Exploring McConnells Mill State Park

Hell’s Hollow Falls

Why do I always decide to do this stuff on the hottest day possible? You’d think I’d have learned my lesson by now, but no, despite the nearly ninety degree heat indexes, I loaded my camera gear into the car and decided to head north and explore McConnells Mill State Park. I haven’t been here since I was a child, and I was eager to see how accurate my memories would be (spoiler alert: not very).

McConnells Mill State Park Topography

Created by a burst glacial lake 140,000 years ago, the Slippery Rock Creek Gorge is cut deep into bedrock

The main road down to the mill. The boulders are impressive, as is the different ways that the trees have attached themselves to them.

Life finds a way! I am impressed with the lengths this fir has gone to make up for the ground giving way underneath it.

The Dam at the Mill

The Slippery Rock Creek lives up to it’s namesake.

The Covered Bridge was built 200 years ago.

The Western Rim. The line to the left is a sheer 50-75 foot cliff. It was a little unsettling to be up here with all the fissures and caves.

We made the hike out to Hell’s Hollow Falls as the sun was starting to set behind us. The one benefit to the miserable humidity today was that the ‘golden hour’ lighting was spectacular…it honestly reminded me of shooting on the West Coast.

After descending 200’ down into the Hell’s Run Gorge, I took a look downstream behind us and decided that this is not the place I’d want to be after a thunderstorm!

The Hell’s Hollow Falls

Looking up an offshoot of Hell’s Run as sun dips behind the horizon.

We swung by Moraine State Park on our way home to try and grab some shots of the moon and ended up taking pictures of some folk that walked out into the water instead.