Field NotesOhio
Upper Falls in the Old Man's Cave gorge, Hocking Hills, with visitors on the rocks

An independent field guide · 365 places

The field guide to outdoor Ohio

Parks and forests, ancient mounds, caves, waterfalls and back roads, with the story behind each place and where to eat and fuel up nearby.
Popular:
  • 117parks & forests
  • 64ancient mounds
  • 34waterfalls
  • 40historic sites
  • 33road trips

Old Man's Cave, Hocking Hills · Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0

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State parks & forests117 places, with cabins, campsites and trails117 places Waterfalls34 falls, with trail notes34 falls Mounds & earthworks64 ancient sites, from Serpent Mound to Newark64 ancient sites Caves & caverns12 show caverns, recess caves and rock shelters12 caves Lake Erie beaches20 public beaches, Conneaut to Toledo20 beaches Historic sites40 places, from the frontier to the Civil War40 places Road trips33 drives, from the Lincoln Highway to the Morgan Heritage Trail33 drives Oddities19 giants, ghosts and folk-art stops19 roadside stops The Buckeye TrailA 1,444-mile loop, all 26 sections1,444 miles

New to the guide?

Six places to start

One from every corner of the state, each with its full story inside.

01Old Man's CaveHocking Hills · SoutheastA gorge of waterfalls and recess caves where a hermit is said to have lived, with the park's visitor center. 02Great Serpent MoundAdams County · SouthwestA gigantic earthen snake on a hilltop over Ohio Brush Creek, built by a people whose name is still argued over. 03Brandywine FallsCuyahoga Valley · NortheastThe tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with an accessible upper overlook. 04Marblehead LighthouseMarblehead · Lake ErieThe oldest continuously operating lighthouse on the Great Lakes, lit since 1821, on nine acres of limestone shoreline. 05Zoar VillageTuscarawas County · EasternA well-preserved communal village founded by German separatists in 1817, on the Ohio & Erie Canal. 06Longaberger Basket BuildingNewark · CentralA seven-story office building shaped like a picnic basket, with handles that are heated in winter.

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Open the mapAll 365 places on one map. Filter by cabins, campsites, hunting, beaches and more.Explore the map → Browse by countyPick any of Ohio's 88 counties and see its parks, mounds, waterfalls and historic sites.Find your county → Build a tripSave places as you browse, then line them up into a weekend. Kept in your browser, nothing to sign up for.Start a trip →

Explore Ohio

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

Lake ErieWest Virginia36 places368 places813 places135 places523 places2321 places2124 places2416 places1613 places134 places418 places182 places217 places1710 places1014 places142 places27 places76 places613 places133 places34 places414 places143 places3Harrison Lake State Park2 places22 places22 places26 places64 places4

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Parks, forests & wildlife areas

Find a park

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
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.

Know a place that belongs here, or spotted something out of date? Email hello@fieldnotesohio.com.