Everything you need to know before you hike:
You are entering a highly protected nature preserve. Regulations exist to protect natural communities from the impact of public visitors. Please follow these regulations to leave Ohio Hanging Rock as beautiful as you found it. Remain on trails at all times and walk in single file to protect bulbs of native wildflowers bordering the trail. Do not disturb, pick, or collect flowers, plants, rocks, or wildlife. Hunting, caving, fishing, trail biking, rock climbing, wading, campfires, and swimming are prohibited. Click here for a list of full regulations.
Dogs are permitted at Ohio Hanging Rock. A dog owner’s guide to hiking Arc Trails.
Address: Frederick Rd Wheelersburg, Ohio 45694 38.816401, -82.793272
From Lucasville, OH at the intersection of US-23 & OH-728 & OH-348. From US-23, turn east on OH-728 toward Minford for 7.8 miles. You will pass the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility on your right. (Note that OH-728 will turn into County Rd. 28/Lucasville-Minford Rd.) In the town of Minford, turn right on High Street and continue south. Minford High School and primary school will be on your left. In 1.2 miles, you will see a commuter lot on your right and an IGA grocery store on the left. Just past the IGA, turn left on Bennett Schoolhouse Rd./Co. Rd. 12. In .7 mile turn left (east) on Taylor Hill Rd./ Co. Rd. 235. In 2.6 miles turn left (east) back onto Bennett Schoolhouse – South Webster Rd./Co. Rd. 12. You will immediately cross the bridge spanning the Little Scioto River. In .3 mile Bennett Schoolhouse Rd. will dead end on Frederick Rd./Co. Rd. 17. Turn right (south) on Frederick Rd. Be alert–in 2.0 miles you will see a small gravel parking lot on your left which is the preserve trailhead’s parking lot. The trailhead is signed but is easy to miss because it is tucked into the trees. The trail begins from this parking lot.
Ohio Hanging Rock’s hiking trails are open from sunrise to sunset. Please note parking lots are not winter-maintained, and the trails are not safe to hike during periods of heavy rain, ice, and snow. Trails are closed during our annual Deer Management Hunt which takes place on the 1) Monday through Sunday following Thanksgiving, and 2) Saturday and Sunday before Christmas.
Interpretive kiosk: An interpretive kiosk is not yet posted at the preserve trailhead. Please be sure to download a trail map onto your phone before hiking, or print this handout and carry it with you.
Hiking Trails’ Difficulty - Difficult. Due to its considerable length and several ascents and descents, the Ohio Hanging Rocky trail is a strenuous, difficult trail. This trail could be difficult for people with limited flexibility and strength. The trail, although a narrow pathway, is well constructed. In the two and a half years it took to sculpt this trail, Arc staff cut against and into the steep slopes to ease hikers’ ankles and improve their experience with steps and bridges.
Ohio Hanging Rock Trail:
The Ohio Hanging Rock Trail - 4.4-mile loop. Designed with a loop on the far end, the mileage is measured as a round trip. The trail boasts several rock shelters and narrow ravines, and its crowning glory is its jumble of immense blocks of rock that are strewn on the upper-elevation hillsides, covered with mosses, ferns, and lichens. The densest rock formations are at the farthest end of the trail. The sandstone rocks at this elevation were once the wave-washed shoreline of the vast freshwater glacial lake known as Lake Tight. Strewn above the surface of the lake were the ridges of the highest of Ohio’s southeastern hills - literally ten thousand islands. What a wilderness of beauty this sight would have been were there human eyes to see it.