Fall is the easiest season of the year to get kids on a trail. It’s cool enough that nobody melts down by mile one, and the leaves give them something to look at besides you. Color around Cincinnati and Dayton usually hits its stride in the second half of October, so don’t wait for a free weekend in November.
Below are hikes close to home, a handful north toward Dayton and two day trips for when you can give up a whole Saturday. For year-round options, see our list of kid-friendly hikes in Cincinnati.
Hikes in and around Cincinnati
Sharon Woods
Hamilton County’s oldest park is the easy on-ramp for little hikers. The 2.9-mile Sharon Lake Trail is wide and easy, and the 0.6-mile Gorge Trail follows Sharon Creek past rock layers and fossil-filled shale, which buys you at least 20 minutes of rock inspection. About 0.3 miles of the lake trail between the Kemper Road bridge tunnel and Kreis Dam is fenced off for harbor construction, so check the park’s alerts before you go. A Great Parks Motor Vehicle Permit is required to drive in. The park is open dawn to dusk at 11450 Lebanon Road in Sharonville.
Withrow Nature Preserve
This 270-acre preserve on Five Mile Road is quieter than the bigger Great Parks. The main event is the 2.4-mile Trout Lily Trail, a moderate loop through the woods that’s best known for spring wildflowers and holds up fine in October. Facilities are a parking lot and a portable toilet, so plan accordingly. You’ll need the same Great Parks Motor Vehicle Permit as Sharon Woods.
French Park
French Park covers 275 acres in Amberley Village with hiking trails, creeks, meadows and wooded hillsides. The creek is the draw for kids who would rather be in the water than next to it, so pack a change of socks.
Ault Park
Ault Park in Mt. Lookout pairs nature trails with lookout points over the Ohio River, plus gardens and a playground to bribe your way back to the car. It’s the pick when you want fall color without committing to a real hike.
California Woods Nature Preserve
This 113-acre forest in the California neighborhood on the city’s east side belongs to the Old-Growth Forest Network, which means some of these trees were here long before anything else on the block. Expect hills. The nature center runs programs through the fall if you want a naturalist to do the explaining.
Caldwell Nature Preserve
Caldwell mixes old-growth forest with newer plantings and keeps a long list of resident birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. Part of the trail system is paved, so a stroller can come along for at least part of the walk. The nature center is a good bathroom-and-snack stop before or after.
Mount Airy Forest
At nearly 1,500 acres, Mount Airy is Cincinnati’s largest park. Trails run from the quarter-mile Twin Bridge Trail to the 3.76-mile Ponderosa Trail, and they connect, so you can bail early or keep going. Work Everybody’s Treehouse into the route. It’s a wheelchair-accessible treehouse reached by ramps, and kids treat it as the summit.
Cincinnati Nature Center
Rowe Woods in Milford charges admission, and the trails show where the money goes. They’re well kept and run through forest, prairie, streams and ponds. Daily admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and active military, $8 for ages 4 to 12 and free for 3 and under. Dogs are $5. Pay with a card, since the gatehouse doesn’t take cash. October hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., with admission ending 20 minutes before close. Save the Nature PlayScape for the end as a reward.
East Fork State Park
About 25 miles from Cincinnati, East Fork has more trails than any other park in Ohio’s state park system, spread over 4,870 acres of land around Harsha Lake. Most of them are long. For small legs, try the half-mile Storybook Trail near the beach, which isn’t stroller friendly, or the 0.4-mile gravel Heritage of Freedom Trail, which tells the story of the Underground Railroad in Clermont County. Leashed dogs are welcome everywhere except the beach sand.
Hikes around Dayton and the Miami Valley
Glen Helen Nature Preserve
Glen Helen in Yellow Springs packs 400-year-old trees, limestone cliffs, waterfalls and the town’s namesake spring into a short walk. The preserve recommends the Inman Trail for first-timers, a loop of about a mile past the Birch Creek cascades, the Yellow Spring and a beaver dam. Start from the Cascades Lot at 1075 Ohio 343 for the gentler version. The Steps Lot on Corry Street starts and ends with a long set of limestone stairs. Parking is $10 for nonmembers. Leashed dogs are allowed, and trails are open sunrise to sunset.
John Bryan State Park
Next door to Glen Helen, this 752-acre state park sits on a limestone gorge cut by the Little Miami River, and the gorge is a National Natural Landmark. The 2.1-mile North Rim Trail gives you the views. The half-mile Storybook Trail by the playground is the short version for younger kids. Pets are fine in the park but not in the adjacent Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, so leave the dog home if you plan to cross over.
Englewood MetroPark
Englewood is the Dayton-area pick for waterfalls. The 1,900-acre park’s 3.8-mile green trail passes Martindale, Patty and Oaks falls along with a pumpkin ash and swamp forest, and trail intersections let you cut it short. With toddlers, take the half-mile blue trail along the boardwalk, then head to the nature play area. For more options across the system, Five Rivers MetroParks keeps a roundup of its best trails by interest and ability.
Hueston Woods State Park
Hueston Woods protects 200 acres of old-growth beech and maple forest, a National Natural Landmark, and the 1.1-mile Big Woods Trail runs right through it. Kids can collect fossils in the park’s creeks, and the nature center keeps live birds of prey. Pets aren’t allowed on the nature preserve trails, including Big Woods, so bring the dog only if you’re sticking to the state park side.
Worth the drive
Hocking Hills State Park
Plan on roughly two and a half hours from Cincinnati, a little less from Dayton. Old Man’s Cave is the headliner, a 1-mile one-way loop through a hemlock-shaded gorge with waterfalls and a recess cave. With a toddler or a stroller, Ash Cave’s quarter-mile gorge trail is easy and wheelchair accessible. Older kids who want to earn it can take the 4.5-mile Whispering Cave Trail across the swinging Hemlock Bridge. Trails are open from a half hour before sunrise to a half hour after sunset, and everyone has to stay on the marked trails.
Red River Gorge
About two hours south in Kentucky’s Daniel Boone National Forest, the Gorge has roughly 60 miles of designated trails through sandstone cliffs and natural arches. Sky Bridge is a manageable arch hike for kids who can handle stairs. You’ll need a parking pass, which runs $5 a day, $7 for three days or $50 a year from Forest Service offices and local vendors.
