Caeser Creek is named for an escaped slaved named Caesar, who found refuge, either in a cave or makeshift shelter, in the creek valley in the 1780’s. Folklore also suggests that he aided Daniel Boone in his famous escape from the Shawnee, giving him directions on the safest route back to the Ohio River and Kentucky.
As I researched the nature preserve, online opinion told me to make this a winter hike. Commenters felt that leaf fall allowed for better appreciation of the gorge geography. While I see that as a valid assertion, in all honesty, this gorge is really not much of a gorge – at least what we were exposed to on this hike. There were no towering bluffs, but rather, for the most part, just steeply sloping hillsides leading down to the Caesar Creek Valley as noted in the title photo. But it was peaceful and gorgeous.
The outing started out great with lunch in nearby Waynesville, Ohio – for its size, a solid craft beer kind of place.
We were blessed to be accompanied by two of our daughters, Caroline and Ellen, on this outing – each a specialist in their own hiking realm. Caroline is the artist, always picking up details in textures or colors. Ellen is the observer, seeing the wildlife, no matter how small, that the rest of us have overlooked.
From the parking lot the trail heads east. To our left is a beautiful stream whose music carries across the understory – a lovely introduction to Caesar Creek.
The trail heads uphill on what appears to be an old farm lane. You can tell that it is old because everything that lines it is mature. No succession type plants on the landscape.
Knowing the geologic history of the region it was interesting to see this, a glacial stone, perched high on the ridge. Undoubtedly a remnant from the last ice age when an ice front lifted the stone and carried it to this point. In the distance you can see the ridge line of the opposing part of the gorge.
The feeling that we were on an old farm lane was reinforced when we saw this tree, a large Osage Orange alongside the gravel. Osage Oranges are frequent markers of old farmsteads as they were used for hedge fencing, and their strong durable wood was carved into tool handles and cut into fence posts. They are native to the Northern Texas and Southern Arkansas region, but were widely planted throughout much of the U.S. due to their utility on farms.
Shortly, the trail veered left off the old farm lane and down into the valley.
From this section of trail we had a view into the Caesar Creek Gorge which has a number of small meandering streams that feed back to the main channel. It was peaceful beyond description.
The path wove across this broad floodplain with simple foot bridges placed for assistance.
I was challenged to ponder the natural history of this valley. Why were so many of the trees small? Was this valley used as cropland in the past? Given its low elevation above the stream I am sure that flooding of the land was a constant challenge.
Still, we did occasionally encounter a remarkable specimen like this Eastern Cottonwood.
At times the trail would offer a diversion to an overlook of Caesar Creek. It presented absolute solace – all that was needed was a bench.
One creek image that I really liked was this one. The low winter sun caused significant glare on the stream. It was interesting how the shade of the tree allowed for better visualization of the stream floor.
This valley is what I would term a bluffless gorge, when compared to the Kentucky River Palisades or nearby Clifton Gorge. For the most part the stream and floodplain laid between steeply sloping hillsides. At times there was exposed clay and limestone due to erosion, in this case a natural phenomena, not the result of man’s negligence.
Eventually the trail reached an endpoint eastward, where these stairs began a turn westward, back toward the van.
From the top of the stairs the trail veers slightly to the right and climbs a steady grade, that again appears to be an old roadway that gave a farmer access to the floodplain pasture.
At the crest we are clearly on a well maintained pathway that passes through a cedar thicket. The bird life here was active with numerous Tufted Titmice, Robins, and Woodpeckers. I searched the cedars closely as they are a favorite cover for the small owls of the eastern deciduous forest: the Screech Owl and the Saw-whet Owl. No luck on this date.
What does this photo tell you?
I see an old farmstead. The large White Pine is not native to the region and undoubtedly planted. The remnants of an ornamental fence in the foreground tells me that this was someone’s loved place.
Just a few strides down the lane we saw this. The skeleton of a sister White Pine, that has died, and more remnants of ornamental fencing. I suspect that the homestead was positioned between the two white pines.
Again we transitioned onto what was clearly a farm road – how many homesteads arose off this old drive? To me it appeared several, or perhaps one large farm with multiple roadways leading to different pastures and outbuildings.
Along this stretch of trail we saw an architecturally beautiful American Beech positioned at the point of a knob, with a root system that just demanded respect. Somehow it looked tropical, like a banyan or fig tree, on this 40 degree day. Stay strong my friend.
And we returned to the parking lot by descending down the same farm lane that we took up to the trail.
While I opened this article stating that folks recommended hiking this preserve in the winter to better appreciate the geography of the gorge, I saw evidence on this hike that the valley would also be a beautiful spot to see spring ephemeral wildflowers. On this winter hike we saw evidence of Hepatica, Jacob’s Ladder, and perhaps False Rue-anenome amongst the leaf litter.
While we did not see Beaver will did see evidence of their work.
The photographer has a fascination with the thorns of the Honeylocust tree. The more threatening the better.
The Honey Locust seed pod is leathery looking, somewhat curly, and about a foot long. A legume, inside it has beans the size of a thumbnail positioned in a row, like a big pea pod.
One of the more common birds on this outing was Red-bellied Woodpeckers, which we saw throughout the hike. They were not shy, spending much time just above our heads.
One thing that intrigued us was this scraping on the bark of a six inch thick Redcedar tree. We looked for deer velvet but found none. Given that it extended up to about seven feet off the forest floor it would have been one heck of a deer.
The chocolate browness of these fungi struck us as unusual. To date I have not been able to identify it to species.
And lastly, as has been the trend, I will close the article with another still life photo of an acorn – truly one of my winter fascinations. Simple beauty.
Since the date of our hike I have seen references to a trail segment that heads east from the top of the stairs, parallels the creek, and connects to the trail system of Caesar Creek State Park. It was not noticeable to us at the time of our hike and does not appear on the preserve map that is available on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources map app “Detour”.
It does however appear on this map. The yellow arrow points to the trail just above the stairs, where there may be a trail heading east deeper into the gorge.
And it does not appear on this one, that I cropped from a larger map on the state park website. If it is functional, it is an enticing segment of trail given the bluff like appearance of the terrain (see yellow marking). It seems that this stretch of the creek valley would offer the more typical gorge geography, with high bluffs and the associated flora and fauna.
In summary, our quartet really enjoyed our outing to Caesar Creek Gorge Nature Preserve. The vistas were beautiful and the only sounds we heard were those of nature. The creek bed is unspoiled, litter free, and really calling for a bench. And while it is a good place for a winter hike, with the valley section getting you out of the wind, our plant sightings suggest that it would be a worthwhile wildflower walk in the spring. But what perhaps is most exciting is the part of the gorge that we did not trek. I will continue to investigate, and if that portion remains open to the public, it would absolutely be worthy of a revisit.
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Photo credits to Peggy Juengling Burns and Caroline Burns Grizzle.
Overview:
Location – 4080 Corwin Rd, Oregonia, OH 45054, about 39 miles from downtown Cincinnati.
Parking – gravel lot for 20 plus cars.
Trail Conditions – bare dirt for the most part with some grass and gravel on the old farm lanes. We hiked approximately 2 miles on this day.
Print Map Link – none. Download the Ohio Trails “Detour” App by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Do not get it confused with the numerous trails at Caeser’s Creek State Park which is nearby.
Benches – none
Picnic Tables – none
Facilities – none
Kids – six and over should do well.
Dogs – prohibited.
Suggested Paired Hikes – There are many trails in nearby Caesar’s Creek State Park.
Links:
https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/caesar-creek-gorge-state-nature-preserve