train cars parked in the yard.
For this train ride, we had the option of the closed cars or an open-air car. When chatting with one of the volunteers ahead of time, he recommended the open air car, to get the full experience.
On the ride out, the car was first in line behind the engine and the coal tender. This meant it would be a little breezy, and – as we didn’t fully appreciate until later – that we’d be getting the authentic experience of soot and ashes floating around – but we powered through and it was fun.
Besides, we were pretty well bundled up, so the ride was still enjoyable.
The ride is just under two hours – one hour out and one back down the same stretch of track. It rolls you through the scenery of the Hocking Hills.
Past several small towns. We could tell, rolling past Haydenville, that this was a former mining company town. Along one stretch we could see the houses were all built in the same era and style. Towns like Haydenville were completely owned by the company, from the homes to the stores. Employees lived in one of the homes and were paid in currency that could only be used at the town stores.
Elsewhere, we rolled past open fields.
At the halfway point, they disconnected the steam engine from the front and parked it briefly on a side track. The engineers examined it all over before rolling it to the other end of the train and re-connecting it for the ride back to Nelsonville depot.
That point was perfect to get a good look at it and fully appreciate how much work it required (the HVSR took three years to restore it) to operate an engine like this.
Keep in mind that the regular routes use their diesel engine; the steam engine was a special ride offered on select fall weekends. Look up their train list to see the regular and seasonal routes.
Because we were now the “caboose” of the train, the ride was a little quieter and less smokey on the way back.
We didn’t know until they made an announcement halfway through that, on the way back, the train would pass the Nelsonville depot and stop at the Robbins Crossing historical site a couple miles away at Hocking College. The train was to linger there for 45 minutes before returning to the depot. I do wish they had made that more clear, because we were limited on time. Beth and the boys hung out with the train (and the engineers welcomed Owen up into the cab!) while I hoofed it back to the depot to get our van.
Of course, the brisk walk offered me some lovely views of the bridges and trails running alongside the train tracks.
And past their workhouse where the trains live and where the team restores old train cars.
Once I picked up our van, I drove back to pick up the fam, we grabbed dinner on-the-go, then drove the half hour toward Old Man’s Cave to…
…the John Glenn Astronomy Park!
Opened in June of 2018, this park has been on our radar ever since we saw executive director Brad Hoehne speak at an event several months back. The park is located just down the road from Old Man’s Cave, and in season it offers star-gazing programs on weekend evenings.
The official programs are done for 2018, but their website says they’ll resume on March 1, 2019. However, it is still open to the public, so you can bring your telescope or just sit under the stars.
The park layout is very simple. A long parking lot lies off the road. There are two small buildings – one for restrooms and one housing the large telescopes – then a large circular plaza.
The programs are free, although you’re required to register through their site ahead of time, mainly to reserve parking. When we booked our Hocking Valley Scenic Railway tickets, we noticed the weather would be perfectly clear, so we tacked on the visit to the Astronomy Park.
Director Hoehne was joined by several amateur astronomers with their telescopes, which they set up all around the plaza.
As the sun went down, the director welcomed everyone and introduced the night’s program. Using the plaza, he demonstrated the scale of the solar system to everyone. He recruited volunteers to hold the various planets, and Owen got to hold Earth! Hoehne paced out the distance from the sun, quickly lining up Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These planets quickly stretched out from the plaza to the long green space beyond it. To demonstrate Jupiter, he had to send a volunteer to the far end of the park; they disappeared into the darkness as they walked to the treeline. And that was only Jupiter!
It’s hard to get photos of the star-gazing once the sun went down, but thanks to director Hoehne and the volunteers were able to spy Mars, Saturn, the Andromeda galaxy, star clusters, and other features of the night sky. The evening was so crisp and clear that we could see Saturn’s rings in sharp detail – it almost looked fake. The roof of the small building housing the main telescope slides backward to reveal the telescope. The director pointed it at various stars and clusters, then invited guests to climb the small ladder to look into the eyepiece.
It’s really an amazing experience, and once programs return in 2019, we’d highly recommend it (especially if you catch good weather like we did). And although the official programming is done for the year, the park is still open for visitors, so you can spy out the Milky Way or bring your telescopes.
Steam trains and star-gazing in the Hocking Hills. It’s a great pairing!
—–
Look up more on the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway: https://www.hvsry.org
Look up more on the John Glenn Astronomy Park: https://jgap.info
