Just Right

On Saturday we left Kentucky, crossing the Ohio River on this lovely bridge into Ironton, Ohio.

We stayed one night at Oak Hill Campground in Wayne National Forest. Happily, we were able to level the camper by putting the rear wheels of the truck up on blocks, so we didn’t have to unhitch.

Sometimes we come to a place and stay a night or two and we wish we could stay longer. Sometimes we are booked for several days and after a couple of days we are ready to leave, but our itinerary has us staying longer.

This was a pretty area. The understory of the woods was full of redbuds.

And there was a lot of sassafras, one of my favorites that’s not too common. Notice this single plant has leaves that are entire, mitten shaped, and three lobed. The root of the sassafras is the original source of root beer. Although I would not dig one up, if you do the roots are very aromatic and do smell like root beer.

Early Sunday morning Matey and I hiked down the hill to the Rock House trail. We walked the length of this paved trail. Signs along the way explained how in the early 1800’s iron ore was dug out of the exposed ledges, the trees were cut down to make charcoal for furnaces and iron was produced from the ore. The slag was dumped in the ravines. In typical European fashion, once the ore was gone and the trees were all cut the area was abandoned. It has healed now and the trail was nice. The trail ended with this wooden walkway leading in to…

a huge overhang of rock, the “Rock House”.

It was pretty and rather dramatic.

Since the campground host told me this was the only trail from the campground that was not overgrown, I was glad to have been there and ready to move on. A one night stay was just right.