YOU BEGIN Your 433 mile crossing of Buckeye State by crossing the Ohio River on a car ferry and heading into the wild Northwest Territory. This is your first indication that Ohio has nothing to do with a flat, monotonous cornfield. The route meanders through the Hocking Hills, adorned with waterfalls and towering hemlocks, and passes through the farms of Amish lands, which are rich in buggies, hoods, and butterfat. Such pastoral landscapes contrast with the hustle and bustle of the state’s “Three Cs”, the cities of Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland. The trip ends on the shores of Lake Erie and may join thousands of others at the Cleveland Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s summer concert series – a fitting celebration of Ohio that is taken to the top. A few navigation tips: unexpected detours, horse-drawn Amish buggies and poorly marked country roads are to be expected. GPS or paper maps come in handy. Call ahead, especially smaller venues. Ohio is open, but the pandemic may still come as a surprise.
Day 1: Cincinnati to Logan
199 miles
Travel back in time from the Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport rental car park via the KY-20 East. Follow the signs for the Anderson Ferry. A hair-raising road takes you down to the banks of the Ohio River in Kentucky, where a ferry that has been in operation since 1817 pioneered your car to Ohio for $ 5 (plus a $ 1 tip). Travel east on US-50 to downtown Cincinnati. Annoyed vinyl-sided houses and warehouses stop driving, but your destination, Over-the-Rhine, bubbles up. The quarter’s edged tenement houses from the 19th century, originally crammed with German immigrants, make up the largest collection of Italian revival architecture in the country. Neglected for years, OTR is now covered in creamy color and optimism and replenished with bright young things and craft breweries. Busy Washington Park is fun to explore.
Exit Cincy on US-52, parallel to the Great River east to Ripley. This pre-war city was a major subway terminus, remembered by an abolitionist memorial and the restored homes of John Rankin and former slave John P. Parker. In Portsmouth, take OH-104 North to Chillicothe for a salad at Paper City, a sunny café on South Paint Street (papercitycoffee.com).
Travel north on OH-159, then east on OH-180 to the Hocking Hills. It has deep canyons and moss-covered waterfalls and is arguably Ohio’s most beautifully landscaped property, a deciduous Kauai. The topography makes GPS navigation mottled here. Grab a card at the Hocking Hills Welcome Center in Logan and stay in one of the Hocking Hills Tiny Houses. These three hand-built “Zen Caves” on pretty Lake Logan exude Nordic simplicity (from $ 119 per night, hockinghillstinyhouses.com).
The six-course meal at the Glenlaurel Scottish Inn (Prix Fixe from $ 65; 72-hour advance reservations recommended; glenlaurel.com) strengthens a postprandial moth hunt conducted by lepidopterist Chris Kline at his Butterfly Ridge Conservation Center. Safaris take place on most Saturday evenings in the summer from 9:00 p.m. to midnight (butterfly-ridge.com). When the moths are not available, the John Glenn Astronomy Park, named after Ohio’s famous astronaut, offers stargazing and the occasional lectures instead (jgap.info).