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.
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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

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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

West Branch State Park

Ravenna · Portage County, Northeast Ohio
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
8,029acres
20trail miles
1966established

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
West Branch State Park, 5570 Esworthy Rd, Ravenna
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
ReserveOhio — camping and cabin bookings
Hunting or permits
Yes — this is one of the better public-hunting parks in the system. The adjoining West Branch State Park Wildlife Area covers 8,002 acres, with roughly 4,000 land acres open to public hunting, managed with crop rotations, food plots, and improved nesting cover. Note that some areas near the campground and beaches are posted No Hunting; carry the official hunting map and a valid Ohio license.

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

The Mahoning River brought people here for salt. Native communities worked the licks along its west branch long before settlement, and early settlers did the same — salt was one of the few things in the frontier economy worth real effort to produce. A surveyor and land agent named Captain John Campbell arrived in 1805 working for proprietor Samuel Hinckley, served as Portage County sheriff from 1810 to 1813, and around 1810 put up what is said to be the oldest brick land-office building in Ohio. When the War of 1812 came he mustered militia at the crossroads on the west end of the park — still called Campbellsport — and marched them to Cleveland.

Then the valley was drowned. The Army Corps of Engineers finished the Michael J. Kirwan Dam in 1965, one of sixteen flood-control projects in the Corps' Pittsburgh District, built to keep the Mahoning Valley and the Beaver and upper Ohio rivers from flooding and to hold water back for release in dry spells. Campbell's land office was hauled out of the valley ahead of the water and is preserved today at the Portage County Historical Society. Everything else that was down there stayed. The Corps leased the shoreline to Ohio, and West Branch State Park opened in 1966.

What the flooding left is a lake with character. Because the water filled a branching river valley, the reservoir is all forks and coves and submerged rock — contours that run from warm shallows to deep cool water, which is exactly the range that grows big fish. West Branch has built a genuine reputation for muskellunge, strong and acrobatic ones, and trophy walleye besides. Above the waterline, the glaciated plateau is maple and beech woods, meadow, and ravine, and the Buckeye Trail threads through on its way around Ohio. It's about an hour from Cleveland and sits roughly halfway between there and Pittsburgh, which is either a convenience or the reason the boat ramps fill up on Saturday, depending on your outlook.

Things to do in the park

  • Trophy muskie and walleye fishing — the park's main draw
  • 12 miles of mountain-bike singletrack across six loops, highly rated by area riders
  • Unlimited-horsepower boating with a 300-foot no-wake zone along the shoreline; water skiing and jet tubing are common
  • Swimming beach, dog park with a swimming pond, and an archery range
  • Snowmobile trails from the west boat ramp, plus cross-country skiing, ice fishing, and ice boating in winter

Trails

Maps, reviews and recent trail reports for West Branch State Park.

Find trails on AllTrails →

Things to do nearby

  • Kirwan Dam causeway — a paved 3-mile out-and-back with water on one side and woods on the other
  • Downtown Kent and Kent State University, about 20 minutes west
  • Cuyahoga Valley National Park, under an hour away
  • Portage County Historical Society in Ravenna, where Campbell's 1810 land office now stands
  • Portage Hike & Bike Trail and the Ravenna Arsenal wildlife area nearby

Hiking trails

Roughly 20 miles of hiking, including a 9-mile Buckeye Trail reservoir loop and a 2-mile spur linking the campground to the Buckeye Trail. Separately: about 12 miles of mountain-bike singletrack and doubletrack across six loops, and 20 miles of seasonal bridle trails.

Wildlife you might see

  • White-tailed deer
  • Red foxes and opossums
  • Waterfowl throughout the coves
  • Songbirds in the maple-beech woods
  • Squirrels and small game across the open fields

Fishing

  • Michael J. Kirwan Reservoir: muskellunge (the park's signature fish — strong and acrobatic), trophy-size walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass, bluegill
  • Winter ice fishing for walleye and panfish when conditions allow — check with the park or Corps office on ice

Hunting

Yes — this is one of the better public-hunting parks in the system. The adjoining West Branch State Park Wildlife Area covers 8,002 acres, with roughly 4,000 land acres open to public hunting, managed with crop rotations, food plots, and improved nesting cover. Note that some areas near the campground and beaches are posted No Hunting; carry the official hunting map and a valid Ohio license.

Getting on the water

The campground sits on a finger of land reaching into the reservoir, so a lot of sites are near water — but ODNR does not publish an official list of which specific sites have boat access. Their own wording is that 'some lakeside sites offer carry-in boat access.' The sites below are the ones campers consistently report as waterfront or water-accessible. Treat them as strong leads to check against site photos on ReserveOhio, not as a guaranteed list.

Launches & facilities

Camp Boat Ramp
Inside the campground, with parking spots reserved for registered campers only. The most convenient launch if you're camping.
East Boat Ramp
Two paved lanes, ample parking, lighting, flush-toilet restroom, courtesy docks in season.
West Boat Ramp
Two paved lanes, ample parking, lighting, life jacket loaner board, vault latrine, courtesy docks in season. Snowmobile trails start here in winter.
West Branch Marina
Seasonal concessionaire — boat rentals, gas, ice, food and supplies. (330) 296-9209. Accessible fishing pier alongside.

