Day Hiking Resources
Opportunities for day hiking exist throughout the Buckeye State. Even some of the backpack trails listed on this site can be completed as day hikes by fit hikers. Many, too, offer loops or cutoff trails that allow for sections of the trail to be competed as a day hike.
Our friends over at TrekOhio.com have gone to great lengths to compile county-by-county listings of public places to hike. On their site, look along the top menu and select a region of the state, then select a county name for a list of hiking destinations in that county. Bob & Deb Platt, the creators of TrekOhio.com, are a hiking and blogging team who also frequently post trip reports on their site highlighting their many hiking excursions around the state.
ODNR Division of Ohio State Parks has compiled a list of state parks with hiking trails. Clicking on a park name will take you to a page highlighting the trails within the selected park. Trail names and mileage are included. ODNR’s interactive map of state park locations is useful for finding parks in your area of interest. While on ODNR’s site, you may also wish to view their interactive map of state nature preserves. The preserves included on the map can be visited without a permit.
You may find broader scale sites like AllTrails.com or Trails.com useful in your search for places to hike. Of the two, AllTrails seems to have more involvement from the hiking community in terms of user reviews and photos.
If you have questions or need recommendations, we encourage you to become involved in our Facebook group.
Happy hiking!