Enjoy A Prehistoric Adventure With Your Family On This Trail In Ohio That's Rich With Remnants From The Past
By Sarah McCosham|Published March 04, 2022
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Sarah McCosham
Author
I write like it's my job - because it is! I have a Master's in English and love words: crossword puzzles, Scrabble games, Wordle, and, of course, good, old-fashioned books.
I'm a writer and editor at OnlyInYourState, and a contributing writer at Cincinnati Magazine. I love the Great Outdoors and am endlessly awestruck by this beautiful country of ours. Coffee keeps me going, yoga keeps me sane, my kids keep me grounded, and my writing keeps me inspired.
My name is Sarah, and I’m a writer and editor here at OnlyInYourState. Born and raised in the Buckeye State, I am endlessly inspired by this beautiful country of ours and feel as though I might have lived in the Pacific Northwest in a previous life. As a mom of four kids, I’m always on the lookout for new adventures, and despite living in Ohio for 35 years, I am constantly surprised by the state’s natural beauty. Enough about me — welcome to OnlyInYourState’s Everyday Explorers.
Adventures abound in the Buckeye State, especially in my little corner of the state in Southwest Ohio. Cincinnati is known as the Queen City, but it might as well be called the Green City, as it’s home to world-class city *and* county parks, the former of which ranks among the country’s top public parks systems. Sharon Woods is one of Hamilton County’s Great Parks, and it’s perhaps the most popular and accessible. Centrally located, it’s 730 acres of glorious Ohio woods, wilderness, waterfalls… and fossils. Yes, fossils! And you’ll find these prehistoric relics along one of the most beautiful trails in all of Ohio: the eponymous Sharon Woods Gorge Trail.
Nestled in the heart of Hamilton County, there's a resplendent wooded wonderland that's just waiting to be explored.
While people often visit Sharon Woods for the epic playgrounds, a bustling marina, and historic village, the hiking at this Great Park truly is extraordinary. The park features a 2.6-mile paved walking and biking loop around the lake, a mile-long fitness trail through the woods, and the 1.8-mile, out-and-back Gorge Trail. The Gorge Trail is our favorite.
...and perhaps even a frozen waterfall or two, if you time your visit just right! There are several cascades along this trail, making it a wonderful adventure for waterfall chasers.
But the best part about this trail is the fossils. This region of Southwest Ohio is full of them. Once wholly underwater, Cincinnati is littered with rocks holding marine deposits from the Ordovician Period, when ancient ocean covered most of the United States more than 450 million years ago. Fascinating, right?
Today, we can follow these ancient breadcrumbs in local creeks and rock beds, making for amazing fossil-hunting conditions for little explorers like mine.
In Sharon Woods, the forested gorge of Sharon Creek was created about 20,000 years ago by large volumes of glacial meltwater. A 90-foot cliff at the Gorge is a great spot to search for marine fossils, which is something my kids enjoy doing during the warmer months of the year when the creek beds are low and dry.
In the winter, however, the Sharon Gorge Trail takes on a peaceful, almost sublime beauty that invites curiosity and contemplation -- even among the youngest explorers. Imagining what once was, so many years ago, is both grounding and inspiring. My kids find the history of this wooded wonderland just as intriguing as I do!
In 1977, Sharon Woods Gorge was designated as an official Ohio State Nature Preserve because it contains valuable examples of Ohio’s native plant and animal communities, geological features, Native American history, and the habitats of rare and endangered species. Today, it remains one of Cincinnati’s greatest treasures and is full of possibilities for adventure, exploration, and reflection.
And this trail epitomizes everything that's so wonderful about Sharon Woods: it's accessible, beautiful, and rife with historic intrigue.
While I'm all for big, bucket-list-worthy exploits, the past two years have shown me that my kids don't need a whole lot to be happy and entertained. Because often, the greatest experiences are hiding right in plain sight, in our own backyards.
Sometimes the simplest adventures are the most rewarding: the under-the-radar hikes you discover at a popular local park that lead to truly remarkable, awe-inspiring places.
The types of adventures like the Sharon Woods Gorge Trail, an incredible and accessible hike for Ohio families that's wonderfully well-within reach... and just waiting to be explored.
The Sharon Woods Gorge Trail is located within the eponymous Sharon Woods, which you’ll find at 11450 Lebanon Road, Sharonville, Ohio, 45241. The park is open daily from dawn to dusk, all year round. Admission to Sharon Woods is free; however, you’ll need a Great Parks of Hamilton County vehicle permit for entry. The cost of an annual Motor Vehicle Permit is $10/year for residents of Hamilton County and $16 for all other park visitors, and grants access to all 21 parks and preserves within the Great Parks of Hamilton County system.
For another prehistoric adventure in the Buckeye State, check out Trammel Fossil Park, an off-the-beaten-path spot (also in Sharonville!) where kids can learn about Cincinnati’s rich history, dig for fossils, and then take their findings home. And the best part? Admission to this hidden gem in Ohio is free!
To discover more incredible boots-on-the-ground adventures across America from our team of local travel experts, check out all of the articles in OnlyInYourState’s Everyday Explorers series. What destinations would you like to see featured next? Tell us where we should go on our nominations page.
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