Parking
Use the signed Ash Cave parking area off OH-56. The marked gorge-and-rim loop starts from the lot and returns to it; restrooms and picnic facilities are nearby.
Overview
About Ash Cave Rim Trail
Why go
- A huge sandstone shelter and seasonal waterfall on a short loop.
Heads up
- Steep stairs make this short walk more strenuous than its distance suggests.
Ash Cave Rim Trail is a roughly 0.55-mile loop from the Ash Cave lot on OH-56. Follow the paved gorge path to the cave, climb steep steps just beyond it, then return along the upper rim. The stairs, not the distance, make this moderate; allow about 40 minutes. If you want to avoid the stairs, visit the cave on the lower gorge path and retrace it. That lower section is marked wheelchair-accessible; the full loop isn't.
Parkwolf’s verdictIs this the hike for you?Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Hocking Hills map
Full mapElevation760–867 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Hocking Hills Tour Guide
Your drive to Ash Cave Rim Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Hocking Hills State Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this trailhead
Ash Cave0:00 / 0:29
“Ash Cave is coming up, a sandstone amphitheater nearly seven hundred feet wide.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Hocking Hills Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Ash Cave Fire Tower
- The Walker behind the Trail
- Cedar Falls
- Whispering Cave and the Lodge
- 22 audio storiesacross Hocking Hills’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor White-tailed Deer, Snapping Turtle, Chipmunk, and 9 more
- Works offlinemaps, 18 trails, 29 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Ash Cave Rim Trail
Make the loopStay on the marked one-way route.
Stay on the marked one-way route. The steps take you from the cave floor to the rim, where the trail splits. Turn right to return to Ash Cave parking; left continues about 2.3 miles toward Cedar Falls, a different walk. Don't follow that branch if you're doing the short loop.
A massive sandstone shelterAsh Cave is a horseshoe-shaped recess in a cliff, about 700 feet wide, 100 feet deep and 90…
Ash Cave is a horseshoe-shaped recess in a cliff, about 700 feet wide, 100 feet deep and 90 feet high. The cave sits in Blackhand sandstone. Its softer middle band eroded away while the harder upper and lower layers held their shape, leaving the overhang above the sandy floor.
The name and its older usesEarly settlers found large deposits of ash on the cave floor, which gave the place its name.
Early settlers found large deposits of ash on the cave floor, which gave the place its name. An 1837 account estimated 300 to 400 bushels; how the ash accumulated is still uncertain. Archaeological evidence supports the cave's use as shelter, and Shawnee travelers used this area between villages in present-day Ohio and West Virginia. A large slump block called Pulpit Rock served as a Sunday-worship pulpit before a local church was built.
Waterfall and spring flowersA small tributary drops over the rim into a shallow pool; after a dry stretch, the waterfall…
A small tributary drops over the rim into a shallow pool; after a dry stretch, the waterfall can dwindle. In spring, look for trillium, Dutchman's breeches, trout lily and jack-in-the-pulpit on the shaded gorge floor. From the cave floor, frame the sandstone lip, waterfall and sandy floor together; the floor gives the overhang scale. The upper rim has a bird's-eye view into the cave.
At the trailheadRestrooms and picnic facilities are beside the Ash Cave lot.
Restrooms and picnic facilities are beside the Ash Cave lot. Dogs are allowed on a leash no longer than six feet. Trails open half an hour before sunrise and close half an hour after sunset.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Hocking Hills
16 sightingsWhite-tailed DeerMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
87 sightingsSnapping TurtleMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
14 sightingsChipmunkMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
19 sightingsGray RatsnakeMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
47 sightingsWatersnakeMost seen around 10 AMSighting map
11 sightingsRing-necked SnakeMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Hocking Hills. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
