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.
Try:
The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile blue-blazed loop around Ohio, with all 26 sections.
›
Mounds & Earthworks43 ancient sites, including the Great Serpent Mound and the Newark Earthworks.
›
Historic Sites39 places, from Fort Steuben and Zoar to Camp Chase and the Rankin House, from the frontier to the Civil War.
›
Road Trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail.
›
Lake Erie Beaches20 public beaches from Conneaut to Toledo and the islands, with a map.
›
Oddities & Roadside Attractions19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops, plus a Mothman just over the line.
›
Caves & Caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters, with a map.
›
Waterfalls34 falls from the Cuyahoga Valley to the Hocking Hills, with trail notes and a map.
›

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

Tap a symbol for a preview, or search for a place. Open the key to show or hide categories.

117 parks in 7 regions

Kelleys Island State Park

Kelleys Island · Lake Erie
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
677acres
7trail miles
1932established

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
Kelleys Island State Park, 920 Division St
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
ReserveOhio — camping and cabin bookings
Hunting or permits
A valid Ohio hunting license is required for any hunting on the island; opportunities are limited given the island's small size and residential areas — check current park regulations before planning a hunt here.

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

Around 18,000 years ago, ice nearly a mile thick sat on top of this island. Under that weight, meltwater didn't trickle — it was forced along the base of the glacier under enormous pressure, dragging rock and grit with it, and it gouged the limestone underneath like a chisel. The grooves it left are 400 feet long, 35 feet wide, and up to 15 feet deep, and they are the largest easily accessible example of glacial scoring anywhere in the world. The limestone itself is roughly 400 million years old and full of coral and shell fossils, so the walkway around the grooves lets you look at two wildly different kinds of deep time stacked on each other.

People were here early and left marks of their own. Prehistoric mounds and earthworks dot the island, and Inscription Rock on the south shore carries petroglyphs believed to date to the 1600s or before — faint now, worn by two centuries of weather, but still legible in the right light. In the early 1800s this was called Cunningham's Island after a settler who traded with the Native communities here and left when the War of 1812 closed in. Two brothers named Kelley bought the island in 1836, and the name stuck.

What the Kelleys wanted was the stone. Kelleys Island limestone was among the best on the market, and it went to Cleveland to build handsome buildings, to shorelines as riprap, and into the first large boat dock on the Great Lakes. By 1891 the operations consolidated into the Kelleys Island Lime and Stone Company, and the quarry pit eventually stretched more than a mile across the island. That's the uncomfortable part of the glacial grooves story: most of them were destroyed by quarrying before anyone realized what they were. What you can see today is a preserved remnant, set aside as a State Memorial in 1932. Quarrying stopped around 1940, commercial fishing faded by the mid-1950s, and the island settled into what it is now — no traffic lights, no chains, and the whole thing listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Things to do in the park

  • Glacial Grooves Geological Preserve, the park's signature attraction
  • North Shore Alvar State Nature Preserve, the best-preserved intact alvar habitat in Ohio
  • East Quarry fishing and hiking
  • Lakefront swimming beach and boat launch

Trails

Maps, reviews and recent trail reports for Kelleys Island State Park.

Find trails on AllTrails →

Things to do nearby

  • Inscription Rock petroglyphs
  • Kelleys Island Wine Co. and a local brewery
  • Island museum with quarry and fishing artifacts
  • Golf cart and bike rentals to explore the car-light island

Hiking trails

About 7 miles combined: the 5.5-mile East Quarry Trail, the 1.2-mile North Shore Loop/Alvar Trail, and the 0.4-mile Crusher Trail to the historic Stone Crusher Building.

Wildlife you might see

  • State-endangered lakeside daisies around the old quarries
  • Rare alvar habitat plants and mosses along the North Shore
  • Migratory songbirds and waterfowl
  • Watersnakes and native reptiles

Fishing

  • Surrounding Lake Erie waters: walleye, yellow perch, smallmouth bass — accessible via the park's boat launch and fishing pier

Hunting

A valid Ohio hunting license is required for any hunting on the island; opportunities are limited given the island's small size and residential areas — check current park regulations before planning a hunt here.

