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

Ohio & Erie Canalway Scenic Byway

Northeast Ohio
Scenic byway · Dover to Cleveland
110miles
8stops

A 110-mile byway along the old Ohio & Erie Canal, past the Cuyahoga Valley, Zoar and the Tuscarawas valley.

Length
110 miles by the state list; the byway follows the former canalway from Dover to Cleveland
Designated
June 2005
Follows
The Ohio & Erie Canal, built in the 1820s and 1830s
Also on the route
The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, which the Buckeye Trail uses
Best for
Canal towns, valley overlooks and a day out of the car
Designation
An America's Byway
In the park
Twenty miles of the route drive through the heart of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, on the nation's first inland waterway link between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico

The story

Ohio began its canal age in 1825, and its canals, built between 1825 and 1845, came to nearly 1,000 miles. The Ohio & Erie Canal connected Lake Erie at Cleveland to the Ohio River at Portsmouth, and the communities along it grew rich shipping grain and coal. Zoar's German separatists helped pay off their land by digging their section of the canal. Steam railroads made the canals uneconomical and most fell out of use by the end of the 19th century.

Today the canal corridor is a scenic byway, with much of the towpath open to walkers and cyclists. It runs through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, the canal towns of Summit, Stark and Tuscarawas counties and the historic villages of Zoar and Bolivar, and the Buckeye Trail follows its towpath through the Akron and Massillon sections.

Stops along the way

1 Brecksville and Bedford Reservations
Cleveland Metroparks at the north end. Brecksville Reservation has the Ottawa Overlook backcountry sites.
Open
2 Cuyahoga Valley National Park
The towpath and the Scenic Railroad run through it. The national park is on the route.
Open
3 Akron and Canal Fulton
Canal towns where the towpath is still used.
4 Massillon
A canal-era city on the Buckeye Trail's Massillon Section.
5 Fort Laurens
Ohio's only Revolutionary War fort, on the towpath at Bolivar. See the Fort Laurens entry.
Open
6 Zoar Village
A communal village on the canal, where members dug the canal for pay. See the Zoar Village entry.
Open
7 Schoenbrunn Village
Ohio's first Christian settlement, near New Philadelphia. See the Schoenbrunn entry.
Open
8 Dover
The byway's southern end, home of the Warther Museum. See the Warther Museum entry.
Open

Take the stops with you

Load the 8 stops into your maps app to drive between them.

Google Maps: stops 1 to 8

The file holds 8 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

Cuyahoga Valley National Park
The national park at the heart of the byway.
Open
Brecksville Reservation
A Metroparks reservation with backcountry camping.
Open
Bedford Reservation
Tinkers Creek gorge and waterfalls.
Open

Tips

  • Combine driving with a walk on the towpath; parking is at trailheads along the way.
  • Zoar and Fort Laurens share a combination ticket.
  • Fall foliage and spring are the best seasons.

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.