Field Notes Ohio

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117 parks in 7 regions

Zaleski State Forest

Zaleski · Vinton & Athens Counties · Southeast Ohio
Ohio Department of Natural Resources
27,000acres
23.5trail miles
—established

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
Zaleski State Forest, OH-278, Zaleski (representative point)
Check current conditions
Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets
ReserveOhio — camping and cabin bookings
Hunting or permits
Zaleski is a popular public hunting forest. The 1,100-acre Grouse Management Area and the 4,000-acre Turkey Management Area are open to hunting during the seasons. Atkinson Ridge Hunters Camp sits on the north end of the grouse area at the fire tower on Township Road 5, with picnic tables, fire rings and latrines. A public shooting range on State Route 278, just north of forest headquarters, has nine 25-yard lanes with benches and is open first-come, first-served. Check ODNR Division of Forestry for range hours and rules. A valid Ohio hunting license is required.

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

Zaleski looks like wilderness, and it is really a reclaimed industrial landscape. This region was at the front of the American industrial revolution in the 1800s. Coal and iron ore came out of the hills, and charcoal furnaces like Hope Furnace turned iron ore into pig iron. Feeding those furnaces meant cutting huge swaths of forest for charcoal, so by the late 1800s the ridges were often bare. Little towns grew up around each furnace and then vanished when the iron business moved on.

What was left behind is the forest's quiet history: woodland cemeteries, furnace ruins, abandoned farms and old railroad grades. The best known is Moonville Tunnel, on an abandoned B&O rail line, which is now part of a rail trail. The village of Zaleski itself was platted in 1856 and named for Peter Zaleski, a Polish-born official of the Steubenville and Indiana Railroad. Long before that, the Adena people built mounds here, and the Zaleski Mound Group is a reminder that people have been shaping these hills for two thousand years.

Today the trees are back, and this is unglaciated Allegheny Plateau country with elevations up to about 1,100 feet. The forest runs the only state-owned sawmill in Ohio, and white oak from Zaleski was used in Ohio State University's 2008 renovation of the Thompson Library. It gets much less traffic than nearby Hocking Hills, which is why backpackers, riders and hunters like it.

Things to do in the park

  • Backpack the 23.5-mile Zaleski Backpack Trail, or day-hike one of its three loops
  • Ride horses on about 50 miles of bridle trail from the 16-site horse camp
  • Hunt the grouse and turkey management areas in season
  • Sight in at the public shooting range on SR 278
  • Camp at Atkinson Ridge Hunters Camp during hunting seasons

Trails

Maps, reviews and recent trail reports for Zaleski State Forest.

Find trails on AllTrails →

Things to do nearby

  • Lake Hope State Park, in the middle of the forest, with a lake, lodge and dining lodge
  • Historic Hope Furnace, a restored charcoal iron furnace with an interpretive trail
  • Moonville Tunnel and the Moonville Rail Trail, which starts near Zaleski
  • Zaleski Mound Group, Adena earthworks near the village
  • Hocking Hills State Park and its famous gorges, a short drive north

Hiking trails

The Zaleski Backpack Trail is a 23.5-mile main loop (about 23.9 by BackpackOhio's count) with three shorter loops for day hikes: north (about 6.7 mi), middle (about 10.2 mi) and south (about 10.25 mi). ODNR's state forest guide counts about 28 miles of backpack trail with three walk-in camp areas, and the forest has roughly 25 miles of hiking trails and about 50 miles of bridle trails.

Wildlife you might see

  • A 1,100-acre Grouse Management Area and a 4,000-acre Turkey Management Area, managed to help both birds reproduce
  • White oak, hickory and other mixed hardwoods on the plateau hills
  • Second-growth forest, old farm sites and interpretive signs along the backpack trail
  • Wildflowers and woodland birds in spring

Fishing

  • Lake Hope (120 acres, in the state park inside the forest): bluegill, largemouth bass, crappie and catfish.

