Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks
The Metro Parks system protects over 27,500 acres (111 km2) of land and water and extends over seven counties in Central Ohio[1] and the Hocking Hills area.
[3] The three Board of Park Commissioners are appointed to terms of three years by the Judge of the Probate Court of Franklin County.
[4] Download coordinates as: Located along the southwest boundary of Franklin County Battelle Darby Creek is the largest Metro Park at over 7,103 acres (2,874 ha).
Unique features include restored tallgrass prairie areas totalling 2,000 acres (810 ha)[7] that house a group of 10 American bison,[8][9] a large nature center with exhibits about the exceptional biodiversity of Big Darby Creek, and a Fort Ancient mound.
Detached parcels of the park extend along Darby Creek to the village of Harrisburg (into Pickaway County).
There are also wetlands and seasonable ponds in the southern area of the nature preserve where salamanders, chorus frogs, and wood ducks among other aquatic life and amphibians can be found.
Blacklick Creek flows south along the eastern boundary of the park and is accessible by several trails that travel through a variety of fields, meadows, and forests.
The most remote of all Columbus Metro Parks, Clear Creek is located near Rockbridge in the Hocking Hills region of southeast Ohio.
Nearly the entire park is designated a State Nature Preserve, making off trail activity prohibited.
Unique features of the park include stands of hemlock trees, numerous deep hollows, and wildflowers.
[17] Located near Lewis Center, the park was named for large shale bluffs that overlook the Olentangy River.
[22] On November 30, 2021, the first 62-acre section of the park opened to the public and allows for biking, hiking, fishing, rock climbing, canoeing, paddle-boarding, floating boardwalks, a zipline, and a sledding hill.
The park is situated within a larger development which will have apartments, townhomes, condominiums, office space and retail.
Other features include multi-use trail connection to the north and south, a climbing wall, and an old water tower with an overlook deck.
Located in Grove City, Ohio, the 19th Metro Park opened in May 2016 and features five backpacking sites as well as seven miles of trails through woods and along the river.
The park also includes the 320-acre (130 ha) Edward S. Thomas Nature Preserve containing eight different species of old growth oak trees, some more than 250 years old.
The ravine bottom around Spring Creek has a multitude of different trees including various sycamore, butternut, black walnut, Ohio buckeye, pawpaw and red elm.
The southern part of the nature preserve which contains several trails and an observation deck contains fields, and meadows accompanying forests such as oak-hickory association with scattered beech with a recovering elm-ash swamp forest including red elm, with white, green and blue ash trees.
South of Canal Winchester, Slate Run Metro Park's most notable feature is an 1880s-era working historical farm staffed by volunteers.
