Around Zanesville

Tom and I have spent the last week in Zanesville.  We are moving back to Delaware tomorrow, so I thought I would wrap up some of the things we have seen and done in the Zanesville area before we move.  It has been a busy week, so I will just touch on the highlights.

Overlooking the fair from the grandstand
Entrance to the Muskingum County Fair

We went to the Muskingham County Fair.  Zanesville is the county seat, with most of the population of the county at 25,000, so the area has a lot of farms.  The fair was fun – one admission price that includes all the rides you want.  We ate the usual fair food, trying to support the United Methodist Churches that had booths.  One interesting fact – Zanesville is in West Ohio Conference, so all the UM food booths were West Ohio churches.  The Muskingum River divides East and West Ohio from Marietta to Coshocton.  We enjoyed seeing the livestock, listening to a marching band, looking at the 4-H booths, and meeting some of Karen Graham’s parishioners who were showing animals at the fair.

Oddest historical marker we saw
The stunning architecture of the Muskingum County Courthouse
The beautiful Roman Catholic Church in Zanesville
The famous Y Bridge in Zanesville – “just go to the middle of the river and turn right”

We drove around Zanesville.  State Route 60 was closed north of Zanesville for a bridge repair and south of Zanesville because of a rock slide.  So getting north and south of town was a problem.  We had lots of options going east and west so we did some traveling on the Old National Road (US 40) and even spent a couple of hours at the National Road and Zane Grey Museum near New Concord.  The museum also had a display on the decorative pottery produced in Zanesville.  We got to read lots of historical markers, including this one which we thought was one of the oddest we had ever seen:  “Norwich:  Site of the first recorded traffic fatality in Ohio.”  Turns out there was a stagecoach turnover in 1835. We went to Putnam Park which has a wonderful overlook of downtown Zanesville – the courthouse, the RC Church, and the famous Y Bridge.

Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve
The Licking River at Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve
The short – three miles – but very pretty bike trail at Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve
Blue Rock State Park – we were the only ones there!
The lake at Blue Rock State Park
Some wetlands at Blue Rock State Park
One example of the “blue” rock

We went to several state parks.  We rode our tandem on the short, but beautiful Blackhand Gorge State Nature Preserve trail along the Licking River.  We took the extremely scenic high ridge route to Blue Rock State Park (because OH 60 was closed) – not really the route I would recommend but there were some fantastic vistas.  We walked along several trails around the lake and had the whole place entirely to ourselves except for the worker at the Commissary.  And we drove around the lake at Dillon State Park.

We have enjoyed our time in this area very much.  There is a lot more that we could have seen and done, but we will have to save it for a return trip at a later date.