Hunting

Zaleski is a popular public hunting forest. The 1,100-acre Grouse Management Area and the 4,000-acre Turkey Management Area are open to hunting during the seasons. Atkinson Ridge Hunters Camp sits on the north end of the grouse area at the fire tower on Township Road 5, with picnic tables, fire rings and latrines. A public shooting range on State Route 278, just north of forest headquarters, has nine 25-yard lanes with benches and is open first-come, first-served. Check ODNR Division of Forestry for range hours and rules. A valid Ohio hunting license is required.

The Furnace That Ate the Forest

Make iron in 1854 and you needed three things: ore, limestone and a forest to burn. The Hanging Rock iron country had all three, and Vinton County was its northern edge. A furnace was built beside Sandy Run and first called Big Sand. By the late 1860s it took the name of the company town that grew up around it: Hope. About 300 people lived there, in single-room log homes, and the workers were often paid in company scrip that was only good at the company store.

At its best, Hope Furnace poured about 15 tons of iron a day, and woodcutters cleared roughly 325 acres of forest to feed it. Then it stopped. In 1874 the furnace shut down, the workers moved away, and the town disappeared. Its name is still on the lake.

Behind the legend

The numbers come from ODNR and the local history record. The 1870 Geological Survey of Ohio says the furnace made 15 tons of foundry iron a day and 2,827 tons that year, using ore hauled in from the Vinton Furnace tract on the Big Sand Railroad. The roadbed of that railroad now lies under the waters of Lake Hope. A local history says furnace workers in the county earned as little as 65 cents for a 12-hour day. The furnace and its village closed when high-grade ore from the Lake Superior region made Ohio's small charcoal furnaces uneconomic.

Hope Furnace was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and it is one of only two extant iron furnaces in Vinton County. The buildings of the town are gone, but the ground around the furnace still holds slag, the black glassy waste of ironmaking. Long before the furnace, people dug a black flint here that ODNR says was worked about 4,000 years ago and traded across the Midwest.

If you go

Start at Hope Furnace at the head of Lake Hope on State Route 278, where the Furnace Trail begins. Look for black glassy slag in the ground, and remember that any object you find belongs where it lies. Then hike the White Oak Trail and imagine the forest that used to stand where the town did.

Oddities near Zaleski State Forest

Roadside curiosities, legends and giant things within reach of this park.

Moonville Tunnel

Zaleski · Vinton County
An abandoned railroad tunnel in Zaleski State Forest, said to be haunted by a lantern-carrying ghost.
Ghost story
Part of this park

Campsites

Backpack campgrounds
3 walk-in camp areas on the backpack trail · free self-registration at the trailhead kiosk on SR 278 · no reservations
Free
Horse camp
16 equestrian sites · tie rails, picnic tables and restrooms · no electric · bring your own rope for high lines
See ODNR
Atkinson Ridge Hunters Camp
Picnic tables, fire rings and latrines · north end of the Grouse Management Area
See ODNR

On site

  • Trailhead kiosk with maps and self-registration forms
  • Public shooting range with nine 25-yard lanes
  • Horse camp with restrooms and picnic tables
  • Hunters camp with latrines and fire rings
Zaleski State Forest details (ODNR) →
Backpack camping needs a free self-registration permit at the trailhead kiosk. For horse camp and hunters camp reservations, range hours and current conditions, check ODNR's Division of Forestry site. Field Notes Ohio can't hold a site for you.
Prefer the phone?See forestry.ohiodnr.gov

Lake Hope State Park lies inside Zaleski State Forest and has its own campground and cabins, listed separately. Trails here are less crowded than Hocking Hills, but they are rugged and get less maintenance, so carry a map.

Restaurants nearby

Lake Hope Dining Lodge
BBQ and buffets at the lake inside the state park; closes at 8 or 9 p.m.
Directions
Mama Renie's Pizza of McArthur
Pizza and pub food, open late
Directions
Main Eatery
Local classic for a Viking Veal sandwich and a milkshake; closed Sunday and Monday
Directions
Smoke-N-Beans
Coffee and breakfast sandwiches
Directions

Gas stations nearby

McArthur Express
Hometown station with a good deli and breakfast
Directions
Marathon Gas (Clark Pump-N-Shop)
More pumps and easy access in downtown McArthur
Directions

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