John Glenn Astronomy Park
The John Glenn Astronomy Park at 20531 OH-664 in Logan sits 0.9 miles west of the Old Man's Cave Visitor Center, in one of the darkest remaining sky corridors in Ohio. Named for the Muskingum County-born astronaut, the park is a Friends of Hocking Hills State Park project with a fixed observatory, telescope pads, and programs on scheduled dark-sky evenings from late spring through fall. During daylight hours it's an uncrowded roadside stop with interpretive signage along the Hocking Hills Scenic Byway. No admission for daytime visits; evening events are typically free or low-cost.
Sitting on SR-664 about 0.9 miles west of the Old Man's Cave Visitor Center, this park occupies an open hilltop clearing in Hocking Hills State Park — one of the few pockets of rural southeastern Ohio where the night sky remains largely free of light pollution. The site is a project of the Friends of the Hocking Hills State Park and named for John Glenn, the Ohio-born astronaut who was the first American to orbit the Earth. Daytime visits are free and open anytime, with interpretive signage around a paved plaza designed so that sunlight falls on a central point at each seasonal equinox and solstice — worth a few minutes even if you're just passing through on a midday run.
The main draw for a deliberate evening stop is the guided stargazing program, held on clear Friday and Saturday nights from roughly March through late November. Programs are free, start around sunset, and run well into full dark. Because parking is limited and popular, the park requires a free reservation in advance for evening program nights — worth checking before you plan a night ride around it. On non-program nights the site stays open around the clock, and the dark-sky conditions are the same regardless of whether a program is running. One practical note for riders: the park's own guidance asks arriving vehicles to douse high beams on entry and kill headlights immediately after parking, so eyes in the field can stay adjusted to the dark.
A natural pause point on the SR-664 leg of the Hocking Hills loop — the parking area is easy to enter and exit on a bike, and the setting in the state forest makes it a calm counterpoint to the road itself. Evening rides timed to a program finish in full dark on an empty SR-664 are memorable. Coordinates confirmed via the park's official directions page.
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