Hiking the Parks & Preserves of Ohio
Based on the popularity of our recent Hocking Hills IQ Quiz, I’ve created a quiz about parks, preserves, and landmarks in Ohio. I’ll provide an image and perhaps a hint or two. See if you can identify the location depicted in the photo. Then click the ‘Show Answer’ button to see if you are correct. I’ve also provided a link to further information if you’d like to visit the location.
Continue reading “Ohio Great Outdoors Quiz – Can you identify these Ohio locations?”
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 of ice-age glaciers made this part of the continent sink downward. This allowed seawater to reach into Lake Ontario (the Great Lake just to the east of Lake Erie). The Atlantic coastal vegetation followed this ocean incursion into the continent and eventually spread to the shores of Lake Erie.
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.
Continue reading “Headlands Beach State Park – Ohio’s Largest Beach”
We visited Boch Hollow Nature Preserve again last week. The weather was just about perfect. Here’s a few pictures from our hike.
We’ve been going to Tar Hollow for many years. Its a great place for camping. The camp sites are usually not crowded (don’t tell anybody), the area is very scenic, and there are many miles of hiking trails.
Once again, a mated pair of osprey is nesting on one of the platforms at the northern end of Hoover reservoir. We observed one osprey on the perch above the nesting platform. The second osprey was in the nest doing something with the eggs or perhaps newly hatched youngsters. Periodically we would see its head or tail stick up above the nest as it moved around. But because the sides of the nests are so tall, most of the time we couldn’t see it.
Before the trees leaf out in the spring, tiny wildflowers emerge taking advantage of the extra sunlight that reaches the forest floor. This past April we searched for wildflowers at four Ohio State Nature Preserves. Two were in Champaign County (Cedar Bog and Davey Woods) and two were in Fairfield County (Wahkeena and Shallenberger). Below are some of the flowers that we saw.
Continue reading “April Wildflowers at Ohio State Nature Preserves”
The same day we visited Clifton Gorge, we drove 40 minutes south to Spring Valley Wildlife Area. It was a gorgeous sunny, but cool day. A perfect day for a walk around the lake and marsh at Spring Valley.
Looking for a local Ohio hike longer than a day-hike but shorter than hiking the Appalachian Trail? There are several sites where you can go backpacking in Ohio, ranging from overnight trips to trips of several days.
Last month in Delaware County, naturalist Kim Banks held a special program on great blue herons. Mated pairs of these herons nest very close to one another in what’s called a heronry. Participants then drove from Deer Haven Preserve (one of the county parks) to a nearby Liberty Township preserve known as Smith Preserve at Olentangy Falls. It turns out that there is a sizable heronry there. I returned just last week to see how things were developing.
