One of the most spectacular
features within the Hocking Hills Region, Conkle’s
Hollow with its sheer cliffs of Black Hand
sandstone rise nearly 200 feet above the valley
floor. The deep, cool gorge, which is only 100 feet
wide in places and is considered by some to be the
deepest in Ohio, has numerous waterfalls cascading
over its sandstone cliffs. This Gorge with its
sandstone has excellent vistas, spring flowers and
fern growths. The Lower Gorge is a 1-mile
handicapped accessible trail. The Cliffs that
overlook the Lower Gorge features the opportunity to
explore the many different habitats, each with its
own unique plant and animal communities.
Conkle’s Hollow History
About 350 million years
ago, this portion of Ohio lay under the waters of a
vast inland ocean. Rivers flowing into this ancient
sea carried coarse and fine grained sands,
depositing them in large wide deltas much like the
present day delta at the mouth of the Mississippi
River. Over millions of years, these sand deltas
were buried by finer textured silt and clay
sediments. Eventually these sedimentary deposits
were compressed to form a thick hard layer of sandy
textured rock, now referred to as Black Hand
sandstone.
Great forces of energy
within the earth caused the land surface to
gradually rise, eventually forming the present
Appalachian Mountains. As the ocean waters drained
away, the new land surface dried out and became
subject to the erosional processes of surface water
and climatic extremes.
The newly exposed sediments
were weathered away, layer by layer, and washed onto
some distant river delta. Today Black Hand sandstone
layers are the uppermost of these past sediments and
they in turn are being acted upon by erosional
forces.
Conkle's Hollow was
purchased in 1925 by the state of Ohio in order to
preserve its scenic beauty. In 1977, the site was
dedicated as a state nature preserve in the Hocking
Hills.
Directions:
Approximately 12 miles
south of Logan on State Rte 664, 1 mile north on
State Rte 374, and .25 mile east on Big Pine Rd to
the signed entrance