Area Guide

Lake Hope & Zaleski

The wilder, quieter neighbor to Hocking Hills. 28,000 acres of forest surrounding a 120-acre lake, with abandoned iron furnaces, haunted train tunnels, and no crowds.

Technically, Lake Hope State Park isn't in Hocking County — it's in Vinton County, about five miles northeast of the village of Zaleski. But it sits roughly 20 minutes south of the Hocking Hills State Park complex, and anyone who spends serious time exploring the region eventually finds their way here. The park encompasses 2,983 acres entirely within the 28,000-acre Zaleski State Forest, in the valley of Big Sandy Run. The terrain is rugged — steep gorges, narrow ridges, and some of the most uninterrupted hardwood canopy in southeast Ohio.

The human history is as compelling as the landscape. The original town of Hope is still beneath the waters of Lake Hope; when the reservoir was created in the 1930s, it flooded the village up to a cliff face that now serves as the swimming beach. Before that, the area was a center of 19th-century iron smelting — the Hope Furnace, whose ruins still stand in the park, produced iron for Union Army cannons and ammunition during the Civil War.

What's nearby

Anchor attractions.

  • Lake Hope. A 120-acre lake with a swimming beach, boat rentals (electric motors only), and accessible paddleboards, kayaks, canoes, and pontoons in season.
  • Hope Furnace. Well-preserved ruins of a 19th-century iron-smelting furnace that operated through the Civil War. Interpretive signage explains the charcoal-making and ore-smelting process that stripped the surrounding hills of timber.
  • Moonville Tunnel. A 19th-century railroad tunnel on the Moonville Rail-Trail, widely considered one of the most haunted places in Ohio. Free to access, atmospheric in any season, essential at dusk.
  • Zaleski State Forest trails. A 21-mile backpack loop with primitive campsites, plus 31 miles of bridle trails for riders with their own horses. Backpackers must register on arrival.
  • Zaleski Mound Group. Adena-culture ceremonial mounds scattered through the state forest — the same culture responsible for Karshner Mound near Laurelville.
  • Hope School. The original one-room schoolhouse from the old mining village of Hope still stands in the state forest, renovated for use as a community space.
Trip planning notes

Why stay here.

Lake Hope is the right base if you want deeper wilderness than the main Hocking Hills park delivers. The crowds at Old Man's Cave on an October Saturday can feel like a shopping mall; Lake Hope on the same weekend feels genuinely remote.

Cell service is limited. GPS routing can fail deep in the state forest — bring a paper map if you plan to explore the back trails, and don't plan on streaming anything at the cabin.

Lake Hope State Park operates its own cabins on-site (Standard, Iron Furnace Legacy, and Forest Legacy), alongside a large campground. The private rentals in the surrounding area tend to be smaller cabins and off-grid properties — this corner of the region hasn't seen the same dome-and-treehouse boom as southern Hocking.

The Vinton County consideration

Lake Hope is in Vinton County, not Hocking. Practically, this means different county roads, different emergency services, and slightly longer drives to the main Hocking Hills trailheads. It also means the area feels more genuinely rural — Vinton County is one of the least-populated counties in Ohio. For travelers seeking real quiet, that's the entire appeal.