31. Mount Airy Forest
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 352-4080
Address: 5083 Colerain Avenue
Description: This 1,466-acre park was the first municipal forest when established by the city of Cincinnati in 1911. Today it’s a natural haven and playground for West Siders, with miles of hiking trails, a Frisbee-golf course, numerous picnic shelters, and play areas. Mount Airy Arboretum features displays of azaleas, flowering crab apples, lilacs, and rhododendrons. The forest itself boasts a million hardwoods and conifers. The giant “medieval castle” that you can see from Mount Airy Forest is actually a masonry wall that hides 14 water towers sitting atop the highest point in Hamilton County.
32. Mount Echo Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 352-4080
Description: This park offers one of the best views of the Ohio River valley, including downtown. With several shelters, it’s a great place for family outings and picnics. There’s a small playground and basketball and tennis courts.
33. Juilfs Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 474-0003
Address: 8249 Clough Pike
Description: This Anderson Township park, which attracts its fair share of folks from the west side of Clermont County, has one of the East Side’s best playgrounds, plus soccer and baseball/softball fields and a walking trail. It also has tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts.
34. Miami Whitewater Forest
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 367-9632
Description: This 4,279-acre park is the largest in the Hamilton County Park District. In addition to more than 3 miles of nature paths, it has a 7.8-mile multipurpose jogging/bicycling/skating/walking trail, a 1.2-mile inner loop for the less adventurous, horseback riding trails, a boathouse and lake, boat fishing, campground, Frisbee-golf course, playgrounds, a visitor center, gift shop, and snack bar. Pirate Cove is a fun “sprayground,” with a cascading waterfall and water cannons. Located in northwest Hamilton County, the park is also easily accessible to residents of Dearborn County, Indiana, just off exit 3 of Interstate 74.
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: 11450 U.S. Highway 42
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
37. Woodland Mound Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 474-0580
Description: Stephen Ostrander, author of Natural Acts Ohio, rates the view from Woodland Mound among the best scenic overlooks in Ohio. But there’s more to do here than look around. The park has a great playground, two low-key hiking trails of 1 mile and 0.5 mile, a well-regarded golf course, an outdoor concert area where the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops have occasional free concerts, ball fields, and a snack bar. Because it is on a steep hillside over the river, Woodland Mound almost always has a good enough breeze to fly a kite.Woodland Mound also has a “sprayground,” a small water park for children ages 2 to 12 with waterslides, animals, and shooting water.The Seasongood Nature Center includes nature exhibits, wildlife-viewing windows, and a gift/bookshop.
38. Hueston Woods State Park and Nature Preserve
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 523-6347
Description: This 3,596-acre forest straddles the Butler and Preble county line just off Ohio Highway 732, north of Oxford. It has a popular lodge and restaurant, golf course, picnic areas, camping, fishing, swimming pools, a nature center, and a pioneer farm museum. A 200-acre nature preserve within the park is a great place for hiking and bird-watching (150 species have been spotted here). The park also has a lake for boating. Boat rentals are available.
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: 4949 Tealtown Road
40. East Fork State Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 734-4323
Description: East Fork is a large (8,420-acre) but relatively underdeveloped state park in eastern Clermont County. The public beach is covered with a mix of fine pebbles and sand. There are picnic shelters, a campground, hiking trails, a 5-mile mountain bike trail, and 55 miles of bridle paths. The lake, with its five launch ramps, offers bountiful bass fishing and boating opportunities.
41. Stonelick State Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 734-4323
Address: 2895 Lake Drive
Description: This is the smaller and lesser used of the state parks in Clermont County. The 1,058-acre park offers picnicking, hiking trails, and swimming. It also has camping. Restrooms and hot water are available so you don’t have to rough it entirely. Reservations can be made at (866) 644-6727. Stonelick Lake offers boating and fishing (bass, bluegill, and crappie).
42. Union Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Description: This is by far the best equipped of the locally run parks in Clermont County. It includes a walking trail (no bikes, puuhhlease), a playground, and basketball courts. Look for the Vietnam-era helicopter at the corner of the park, which is part of a Vietnam veterans memorial.
43. Caesar Creek State Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (513) 897-3055
Address: 4020 North Clarksville Road
Description: One of the largest and best-developed parks in Ohio, Caesar Creek’s 10,771 acres feature a large man-made lake with several boat ramps, a swimming beach, a campground, hunting and fishing opportunities, numerous picnic areas, hiking and bridle trails, and scenic overlooks. The visitor center displays fossils and Indian artifacts from the site and provides information about the area’s history. An original log cabin from 1807 located on this site became the anchoring attraction for Pioneer Village, a collection of other (mostly Quaker) homesteads from the late 1700s and early 1800s that have been rebuilt or relocated from other parts of the park.
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Address: 3380 Beaver Road, Union
45. Devou Park
City: Cincinnati, OH
Category: Parks & Recreation
Telephone: (859) 431-2577
Description: Another great urban park, Devou has possibly the best view of any park in the area, taking in the downtown Cincinnati skyline and the houses of old Covington. Devou’s playground has the most beautiful view you can get while pushing a kid on a swing. The 550-acre park also has a golf course, tennis courts, a lake, and picnic areas. The Behringer-Crawford Museum features exhibits about Northern Kentucky’s natural and cultural heritage, including a fascinating collection of dinosaur-era fossils and Ice Age artifacts.