Camper-reported waterfront sites

Site 10
Frequently cited for its lake view; close to the bathhouse and showers.
Site 18 & 21
Lake views from two directions and a cross breeze off the water; campers report hearing the lake from the site.
Site 99
Campers report launching a kayak or SUP directly from the site. Full-service (electric, water, sewer).
Site 160 & 164
Adjacent to the small campers-only beach. Site 160 is the campground's one non-electric site.
Site 162
Reported as a standout water view with an open side — no immediate neighbor.

These come from camper reports, not an official ODNR list — verify against site photos on ReserveOhio before booking.

Good to know

  • Boat trailers can be parked on your campsite, which saves a trip to the trailer lot.
  • Waterfront pads book out months ahead for summer weekends — set an availability alert if you're targeting one.
  • Sites vary a lot in levelness. Several waterfront pads slope enough to need serious leveling blocks; check satellite and site photos before committing.
  • Full-service sites (electric, water, sewer): 87, 89, 90, 93, 95, 98–120, and 133–145.
  • ADA-accessible sites: 23, 39, 98, 145, 150, 170.
  • Expect daytime jet ski and tubing noise at the waterfront sites — it's the tradeoff for the location.
  • Seasonal docks by the marina are leased through a lottery held each October for the following season. Dock 9 is handicap accessible.

The West Branch Witch

Somewhere on a ridge off the Machine Trail, inside a low stone wall, sit the graves of the Elliott family. The story told about them goes like this: a young woman accused of witchcraft by the people of Ravenna was put to death by pressing — a board laid across her, stones piled on the board until she stopped breathing. She was buried out here under a mound of rocks. Scatter those stones and she walks, a woman in a black flowing gown and scarf, moving through the woods. And whatever you do, don't disturb the last layer of rock.

It's a good story. It is also, by every account of people who have actually researched it, completely invented.

Behind the legend

The cemetery is real and the people in it were real. Thomas Elliott, born 1801 in New York, married Elizabeth Bowles of Pennsylvania in 1826. They had ten children and farmed a hundred acres here, in a small community called East Davis that had a couple of sawmills and is now gone under and around the reservoir. Their family plot held fewer than a dozen stones inside a low block wall. A local outing club stumbled on it in the 1920s, overgrown and forgotten, and called it the Lost Cemetery.

Then the legend attached itself. Through the 1970s and 80s the Elliott graves were heavily vandalized — stones toppled, broken, taken — by people who came looking for a witch. No one was ever pressed to death in Portage County. There was no witch trial. There was a farming family whose headstones got destroyed because a story got attached to them.

If you go

Walk the Machine Trail and find the stone wall if you want. It's a quiet place with real history in it. Take a photograph, leave everything exactly where it is, and don't go at night with a flashlight and a shovel — that's how the damage happened in the first place. Disturbing or damaging gravestones is a crime in Ohio, and these particular stones have taken enough.

Caves near West Branch State Park

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

Nelson-Kennedy Ledges (Devil's Icebox and fissure passages)

Garrettsville · Portage County
A 167-acre state park of tall conglomerate ledges, deep fissures and narrow passages, including the Devil's Icebox, Goldhunters Cave and Old Maid's Kitchen.
Rock fissures and passages
About 20 miles from this park

Waterfalls near West Branch State Park

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

Falls of Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park

Garrettsville · Portage County
Waterfalls tucked among towering conglomerate rock walls and slot like crevices, including a new glass walkway overlook, in a small state park near Garrettsville.
10 to 50 ftModerate hikeAccessible overlook
About 14 miles from this park

The Buckeye Trail at West Branch 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.

2 Mogadore Section

75 miles · Portage, Stark
The trail circles the Kirwan Reservoir here
2 parks

Campsites

Full service site
29 sites with electric, water & sewer · pads up to 80 ft
$35–52/night
Electric site
155 sites with 50-amp hookup
$35–39/night
Non-electric site
14 sites
$29–33/night
Equestrian site
22 non-electric sites at the bridle-trail camp
$19–23/night

On site

  • Heated showers, flush toilets
  • Laundry facilities
  • Trailer dump station
  • Small beach and boat launch inside the campground
  • Pets permitted at all sites
  • Some sites large enough for 80-foot rigs; several are boat-accessible
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 "West Branch State Park" there to finish reserving.
Prefer the phone?330-296-3239

No cabins here — it's a campground park. Several sites let you pull a boat right up to your site, which is worth asking about when you reserve.

Restaurants nearby

Arnie's West Branch Steak House
The area institution — steaks and seafood, closed Mon & Sun
Directions
Casona Guzman
Well-regarded Mexican, open daily with weekend breakfast
Directions
Smashology Burgers
Smash burgers and fresh-cut fries in Ravenna
Directions
The Lake House Kitchen + Bar
Lakeside seafood toward Kent, good patio
Directions

Gas stations nearby

bp
24 hours, closest to the park on Route 14
Directions
Circle K
24 hours, in Ravenna on the way in
Directions

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