Happiness is living close to some beautiful state park hiking trails. I complain a lot about the tourists but there’s a reason why they flock from all over the country.

It’s gorgeous here.

There are three parks that are about 20 to 30 minutes from my home and I like to sneak in after work and after the visitors have cleared out. There’s no better to way to decompress after a long day than a couple of miles on a rocky, wooded trail.

Because these parks are extremely crowded, ODNR has taken steps to make social distancing easier in some of the more populated areas. For example, the trail to Ash Cave, where this picture was taken, is now one way. Normally I would skip seeing Ash Cave and instead hop on a trail that goes up the ridge and a couple of miles to another park.

The one way trail forced me to walk with the visitors and see Ash Cave before heading up some wooden stairs and to my target.

Honestly, the detour was a bit annoying but I hadn’t seen Ash Cave in a couple of years and I got a picture out of the deal.