It rises in Bloom Township in Fairfield County and flows generally southeastwardly through Fairfield, Hocking, and Athens counties, through the Hocking Hills region and past the cities of Lancaster, Logan, Nelsonville, Athens and Coolville.

Due to frequent flooding of Ohio University's campus, the Army Corps of Engineers re-channelized a section of the Hocking River in Athens during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Between Nelsonville and Athens, the Hocking today is roughly paralleled by a rail trail, the Hockhocking Adena Bikeway.

The path serves as a major source of recreation for the residents of the area, especially the students of Ohio University and Hocking College.

The mid and upper portions of the Hocking River serve as an above-average smallmouth bass fishery.

Students actually helped the National Guardsmen in rescue efforts and sandbagging in an attempt to control the flooding.

Students were also seen diving off the balcony in front of Brown Hall, and out dorm windows on the West Green.

It was reportedly the worst flood in fifty-five years, and caused $8.9 million in damage to Athens county, and $750,000 to Ohio Universities campus.

The University needed to expand its campus into the flood plain without having to pay annual damages, and without putting students at risk.

It was estimated to cost $11 million, and was to re-route a five-mile strip of river that ran along the West Green.

The project had a lasting effect on the campus of OU; the pre-1969 Hocking would have run directly through the bottom floor of the new Baker Center.

The project was put to the test in May 1990 when heavy rains caused the river to crest at twenty- three feet in Athens.

President Bush declared Athens and three other counties "Disaster Areas"; the flood caused $4 million in damage to SE Ohio, but physical plant director Chuck Culp estimated that rerouting the river saved OU more than $500,000 in flood damage.

The Hocking River's name was the inspiration for the call letters of Lancaster's Country music radio station WHOK-FM (now WXMG).