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

Johnny Appleseed Historic Byway

North-central Ohio
Scenic byway · Mansfield to Loudonville and Mifflin
30miles
Half a dayto drive
4stops

A 30-mile byway on SR 39 and SR 603 that links properties John Chapman, Johnny Appleseed, once owned.

Length
30 miles
Designated
March 2017
Route
SR 39 from Mansfield to Loudonville and SR 603 from SR 95 to Mifflin
Theme
Properties formerly owned by Johnny Appleseed
Nearby
Mohican State Park and Malabar Farm State Park
Best for
A short drive tied to farms and a gorge
Sites
Chapman's original landholdings and nurseries, original sites of Native American culture and pioneer settlements

The story

John Chapman, known as Johnny Appleseed, planted apple nurseries across the Ohio frontier and owned property in this part of Richland and Ashland counties. The byway, designated in 2017, follows two state routes that link places once tied to him. It passes farm country between Mansfield and Loudonville.

Malabar Farm State Park and Mohican State Park lie close to the route.

Stops along the way

1 Mansfield
The byway's west end on SR 39.
2 Malabar Farm State Park
A working farm near Lucas that Louis Bromfield made famous. Malabar Farm State Park.
Open
3 Loudonville
The gateway to the Mohican gorge. Mohican State Park.
Open
4 Mifflin
The end of the SR 603 branch.

Take the stops with you

Load the 4 stops into your maps app to drive between them.

Google Maps: stops 1 to 4

The file holds 4 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

Malabar Farm State Park
A farm park near the byway.
Open
Mohican State Park
A gorge and canoe river at Loudonville.
Open

Tips

  • Combine with Mohican State Park's gorge.

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.