Southeast Ohio

I had four free days and was itching to go on a trip. I found an $88 roundtrip flight from Los Angeles direct to Columbus, Ohio. The daily flight, on Spirit Airlines, is the only direct connection between the two cities.

Having visited Columbus back in 2013 for an Ohio State football game and to visit my friend Sarah, I decided to make this a regional road trip instead of just a city trip. My first stop was going to be Athens, which I heard was a pleasant town. 

March 2, 2024: Athens

My flight landed at Columbus’s John Glenn International Airport at 13:00. After collecting my rental car, I was on the road! 

The drive to Athens, my first stop on the road trip, took 90 minutes. While most of Ohio is flat farmland, southeast Ohio contains the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Not only does this region have different topography but it also has a culture more similar to West Virginia. 

Athens is the home of the public Ohio University. Ohio University was founded by an act of the Congress of the Confederation (prior to the adoption of the US Constitution) in 1787 to serve the newly established Northwest Territory. However, the university did not actually open until 1804. It is the second-oldest college in the Midwest. 

In general, the most prestigious public university in a state is known as the University of ______ and the secondary university is known as _______ State University. Ohio bucks this trend. Ohio State University in Columbus grew to be one of the largest colleges in the country with extensive research labs, a huge hospital, national championship sports teams and the highest ranking in US News & World Report while Ohio University, despite its history and student body of 20,000, is largely unknown outside of the region. Pennsylvania is another anomaly because the University of Pennsylvania is a private university that predates the United States.

My first stop was a curious building called The Ridges. Founded in 1870, it used to be the Athens Insane Asylum before being acquired by the University. The building is in rough shape and is largely abandoned. The university uses about ¼ of the building as an art museum and the police department headquarters. But the rest is vacant and in bad shape. 

Next, I wandered around the campus, which has gorgeous architecture. It is without a doubt the prettiest public school in the United States and is in the running for prettiest overall college campus. 

Ohio University has a reputation for being a wild party school and it was very evident while walking around the campus. I saw lots of drunk girls wearing very little clothing despite the cold weather. 

Like most schools of its age, Ohio University seamlessly flowed into the town of Athens. Athens felt like a small Appalachian town with cobblestone streets and wooden houses. Athens reminded me of a redneck Princeton. 

Maisie’s cousin Cora, who grew up in Athens, recommended Donkey Coffee. When I walked in, a blue-haired masked lady took my order. In the back, I saw numerous signs along the lines of “This is a Safe Space” and “No One is Free While Others Are Oppressed”. I get the feeling that, like St. Louis where I went to college, Athens is a liberal dot in a sea of conservatism and therefore draws all the progressive people in the region into one space. 

Next, I got an early dinner at Casa Nueva. This Mexican restaurant has been owned by the employees since the 1980’s. Most of the employees seemed to be hippies (nobody appeared to be Mexican but that seems fair given we are in rural Ohio). I ordered a “local burrito” which has hummus. It sounded weird but was actually incredible. 

Next, I stopped by Jackie O’s, the main brewery in Athens and one of the top breweries in all of Ohio. I visited the original brewpub, but next door there is the Public House which also serves food. The brewery itself is a mile outside of town. They also recently opened a brewpub in Columbus. I suppose Jackie O’s can now be considered a mini empire. 

I ordered a flight of six beers, which came out on an Ohio-shaped tray. It took me an hour, but I downed the beer. 

After resting up for a bit, I decided to go back out to see the famous nightlife. There were about 10 bars on Court Street that all looked packed. I picked one that had a shorter line, and it was a huge party. The beer was only $3 too! All I can say is that the hype about nightlife in Athens is all valid. 

I went to bed around 23:00 completely perplexed by the town of Athens. There seemed to be four distinct groups of people. First, very liberal people including college students and adults such as the people in Casa Nueva. As mentioned earlier, this is likely due to Athens being the only liberal town for at least an hour in any direction. Second, very fratty college students who are here to party. Third are the normal people who work for university and the businesses in town plus their families. And finally, fourth, are the Appalachian hillbillies who live in the rural parts of the county and come into Athens occasionally because it is the main town in the county.   

March 3, 2024: Hocking Hills and Chillicothe

The next morning, I made one final stop in Athens, the high school. Not only did Maisie’s cousin Cora attend, but it is also the alma mater of Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow. The Burrows moved to Athens so his father could be the defensive coordinator at Ohio University. While at Athens, he led the school to its first 7 postseason victories in school history. They named the stadium after him during his rookie season with the Bengals. 

30 minutes northwest of Athens is Hocking Hills State Park, the most visited and top-rated state park in Ohio. The park preserves dramatic gorges full of caves and waterfalls. 

I visited three sites in the park. The first stop was Ash Cave, the largest recess cave in Ohio. 

Next, I visited Cedar Falls, the largest waterfall in the park.

Finally, I visited the Old Man’s Cave area, which is a large steep sided gorge with numerous waterfalls along the way. This is the premier hike in the park. 

It was now 11:00 and I was starting to get hungry. I drove an hour southwest to reach the city of Chillicothe, the original capital of Ohio. 

For lunch, I ate amazing BBQ at the Old Canal Smoke House. This place is the real deal. 

Chillicothe heavily markets the fact that they were the original capital of the state and territory but unfortunately the capitol building was demolished in the 1850’s. In its place is the county courthouse. While the courthouse is beautiful, demolishing the building that put you on the map was a bad idea. 

Surrounding the courthouse is a quaint historic downtown that reminded me a lot of Schenectady, New York. 

Just north of town is the Hopewell Culture National Historic Site which preserves pre-Columbian Native American mounds. The mounds were created around 2,000 years ago by a people that did not live in towns/cities and did not have any technology. The mounds were most likely made by scooping dirt into buckets. It is estimated that it took 1.5 million bucket trips to create the ceremonial landscape. In 2023, just a few months ago, the mounds were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There are a few mound groups in the area, but I went to the Mound City Group which is the location of the park’s visitor center. The mound complex stretches the size of 10 football fields. 

Despite all the hype and the amazing construction story, the mounds are still just dirt mounds. I spent about 10 minutes looking around. To add insult to injury, there are state prisons both next to and across the street from the mounds. I just so happened to visit during recreation hour so I could see prisoners exercising from the mounds. 

With that, it was time to head back to Columbus for the second half of my trip. 

Final Thoughts:

Ohio is an underrated state. While everybody knows about Cleveland and Cincinnati and to a lesser extent Columbus, the rural areas are largely unknown. That is a shame because southeast Ohio is beautiful. Hocking Hills is easily one of the scenic areas I have seen in the Midwest. 

Athens is also a lovely town with a lot going on despite the small size. For the average visitor, I would spend 1 day in Athens and 1 day in Hocking Hills, but you could easily extend in the summer to explore more natural areas if you like slow travel.

Chillicothe is skippable.  

Like elsewhere in the Midwest, the people everywhere are lovely.