Visit

Cave Canyon  

Where the Forest tells its story

                              Visitor Gateway to the

3,000 acre Arc of Appalachia  preserve system

The Arc of Appalachia Preserve System has recently acquired the historic private park of 7 Caves, now known as Cave Canyon Nature Preserve. The master plan for Cave Canyon is for it to serve as the first interpretive facility ever for the world's temperate broadleaf forests, the most imperiled of all the earth's fourteen biomes and home to all of us living in the Eastern United States.

The Cave Canyon preserve lies in the heart of the Highlands Nature Sanctuary, the Arc's largest  preserve region centered around the exceptionally scenic Rocky Fork Gorge. The natural area of  Cave Canyon is open to the public during our open season, April through October, during the days and hours listed below.


 

For one general admission fee, visitors may enjoy:

Ñ Three breathtakingly beautiful Self Guided Trails
Ñ Appalachian Forest Museum and the Art &  Nature Book Shop
Ñ Access to the Cliff Deck, overlooking the Rocky Fork Gorge
 Ñ Audiovisual trail orientation on the Eastern Forest

Other options for a small additional fee, beginning in June:
Ñ 1850 Frontier Naturalist -- A eco-theatrical guided hike
Ñ Jr. Frontier Naturalist Activity & Discovery Book
                for self-guided trailside activities


Trails at Cave Canyon lead into some of the the Eastern Forest's most stunning scenery -- sheer vertical walls of a limestone canyon, waterfalls, towering hemlocks, strange and wonderful rock formations, and ancient cedar trees clinging to the rim of the gorge. The region is known for its small caves, 23 in all, which have been returned to darkness and are now being restored as  habitat for native bats and other cave dwellers. Although visitors will be able to walk past the entrance of their dark mouths, cave exploration is not included among our offerings. For more information on the natural history of the Rocky Fork Gorge, please click here.


Program content at Caves Canyon is  especially designed for the education and enjoyment of families, engaging the minds and hearts of both children and adults. To arrange group visits for children or adults programming, please call Tim at 937-365-1935.  


The Three Self Guided Trails are as follows.

All trails are narrow, but are relatively level except for a few flights of stone stairs. Unless you have knee or hip problems, you should be able to navigate them. Sorry, pets are not allowed in the preserve.

Valley of the Ancients -- a rock-lined trail curves down to the Rocky Fork Creek, winding through the bottom of a 100 foot high vertical dolomite gorge. Walk beneath towering hemlocks and rare white cedar trees of great antiquity, viewing the art of breathtaking panoramas sculpted from the elements of rock and water. .25 mile loop 

Etawah Woods Loop Trail -- This trail offers a breathtaking trek along the rim of the Rocky Fork Gorge, with beautiful views of the canyon floor.  Mid-way is a spur that takes you down a long flight of stairs into the canyon, below giant hemlocks, and eventually right up to the water, where one can enjoy the famous geologic feature known as the three sisters – three giant slumpblocks mid-stream. .33 mile loop

Big Beech Loop Trail -- See the forest through the eyes of a frontier naturalist while walking through an authentic old-growth Beech Forest.  Walk by ancient towering Tulip Poplars and massive Beech trees –  such a rare experience in modern Ohio! This is not just a forest of old trees, but an intact ecosystem and forest community. .25 mile loop

 

 

Guided Trail -- led  by William Sullivant, Frontier Naturalist or a
  Ranger Naturalist with the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System

Cave Canyon Trail -- featuring springs, sinkholes, cave entrances in a verdant steep-walled canyon.   A fairy-land of geologic beauty and rare botanicals.   Caves are one of Ohio’s rarest and most disturbed of all of its native ecosystems. Because we are a nature preserve system and are actively restoring the caves as wildlife habitat (bats and others), we do not actively explore the caves.We will, however, walk by their cool, dark entrances, and we walk partway into one of them so that visitors can experience the feeling of darkness, mystery, and coolness.  The trail is about 1/4 mile long, and guided hikes generally take about an hour

Eco-Theatrical Hike-- offered on summer weekends only-- Take a walk with Ohio frontier naturalist, William Sullivant, as together you explore and record the rich natural history of lush Cave Canyon.  Travel to the mid-1800's when the memory of the unbroken Eastern wilderness was still alive, and fragments of the ancient forest remained.

