Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.
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The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
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Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
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Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
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Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
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Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
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Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
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Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
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Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
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Explore Ohio

One map for every park, mound, historic site, beach, cave, waterfall and oddity in the app.

Lake ErieWest Virginia27 places277 places77 places73 places35 places519 places1913 places1319 places1916 places168 places810 places1010 places109 places98 places820 places204 places43 places3Barkcamp State Park4 places47 places77 places76 places69 places917 places173 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places2Forked Run State Park3 places32 places26 places610 places103 places32 places2

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117 parks in 7 regions

John Bryan State Park

Yellow Springs / Clifton · Southwest Ohio
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
752acres
20trail miles
1949established

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed
September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source
ODNR park finder (search this park)
Location confidence
Verified property location
John Bryan State Park, 3790 OH-370, Yellow Springs
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
ReserveOhio — camping and cabin bookings
Hunting or permits
Hunting is not permitted within John Bryan State Park or the adjoining Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, both managed primarily for habitat and scenic preservation.

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The story of this land

About 20,000 years ago, a wall of glacial meltwater came through here with nowhere else to go, and it cut fast. The Little Miami sliced down through Cedarville dolomite, Massie shale, and Brassfield limestone and left a canyon that looks out of place in southwest Ohio — sheer walls, potholes scoured into bedrock, cold air pooling at the bottom. The Department of the Interior designated the gorge a National Natural Landmark, and the Little Miami was the first river in the entire country named a National Scenic River. If you're walking the rim trail in late April, the wildflower display along these slopes is one of the best in the Midwest, and that's a direct consequence of the geology: the limestone and the sheltered microclimate grow things that don't grow on the farmland a mile away.

This was Shawnee country. Old Chillicothe, one of the leading Shawnee settlements in Ohio, stood about five miles south near present-day Oldtown, and Tecumseh was a frequent presence along this river corridor. Later the Cincinnati–Pittsburgh stagecoach road came through, and settlers saw what the water could do for them. Mills went up in the gorge — a textile mill, sawmills, grist mills — and the village of Clifton prospered on them. By the late 1800s water was no longer economical power and most of the mills were abandoned. The Clifton Mill, built in 1802, is still running.

The park exists because one man decided it should. In 1896 a businessman named John Bryan bought 335 acres along the gorge and called it Riverside Farm. He could have logged it, quarried it, or sold it off in lots. Instead, in 1918, he gave it to the State of Ohio with instructions that it be kept 'as a forestry, botanic, and wildlife reserve park and experiment station.' It became one of Ohio's first forest parks by 1925. Combined today with the adjoining Clifton Gorge and Glen Helen preserves, that single decision protects more than 2,100 connected acres and over twenty miles of trail — all of it preserved because somebody in 1918 looked at a river canyon and saw something worth not using.

Things to do in the park

  • Designated rock climbing and rappelling area on the dolomite cliffs (permit required)
  • Mountain biking on the Pine Tree Trail
  • Little Miami River fishing and paddling access
  • Day lodge and picnic shelters on the plateau above the gorge

Trails

Maps, reviews and recent trail reports for John Bryan State Park.

Find trails on AllTrails →

Things to do nearby

  • Adjoining Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve and Glen Helen Nature Preserve
  • Village of Yellow Springs — shops, cafés, and the Little Miami Scenic Trail bike path
  • Historic Clifton Mill, still operating since 1802
  • Antioch College and downtown Yellow Springs' arts scene

Hiking trails

About 10 hiking trails and 6 mountain-biking trails inside the park; combined with the adjoining Clifton Gorge and Glen Helen preserves, the connected trail network totals more than 20 miles across 2,100-plus protected acres.

Wildlife you might see

  • Diverse spring wildflowers along the gorge rim
  • Songbirds migrating through the river corridor
  • White-tailed deer
  • Raptors including red-tailed hawks

Fishing

  • The Little Miami River, a state and national scenic river: smallmouth bass, rock bass, sunfish

Hunting

Hunting is not permitted within John Bryan State Park or the adjoining Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, both managed primarily for habitat and scenic preservation.

The Spirit Pool and the Twenty-Two-Foot Leap

Two stories live in the gorge. The first is in the water. The calm, blue stretch of the Little Miami called the Blue Hole was known as the Spirit Pool, and, according to some accounts, an Indian maiden drowned there after a warrior she loved rejected her. The painter Robert Duncanson made it famous in 1851, and his painting of the Blue Hole is in the Cincinnati Art Museum's collection.

The second is a jump. Daniel Boone and a group of men were captured at Blue Licks in Kentucky and taken to the Shawnee town of Old Chillicothe, a few miles from here. Boone escaped, and so, later, did his companion Cornelius Darnell. The Shawnee ran him to the narrowest place in the gorge, and Darnell jumped. The leap is now estimated at 22 feet. He started to slip, caught a tree root and got away.

