Stay on trails, Hocking Hills State Park officials warn after spate of injuries there
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is urging visitors to Hocking Hills State Park to stay on park trails after four people recently sustained injuries in separate incidents.
As summer approaches, the park is entering the busiest part of its season. Hundreds of thousands of people annually flock to the state park in southeastern Ohio, looking to bask in the park’s solitude.
But for those who choose to take Robert Frost's proverbial "road less traveled," ODNR officials warn that a trip to the park could result in peril.
Three hikers who went "off trail" over the Memorial Day weekend fell over cliffs or waterfalls, resulting in serious injuries, ODNR officials say. Two of the incidents occurred nearly simultaneously and rope teams comprised of ODNR officers as well as Hocking County fire and EMS personnel had to retrieve the victims.
Last weekend, another hiker sustained an off-trail fall and sustained injuries requiring transport by medical helicopter, ODNR officials report.
The first incident occurred at the Cedar Falls waterfall in the park, where a woman fell while trying to scale down the waterfall. ODNR Lt. Jeremy Davis said she sustained "a couple of breaks to the pelvis.”
As the rope team was setting up extrication for the woman, the team got a call saying they were needed for an incident at the park's Conkles Hollow State Nature Preserve, where a man fell 15 feet onto a ledge after slipping over the edge of a cliff while taking a selfie.
“He’s lucky he landed on that ledge because if he would have missed that ledge, he probably would have fallen another 50 feet and would have been severely injured, had he survived at all,” Davis said.
Davis, who has been working in Hocking Hills since 2001, said he can’t remember a time where there have been two different rope rescues at the same time.
“Depending on the terrain the victim could be brought up or down (to safety)" using a two-rope process, Davis said, "whichever is quickest to get them to the care they need.”
In 2018, ODNR had 68 reported injuries and 28 citations for visitors going “off the trail.” So far in 2019, they’ve had 19 reported injuries and two “off the trail” citations.
Davis himself is no stranger to the dangers of the terrain at Hocking Hills. In October 2008, he was helping an injured victim in a dry creek bed near Cedar Falls when he began to slipped on moss that had formed on the creek bed and fell over the side of a 15-foot cliff, breaking his arm on the landing.
"...If it can happen to me, it can certainly happen to anyone else,” he said.
When people are injured, it’s usually because they went off trail or they weren't prepared to handle the trail conditions, Davis said.
The biggest thing people can do to prevent injuries while hiking is to wear proper footwear (some people show up in flip-flops), plan ahead to know where they’re going and give themselves plenty of time to get off the trail before dark. One of the main reasons people tell ODNR officers they went off the trail is because they’re looking for a perfect view or photo.
“If they just stay on the trail and enjoy what it’s designed to show them, they'll be just as fulfilled and a lot safer.”
Henry Palattella is a staff reporter for The Columbus Dispatch.