 

General Admission
 Includes Museum facilities, orientation slide presentation, and three trails available for hiking on one's own
 $10.00 adults, $5.00 for children 15 and under (3 and under FREE)

***April 19 and 20 only, pricing and options are modified due to a special, pre-register event, The Annual Wildflower Pilgrimage ( see link on home page for details).  Only 2 self guided trails will be available at a time, and there will be no guided hikes offered.  Due to this alteration, the admission fee is dropped to $7 adult and $3 for youth.***
 

Additional Guided Hike Option
$5.00 adults, $3.00 youth

Children must be accompanied by parents. Children's groups, please contact us for special arrangments.
Because Cave Canyon is a protected ecosystem for native flora and fauna, sorry, pets are not permitted.

Please note that the park is not open every day --  see schedule below for hours.
Help us protect this delicate natural area by not visiting other than during published times.


Days of Operation, 2008

Open Saturday and Sunday from April 5th to October 26th
Doors open between 10:30am - 4:00 pm, facility closing and visitors departing by 5:00 pm.
Also open Memorial Day and Labor Day
There are no food concessions--please bring water and packed lunches.
Picnic tables available to guests, please pack out all trash and separate out recyclables
Please inquire about compost for food scraps.

Also Open on Thursday and  Fridays from June 1st through August 31st
same hours as above
For more information, please call our general information line at 937-365-1935.

 

 

The Story behind 7 Caves & Cave Canyon

please also see the Rocky Fork Gorge

The 100-year old private cave-tourist park named 7 Caves in 1928  has been long admired for  its wealth of rare plants, deep dolomite gorge and authentic caves. It is the very same property whose ’For Sale Sign’ triggered the founding of The Arc of Appalachia Preserve System back in 1995.  At that time, though  the non-profit organization was formed to buy and protect the 60-acre park, the $1.2 million price tag was way above its means. As a compromise, only the perimeter land around the park was purchased — 47 acres in all — leaving  13 acres in private hands to continue operating as a tourist attraction. In the years that followed, the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System grew from 47 acres to 3000, completely surrounding the 13-acre in-holding. To have an opportunity to purchase this natural landmark and reunite it with the rest of the gorge was long our organization's heartfelt aspiration. Finally in 2004 and 2005 we began raising funds to accomplish our the long-held vision.

The Past.  The cavern-rich region of the Rocky Fork Gorge attracted the attention of  European settlers early in our state’s history. In the early 1800’s local families would follow the Rocky Fork upstream to access the scenic gorge, exploring the mud-laden caves with lanterns, and even holding dances in the grotto of Dancing Cave. Early entrepreneurs named the cave system Highland Caves and eventually charged an entrance fee of 10 cents to tourists traveling by horseback and carriage who came to explore this natural wonder from farther away. By the 1890’s, visitors would stay at the Rocky Fork Hotel in the little town of Paint on State Route 50, wading up the Rocky Fork with fishing poles and picnic baskets, or they would ride horses along the rutted path that would eventually become Cave Rd. Unfortunately during this time period, extensive damage was done to the small caves. Every one of the thousands of stalactites were removed by careless visitors.

 In 1928, Clyde Chaney from Indiana made a trip to Ohio that seeded the beginning of dramatic changes for the Highland Caves. He came to visit relatives living in nearby Bourneville, and, of course, family activities included a trip to the popular caves. Clyde immediately fell in love with the hemlock gorge, the fern-draped rocks, and the sunken caves — and, in them he saw expansive possibilities. He returned to Indiana and persuaded five investors to fund the purchase of the caves — resulting in the Chaney’s permanent move to Ohio.

