Summiting Hills in Ohio and Beyond
I Visited Hocking Hills, San Francisco, Rome and Pittsburgh
We saw this view of the sloping terrain on the Gorge
Overlook Trail at Hocking Hills State Park in Ohio this September.
By Anna Krejci
Playing card games is a favorite way I spend the
evenings. On a trip to Pittsburgh,
Penn., several years ago, Corey and I browsed in a bookstore and bought a deck
of trivia cards. One of the questions in the game was, “Which city is
traditionally said to be built on seven hills?”
So, we were very far away from Rome, Italy, but Rome was the
answer. The question resonates with me
now. I recall we were in Pittsburgh, a
city nestled among hills, and I visited Rome, too, more than 20 years before
when sightseeing. Where else had I been
where the hills made the environment feel so varied and intriguing?
I like being around hilly terrain in most cases because I
like to summit, if the inclines are not dangerous. Climbing to the top of a hill can give me a
great view. It is exciting. It is almost a mystery since I must reach the
top to see what is on the other side.
Hills are also used in literature and imagery often to connote
overcoming a challenge. Often the phrase
“to fight an uphill battle” is heard, or the phrase “to move mountains” is used
to express an impossibility or someone’s huge ambition to achieve. I have been to four cities known for their
hills. The first one was San Francisco,
Calif. The second was Rome, Italy. The
third was Pittsburgh, Penn., and on the fourth, most recent journey this
September, I re-explored the Hocking Hills in southeastern Ohio.
San Francisco
In this photo, drivers file down Lombard Street in San
Francisco in 1998.
I visited San Francisco, Calif., and remember the city’s
hilly environment mostly because I saw Lombard Street in person. It is nicknamed the “crookedest street.” First, I did not know why the street had so
many turns, but after reading I learned that because the street is so steep,
the turns improve safety. There are
interesting facts about Lombard Street on the San Francisco Travel Association’s
website.
“Lombard Street.” San Francisco Travel Association, 2025, https://www.sftravel.com/things-to-do/attractions/iconic-sf/lombard-street .
Rome, Italy
This simple sketch resembles the view from the rooftop of
the Capitoline Museum. It is based on a
photo taken during my visit in 2002. I
took some artistic license in doing this drawing; the landscape is much more
built up than what the sketch depicts.
I had very limited time to see Rome 25 years ago, and I used
the opportunity to visit the Capitoline Museum, which displayed many statues
and other forms of art important to the city’s history. The museum is on Capitoline Hill, one of the
seven hills upon which Rome was constructed. It still operates. According to
Trip Advisor, the museum existed as of 1471.
Seah, Jaclynn. “How to explore the Seven Hills of Rome.”
Trip Advisor, 12 July, 2022, https://www.tripadvisor.com/Articles-lCoerPeuoN8w-Seven_hills_of_rome.html .
Pittsburgh
In this photo, Fort Pitt Museum appears with the city’s high
hills in the background. The museum is
located at the former site of Fort Pitt where the Monongahela and Alleghany
rivers meet to form the Ohio River.
Twice I visited the Fort Pitt Museum in Point State Park,
which is along the river. I visited for the first time in 2017. The fort, built
by the British, was active at the time of the French and Indian War. From the exhibits I learned the fort’s shape
was a pentagon and saw what a barracks and trading post looked like. It had a
lot of three-dimensional models. I liked
one that showed Fort Pitt from a Native American person's perspective on the
high hills across the river. At the time of my visit in 2017, a short video
explained the French and Indian War and the ongoing fighting between the French
and English for territories across the world; the New World was just one of
those places.
Fort Pitt Museum
For information on the Fort Pitt Museum, click on the link
below.
https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org/visit/fort-pitt/
Hocking Hills State Park and Conkle’s Hollow State Nature
Preserve
Corey and I visited Hocking Hills State Park at the end of
September this year. We hiked to Old
Man’s Cave from the Visitor Center. The most challenging hiking that we’ve done
was at Hocking Hills State Park. The
trail to Old Man’s Cave is about our limit as to what we can handle in terms of
uneven surfaces, stone steps and platforms to traverse. Even so, I love to visit that state
park. We also hiked on part of the Gorge
Overlook Trail toward Cedar Falls. We
saw the slopes under the forest canopy on our way.
We climbed hills via car ride when we intersected with parts
of America’s Byway, a scenic route that is publicized in the region’s tourism
guide. We stopped at Conkle’s Hollow
State Nature Preserve, a separate property from the state park, to walk along
the bottom of a gorge and to see high cliff walls surrounding us. Everything was so green and lush there. It looked like plant life was thriving in those
areas that were cool and shaded.
This is a view from the Gorge Trail at Conkle’s Hollow State
Nature Preserve this September.
We hiked to Old Man’s Cave this September and saw these
trees growing above us.
I know these four areas highlighted in my blog post are
different from each other. The hills in
each location are captivating to look at and to set my feet upon. From the urban industrial setting of
Pittsburgh to the rural environment of Hocking Hills, and from the ancient
civilization originating in Rome to the modern-day technology hub of San
Francisco, I think the hills still add some allure to these places. I
recognized the Hocking Hills by their natural landmarks; if I ever go back to
San Francisco, Rome and Pittsburgh, I would like to seek out the same hills and
see what new marks humans have left there.
For more information on America’s Byway in Hocking Hills or
to find the tourism guide, visit https://www.explorehockinghills.com/.
Hocking Hills State Park
For more information on the state park, click on the link
below.
https://ohiodnr.gov/go-and-do/plan-a-visit/find-a-property/hocking-hills-state-park