Behind the legend

The Blue Hole legend is the kind of story that travels in the region's print and tourism literature as 'according to some accounts,' the way local legends do. The painting is real and dated 1851. Boone's capture at Blue Licks is real too, and it happened in 1778, though one newspaper account of the leap gives the date as 1799, which cannot be right. Darnell's escape and the 22-foot figure are local tradition, and the distance is only an estimate.

What is solid is the ground. Old Chillicothe stood about five miles south of Yellow Springs, near today's Oldtown, and Tecumseh was a frequent visitor. The gorge became a National Natural Landmark, the Little Miami a State and National Scenic River, and the park itself began when a businessman, John Bryan, bought 335 acres in 1896 and left his farm to the state in 1918.

If you go

Walk the Narrows Trail and look for the tightest place in the gorge. The Blue Hole is in the adjoining Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, a short distance from the park. Stay on the trails and off the rock walls.

Mounds & earthworks near John Bryan State Park

Ancient earthworks within easy reach of this park. Tap one for its history, legends and visiting details.

Orators Mound (Glen Helen)

Yellow Springs · Greene County · Southwest Ohio
A small burial mound in a woodland glen that became a speaker's stand in the 1840 election.
Can visitNational Register of Historic Places
About 3 miles from this park · Prehistoric; culture debated

Indian Mound Reserve: Pollock Works & Williamson Mound

Cedarville · Greene County · Southwest Ohio
Two earthworks on either side of a creek canyon, one of them a hilltop enclosure with a burned wooden stockade.
Can visitNational Register of Historic Places
About 9 miles from this park · Pollock Works about 100 BCE to 500 CE; Williamson Mound about 500 BCE to 100 CE

Historic sites near John Bryan State Park

Forts, villages, furnaces and lighthouses within reach of this park. Tap one for its story and visiting details.

Great Council State Park (Old Chillicothe)

Oldtown · Greene County · Southwest Ohio
A new state park on the site of the Shawnee town of Old Chillicothe, with an interpretive center shaped like a council house.
Ohio's 76th state park
About 10 miles from this park · 1770s; park opened 2024

Huffman Prairie Flying Field

Dayton and Fairborn · Greene County · Southwest Ohio
The 84-acre pasture where Wilbur and Orville Wright made the world's first practical airplane and taught themselves to fly.
National Historic Landmark
About 15 miles from this park · 1904–1916

Carillon Historical Park, Dayton

Dayton · Montgomery County · Southwest Ohio
A 65-acre history museum about Dayton's inventions, with the 1905 Wright Flyer III, canal and railroad exhibits and a 151-foot bell tower.
National Register of Historic Places
About 25 miles from this park · 1796 to today; park opened 1950

Waterfalls near John Bryan State Park

Falls inside or within reach of this park. Stay behind railings and on marked trails; wet rock is slick in every season.

Clifton Gorge (Amphitheater Falls and the Blue Hole)

Clifton · Greene County
A dolomite gorge on the Little Miami River carved by glacial floodwaters, with a seasonal plunge waterfall, rapids, and the deep, legend haunted Blue Hole pool.
25 ftModerate hikeLegend
Inside this park

The Cascades at Glen Helen

Yellow Springs · Greene County
A small limestone cascade in the roughly 1,000 acre Glen Helen Nature Preserve, near the iron rich Yellow Spring that gave the village its name.
10 ftModerate hike
About 2 miles from this park

Cedar Cliff Falls

Cedarville · Greene County
A 25 foot cascade over limestone cliffs on Massies Creek, framed by an early 1800s log cabin and an ancient Adena burial mound nearby.
25 ftEasy walk
About 4 miles from this park

The Buckeye Trail at John Bryan State Park

Ohio's 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop passes through or beside this park. Tap a section for its route, camping, water and resupply.

17 Caesar Creek Section

55 miles · Greene, Warren, Clinton
Clifton Gorge and Glen Helen are next to the route at Yellow Springs
4 parksMoundsTrail towns

Campsites

Non-electric / electric mixed sites
Wooded campground near the gorge rim
$23–27/night

On site

  • Day lodge
  • Picnic shelters
  • Rock climbing area
  • Bike trail access
Continue to ReserveOhio →
Field Notes Ohio isn't connected to ReserveOhio, so it can't hold a site or take payment. Tapping through opens it in a new tab — search "John Bryan State Park" there to finish reserving.
Prefer the phone?937-767-1274

Restaurants nearby

Ye Olde Trail Tavern
Said to be Ohio's oldest tavern
Directions
Sunrise Cafe
Local, organic breakfast and lunch spot
Directions
Peach's Grill
Casual bar and grill, live music
Directions

Gas stations nearby

Yellow Springs BP
Center of town, closest to the park
Directions
Speedway
A short drive from the park entrance
Directions

Details last checked 2026-09-22. Confirm hours and prices before you go.