 Over an unbroken period of twenty-five years, Clyde and his family developed the gorge into a first-class tourist destination which he named Seven Caves. Clyde improved the trace that led to the caves from Route 50, building a road that could accommodate motor traffic. He cleared mud from the caves, improved the trails with rock steps and rock walls, ran electricity into the caverns, and engraved wooden signs that named the rock features with words that sparked children’s imaginations. These changes actually helped to preserve the beauty of the area, as visitors were now encouraged to stay on the trails. In short order, wildflowers grew right up to the trail edges.

More controversially, he then raised the price to 25 cents, despite protests from the local community. Chaney’s resourceful use of advertising — including placing signs and arrows along Rt. 50 all the way to Indiana, and stapling advertisements to visitors’ wooden car bumpers — helped people discover the caves from beyond the local neighborhood; most of whom found the rock formations, refreshing scenery, and mysterious caves well worth the price of admission.

 Clyde passed away at the young age of 59 in 1951. The following year the Seven Caves was sold to Robert Judkins. The Judkins family continued to improve and promote the caves during the heady days of the 70’s — when the popularity of family camping and state park vacations reached an all-time peak. Tucked between Rocky Fork State Park and Pike State Park — the Seven Caves served as a bustling tourist attraction all summer long. In 1981 the Judkins passed the torch to Chet and Cherry Miller, who were the last private owners of 7 Caves, operating the historic attraction for almost 25 years.  Under the care of these three families, thousands and thousands of families and children have been exposed to the beauty of nature and the magic of the region’s caverns.

 It is difficult to find words that can communicate the magic and ambience of the caves. Not in the least has their geologic and botanical beauty diminished over the years. Water continues to bring the gorge to life — as revealed in the valley’s sparkling waterfalls, the morning mist that spills over canyon walls, and the cold springs and seeps that make this protected canyon a botanical paradise. Ancient white cedars still cling to the cliff’s precarious rim, and towering hemlocks remain guardians at its base. And the seven caves — portals to the underground — still yawn mysteriously among the fern-draped canyon walls of Sullivantia Run.

 In April, wildflower displays remain the best in the state. The most spectacular floral display is what is known as the Pyramid of the Trilliums. Here large-flowered trilliums tumble out of a side valley in incomprehensibly high numbers. Earlier in the spring, the rare and diminutive snow trilliums can be seen clinging to the bare gray rocks. By summer these vertical dolomite rocks are so densely blanketed with bulblet ferns, wild hydrangea, and ginger that the rocks are hidden until the heavy frosts of November sweep the rock faces clean once again.   

The Future. Even for the caves, time passes and the years move on. Today’s modern youth are less familiar with Chaney’s imaginative storybook characters than were the children of the forties and the fifties. Despite the immeasurable joy and service Seven Caves had gifted the world over the decades, forces were in motion that make change inevitable as attendance began a slow decline after 1980.  In 2006 the Arc officially took over ownership of 7 Caves and ushered it into its next chapter of service — transforming its recreation theme to one that also included education, restoring the caves to a more natural condition, and gently and respectfully guided the park back to its wilderness roots.

In our restoration work our organization has removed miles of ageing electric lighting from the caves, inviting the bats to reclaim their ancient home. Current renovation continues on what was the old gift shop, transforming this elegant structure into what will be the world's first museum to interpret America's Eastern temperate forest -- a forest which once covered the eastern third of the United States. We celebrate the fact that we finally have had the honor of reuniting the heart of the Rocky Fork Gorge with the 2000 acres of Highlands Nature Sanctuary, the largest of the Arc's preserve regions -- thereby fulfilling a dream that began in 1995 when a sanctuary for the Eastern Forest was first conceived.

 For the much older dream witnessed by Clyde Chaney seventy-six years ago —  where in an enchanted landscape people could touch the magic of nature and find themselves transformed — we are simply one more chapter in a long and ever-changing story. May the Arc of Appalachia continue to ably serve Clyde Chaney’s mission to bring nature and people together. As always, the magic of the Rocky Fork Gorge lives on!

 

for more information


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