Devil's Hopyard State Park

Could the round holes in the falls really be the work of the devil?  Or, just nature and water making their mark for future generations? Do mysterious orbs float around the falls and devilish laughter echo through the park? Visit Devil's Hopyard and find your own answer to this age-old mystery. And while you’re here, hike to the spectacular waterfall vistas, enjoy some of the finest birding in the state, and see if you can hook one of the park’s prized trout from the clear, cool stream water, including Eightmile River, a designated National Scenic and Wild River by the U.S. Forest Service. And don’t miss the park’s signature feature, Chapman Falls, which drop more than sixty feet over a series of steps in a Scotland Schist stone formation.

What’s behind the potholes? The perfectly cylindrical potholes range from inches to several feet in diameter and depth and are some of the finest examples of pothole stone formations in this section of the country. Early settlers explained their great mystery with tales of how the Devil accidentally got his tail wet in the falls and was so angry, he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. Geologists theorize they formed when stones traveling downstream in the current got trapped in an eddy and spun around and around, the friction wearing a depression in the rock. When one rock wore itself down, another would catch in the same hole and enlarge it even more.