Day 16 - Lore City to Hilliard (day 6)

Yippee! We didn't need the furnace last night and we awoke to a beautiful sunny day that reached 85°by mid-afternoon.

This looked like a short driving day, so we explored Salt Fork State Park a bit before leaving.

Ready to leave Site 21

The lodge is located deep in the park ... 7 miles from the entrance.  We decided to take a look. The dogwoods along the way seemed to glow in the sun.

Entrance to the lodge

Dogwoods decorate the drive

Salt Fork Lodge

We enjoyed a very nice breakfast at the lodge and headed out at about 11am.

An adventure ...
What started out as a fairly short journey became a 213 mile adventure that ended where we least expected.  We passed Cambridge, exited I-70 at Zanesville, drove south to McConnelsville, came back through Zanesville on our way to Nashport, then drove west through Newark to our RV storage lot in Hilliard. We're back home sooner than expected and will visit two more campgrounds tomorrow ... without the trailer.

Our first stop was Blue Rock State Campground, south of Philo. It's a nice, rustic campground located 6 miles off OH-60. The entrance road is a bit challenging for big rigs. There are steep grades, a single lane bridge and rough spots. The scenery along the way ranges from picturesque to yards full of junk.

Muskingum River State Campground was to be our next stop. We didn't find it. We got the following explanation from the folks at Dillon State Park.

The Muskingum River State Park extends a long way along the river. We looked for the campground in McConnelsville. It's actually located near Zanesville and doesn't appear on the Ohio map. We didn't see the campground. We know it's very small (20 non-electric sites). We graded it "not so nice".

We ended the day on a high note. Dillon State Campground was exceptional.

Observations ...
OH-60 follows the Muskingum River between Zanesville and McConnelsville. It's a beautiful drive. The river is wide and the water was high. We kept expecting riverboats and canoes to appear.

OH-16 took us through Newark and passed the Longaberger headquarter building.

The plan change ...
We had planned to stay at Dillon tonight, visit Mohican and Malabar Farm State Campgrounds tomorrow and go home for some weekend obligations tomorrow night. The light went on as we were looking at the map. We're close to home and can easily drive from there to the next two campgrounds.