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117 parks in 7 regions

The Cascades at Glen Helen

Yellow Springs · Greene County

A small tiered cascade over limestone in a wooded ravine near the preserve's namesake Yellow Spring

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Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source: Official page
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A small limestone cascade in the roughly 1,000 acre Glen Helen Nature Preserve, near the iron rich Yellow Spring that gave the village its name.

Height: About 10 feet
Trail: About 1 mile round trip from the Corry Street lot
Managed by: Glen Helen Association, with Antioch College
Best time: Spring and after rain; the spring keeps some flow year round
Size: About 1,000 acres of forest and gorge
Fee: Free

When it flows

Runs year round since it is partly spring fed, but is fullest after rain and snowmelt; can slow to a light trickle during dry late summer stretches.

The story

Glen Helen sits in a limestone gorge cut by Birch Creek, part of the same Silurian bedrock exposed downstream at Clifton Gorge. The preserve's namesake Yellow Spring, an iron rich mineral spring, stains the rock and soil around it orange and gave both the village and an early health resort here their name.

Native American groups used the spring and gorge for generations before European settlement, and in the 1800s the mineral spring drew visitors to a resort hotel. Antioch College alumnus Hugh Taylor Birch donated the roughly 1,000 acre glen to the college in 1929 as a memorial to his daughter, Helen Birch Bartlett, and it became one of Ohio's first educational forests. Antioch College owned and ran Glen Helen for nearly a century until financial strain, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, led the college to sell it in 2020 to the newly formed nonprofit Glen Helen Association, which still manages the preserve today alongside the college's Glen Helen Raptor Center.

Detailed current rules on dogs were not found in the sources checked; contact the Glen Helen Association for the latest pet policy.

Stay behind railings and on marked trails. Wet rock at the top and base of a falls is slick in every season, and most Ohio falls do not allow swimming, wading or climbing. Flow depends on rain: many falls are a trickle in late summer and at their best after a wet spell, in spring, or frozen in a hard winter.

Getting to the falls

About a 1 mile round trip from the Corry Street parking area, heading downhill toward Birch Creek and then uphill to the Cascades on dirt paths; the trail network is not always clearly marked, so bringing a map is recommended.

Status

Open to the public

Hours

Dawn to dusk

Cost

Free

Phone

937-767-1286

Managed by

Glen Helen Association, in partnership with Antioch College

Please note

Stay on marked trails, since the network can be confusing; No swimming in the creek.