Getting on the water

The park's boating access area is small — 33 acres on the island's northwest side, out of the park's 677 acres overall — but it has its own launch and pier, and the surrounding Lake Erie water is some of the best fishing in the state. No boat-in campsites.

Launches & facilities

Park boat launch
On site, with access to the open lake.
Fishing pier
Shore access for perch and smallmouth.
100-foot swimming beach
Small but sheltered, good for carry-in kayaks.

Good to know

  • The park is closed November 1 through April 1.
  • Reachable only by ferry from Marblehead or by small plane — plan around the schedule.
  • East Quarry, inside the park, also holds fish and is calmer than the open lake.

Inscription Rock and What We Lost

On the south shore sits a slab of limestone covered in pictographs — human figures, animals, smoking pipes, shapes nobody has confidently identified. Inscription Rock is generally attributed to Erie people and dated to the 1600s or earlier. What the carvings mean has never been settled, and that vacuum has filled with speculation for two centuries: a treaty record, a map, a war memorial, an account of something that happened here.

The island collects this sort of thing. There are stories of lights on the water, of the Erie nation's destruction leaving something behind, of the quarry pits being deeper than anyone will admit.

Behind the legend

The most important fact about Inscription Rock is not a legend at all. When it was first documented in the 1850s the carvings were vivid and detailed; a surveyor named Captain Seth Eastman made a drawing of them that remains the best record we have. Since then, weather has worn the rock nearly smooth. What you see today is a faint shadow of what Eastman saw.

The same thing happened, faster and more deliberately, to the glacial grooves. The island's limestone was quarried on an industrial scale from the 1890s through about 1940, and most of the grooves — the largest example of glacial scoring in the world — were destroyed before anyone understood what they were. The 400-foot section preserved as a State Memorial in 1932 is a remnant. Both of the island's great markings, one made by ice and one by people, mostly aren't here anymore.

If you go

Inscription Rock has a protective shelter over it and an interpretive sign showing Eastman's 1850s drawing, which is the only way to see what the carvings actually looked like. Don't touch the rock — that's part of why it's faded. The Glacial Grooves preserve is a short drive north, and the whole island is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Historic sites near Kelleys Island State Park

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

Perry's Victory and International Peace Memorial

Put-in-Bay · South Bass Island · Lake Erie
A tall stone column on a Lake Erie island that marks the naval battle that won Lake Erie and the peace that followed.
National Park Service site
About 8 miles from this park · 1813; memorial built 1912–1915

Beaches at Kelleys Island State Park

Lake Erie beach details for this park. Check for water advisories before you swim.

Kelleys Island State Park Beach

Kelleys Island · Erie County
A small, kid-friendly swimming beach on Kelleys Island, a short walk from the campground.
State park100 to 150 feet
Lifeguards: None

Caves near Kelleys Island State Park

Caves, rock shelters and cave attractions within reach of this park. Stay on marked trails and official tours.

Perry's Cave

Put-in-Bay · Ottawa County
A limestone cave 52 feet under South Bass Island, traditionally tied to Commodore Perry.
Show cave (limestone)
About 8 miles from this park

Campsites

Electric site
84 sites
$37–41/night
Non-electric site
45 sites
$27–31/night

On site

  • Showers, flush toilets
  • Boat launch
  • 100-foot swimming beach
  • Closed Nov 1–Apr 1
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 "Kelleys Island State Park" there to finish reserving.
Prefer the phone?419-746-2546

Reachable only by the Kelleys Island Ferry from Marblehead (passenger and vehicle service) or by small plane — factor the ferry schedule and fare into your trip.

Restaurants nearby

Dockers Waterfront Bar and Restaurant
On the water, a short walk from the ferry dock
Directions
The Villa Eatery & Bar
Patio dining with lake views
Directions
West Bay
Sunset spot near the Perry Monument
Directions

Gas stations nearby

Marathon (Kelleys Island)
The island's own fuel stop — fill up before or after the ferry
Directions
Marathon (Port Clinton mainland)
Near the ferry dock on the mainland side
Directions

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