In mid-August we visited Holden Arboretum to see two new attractions - the Murch Canopy Walk and the Kalberer Emergent Tower. Located in Lake County, Holden Arboretum is the largest publicly-accessible arboretum in the state of Ohio. With 3,600 acres of gardens and forest and over twenty miles of trails there is much to see and do. This article discusses the new canopy walk and the emergent tower. For more information on Holden Arboretum, please see the posts about our earlier visits.
Murch Read more ➜ Holden Arboretum: Canopy Walk & Emergent Tower
In mid-August we visited Holden Arboretum to see two new attractions - the Murch Canopy Walk and the Kalberer Emergent Tower. Located in Lake County, Holden Arboretum is the largest publicly-accessible arboretum in the state of Ohio. With 3,600 acres of gardens and forest and over twenty miles of trails there is much to see and do. This article discusses the new canopy walk and the emergent tower. For more information on Holden Arboretum, please see the posts about our earlier visits.
Murch Read more ➜ 
Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve occupies 646 acres and contains about four miles of trail; it was Ohio's first state nature preserve. It is located in Lake County at Mentor, Ohio which is about forty miles east of Cleveland. The preserve is just southwest of Headlands Beach State Park.
If you are just interested in exploring the preserve as a hiker or bird watcher, feel free to skip to the section on Getting Oriented.
Hisotry
Mentor Marsh becomes a brackish habitat
Salt mining 
Hell Hollow Wilderness Area is one of the sites owned and operated by the Lake County park district (Lake Metroparks). It is 783 acres in size, with a total trail length of just 0.65 miles. However, it is nonetheless a strenuous hike due to the 262-step stairway that leads to the base of the ravine in Hell Hollow. On the return-trip that's an impressive number of steps to climb. Hell Hollow got its name because of how challenging it is to climb out of the ravine. Another Lake County park, Penitentiary 
Paine Falls Park is a 377 acre Lake County Metro Park located in Painesville, OH. We visited the park last September.
From the parking area a one tenth mile trail descends a couple of flights of stairs to a viewing area for the waterfall. The park features a restroom and a picnic shelter.
Additional information
Lake County Parks & Preserves — This is the location of Paine Falls; check out this page for links to the official site and for information 
Headlands Dunes is a 25-acre preserve just to the east of Headlands Beach State Park. When I'm here I can hardly believe that I'm in Ohio... it's such a unique place. The sand dunes just off shore of Lake Erie are rare in Ohio because most of the area adjacent to the lake has been developed. Surprisingly a number of plants that originated on the Atlantic coast grow in this small nature preserve. It is thought that they reached this far into the continent thousands of years ago when the immense weight 
Headlands Beach State Park contains the largest natural sand beach in the state of Ohio. The beach located on Lake Erie in Lake County has a mile of beautiful sandy beach. The park is very popular with swimmers and sun bathers in the summer.
The park is located between two state nature preserves. Southwest of the park is Mentor Marsh State Nature Preserve and to the east is Headlands Dunes State Nature Preserve. From the beach you can see a breakwater extending north of Headlands Dunes 
When we visited Holden Arboretum this past spring, we primarily visited the formal gardens. So in August we decided to go back and check out one of the nature trails. It turns out there are 19 miles (30.6 km) of hiking trails at Holden Arboretum.
We were accompanied by our daughter, Dee. We parked by the Visitor's Center, looked at some of the gardens behind the center, and then walked to the trail-head for the Old Valley Trail. We passed several wetlands and a nature observation platform 
When I entered information for Holden Arboretum into our on-line guide, I was impressed by the size of this Lake County arboretum - 3,600 acres (14.6 km²) with 19 miles (30.6 km) of trails. I added it to my must-see list. Would it live up to its statistics?
In mid-May, we visited Holden Arboretum. I'll spare you the suspense, my only regret about my visit, is that I didn't have a lot more time to explore this wonderful place.
We parked by the visitors center. The visitors 
Lake County's Penitentiary Glen park can easily be described as "deluxe". In addition to being endowed with natural beauty, the park has developed a number of first-rate facilities. If you enjoy hiking, as we do, you'll also appreciate its trails; they're both well-marked and well-built.
The odd name, Penitentiary Glen, has nothing to do with a prison. The centerpiece of the site is a 130-foot deep gorge. Settlers in the 1800s gave it this name due to the steep walls of the gorge. It was easy