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

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

Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches

West-central Ohio (Mercer and Auglaize counties)
Scenic byway · McCartyville to SR 29 west of Wabash
38.4miles
Half a dayto drive
3stops

A 38-mile drive through the largest concentration of Catholic churches in the state, past Fort Recovery and Grand Lake.

Length
38.4 miles
Designated
1998
Route
Begins in McCartyville, runs along SR 119 to Fort Recovery and north on SR 49 to SR 29 west of Wabash, through Shelby, Auglaize and Mercer counties
Nearby
Fort Recovery, Grand Lake St. Marys and St. Marys
Best for
Steeples, farmland and a lake
Register
The cross-tipped churches were entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979

The story

The byway crosses flat farm country in Mercer and Auglaize counties, where Catholic settlers, many of them German, built church after church in the 19th century, each topped by a cross. It passes near Fort Recovery, the site of St. Clair's Defeat in 1791 and the fort Anthony Wayne built on the battlefield in 1793, and near Grand Lake St. Marys, Ohio's largest inland lake.

St. Marys, on the Auglaize River, is a Buckeye Trail Town, and the Buckeye Trail's St. Marys Section follows the Miami & Erie Canal through the area.

Stops along the way

1 Fort Recovery
The site of St. Clair's Defeat and Wayne's Fort Recovery. See the Fort Recovery entry.
Open
2 Grand Lake St. Marys
Ohio's largest inland lake. Grand Lake St. Marys State Park.
Open
3 St. Marys
A canal town and Buckeye Trail Town.

Take the stops with you

Load the 3 stops into your maps app to drive between them.

Google Maps: stops 1 to 3

The file holds 3 waypoints and a stop-by-stop route line. Locations are approximate, often a town center, so use the stop notes to find the exact spot. Your maps app chooses the roads between stops, usually the fastest, so follow the byway signs where they differ. The GPX arrives in a zip file; unzip it and open the .gpx in a GPS or hiking app. The CSV imports into Google My Maps.

Where to camp nearby

Grand Lake St. Marys State Park
A big lake with camping.
Open
Lake Loramie State Park
A canal reservoir and camping park to the east.
Open

Tips

  • Watch for the spires from the road.
  • Combine with Fort Recovery's museum, open May to October.

Distances are the route lengths given by the sources. Confirm road conditions, closures and seasonal hours before you go.

Ohio scenic byways list →

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