Hippie Town Ohio
“This place has true beauty, and I am from Montana, so I know what beauty is,” said a woman who was hiking with her young son in Glen Helen Park in Yellow Springs, Ohio. We waited for her to pass as she stepped off a wooden bridge spanning a rocky stream that twisted around overgrown ruins of an old dam.
[pullquote]Comedian Dave Chappelle is among the local residents[/pullquote]Yellow Springs is a hippie town in a place where you may least expect to find it: right in the middle of Southwest Ohio’s farm country. The people are friendly and the atmosphere is relaxed.
The first thing that greeted us on the road into Yellow Springs is Young’s Creamery. Young’s is a functioning dairy farm that produces and serves it’s own dairy products in the form of milk, cheeses, and ice cream. As visitors, we were able to explore the dairy farm at our leisure, pet the goats and calves, and watch the cows feeding and grazing in the fields. All flavors of ice cream are made onsite with their own milk and cream. It is a must-have.
John Bryant State Park near Yellow Springs offers the premiere camping and hiking in the area. The campsite is a field of beautiful grass-covered hills which are well-shaded by trees. The Clifton Gorge Hiking Trail from the campsite provides the delicious reward of an appetite-whetting meal of the best (and largest) pancakes around at the Clifton Mill.
The Clifton Gorge Trail follows the Miami River over footbridges, past trickling streams and showering waterfalls, and natural monuments such as Steamship Rock and The Narrows. Hiking this trail, we saw rays of sun shimmering on the river, beautiful flowers, rocks, plants, and wildlife. Among our fellow hikers was this shy raccoon that hid under a stairway for his photo shoot.
We stopped by the Clifton Mill for our pancake lunch. This is a historic grain mill is reminiscent of a time when mills like this utilized the power of the river to turn the heavy stone mill wheels to grind wheat, buckwheat, corn, and other grains into flour and meal. These days, they also serve wonderfully fluffy pancakes nearly the size of mill wheels themselves! We had two pancakes: one buttermilk and one buckwheat, which was a delicious way to fuel ourselves for our return hike to camp along the rim of the gorge.
Downtown Yellow Springs has fantastic art and pottery shops, a little movie theater that always has one good movie, and some good local restaurants such as the “high end” Winds Café, a hippie pizza joint called Haha Pizza, the casual Sunrise Café, and coffee shop Brother Bear’s Café. Comedian Dave Chappelle is among the local residents who we saw one evening hanging out downtown.
I had long heard of the Miami River gorge and the wonderful camping and hiking in Yellow Springs. I am glad Amanda and I were finally able to make the trip. This is indeed a place of true beauty.