9 Top Places To Visit In Ohio This Fall
As summer gives way to cooler air across Ohio, the seasonal turn sweeps across the state's woodlands and meadows. Between late September and mid-October, autumn foliage reaches its peak, covering the rural landscape in gold, red, orange, and yellow. During that short window, the state's best destinations fill with leaf-peepers out for the color and the crisp air.
Getting outdoors is a chance to take in the turning leaves in the Cuyahoga Valley, and also to join the long-held traditions and family events in Circleville. The nine places below best capture what an Ohio autumn looks like.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Sitting between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio's only national park is worth a visit any time of year, but it is at its best in the third week of October when the color peaks. The 33,000-acre park gives leaf-peepers plenty of ground to cover, and the trails are the way to do it. The Ledges Trail gets busy this time of year for good reason: it runs below sandstone cliffs and leads to Ledges Overlook, where the whole valley opens up beneath you.
The Oak Hill Trail loop is another good route, with maple, white ash, and aspen turning along the way to Sylvan Pond. Do not skip the Brandywine Gorge Trail, which reaches 65-foot Brandywine Falls, a photographer's reward when the surrounding color reflects in the water below.
Hocking Hills
Through September and October, the forest in the Hocking Hills shifts from deep green into crimson, gold, and mustard. Hikers are spoiled for choice here. Conkle's Hollow State Nature Preserve holds arguably the best route in the region, with a rim trail running along dramatic cliff edges above the gorge and an accessible paved path along the valley floor.
Inside Hocking Hills State Park, the rugged stretch between Ash Cave and Cedar Falls offers good photographs while keeping you clear of the worst crowds. If you do not mind heights, the fire tower in Hocking Hills State Forest climbs about 80 feet and gives a wide view over the canopy.
Mohican State Park
Mohican State Park is a longtime fall favorite. This 1,110-acre park is surrounded by Mohican-Memorial State Forest, and the dense woodland around it puts on a strong display. There is no shortage of routes, but the 2-mile Lyons Falls loop is among the best. It weaves past rock formations and both Big Lyons and Little Lyons Falls, where the water catches the changing leaves.
On the opposite side of the Lyons loop, the three-quarter-mile Pleasant Hill Dam Trail is a worthy alternative, as is the Hemlock Gorge Trail. If hiking feels like too much, the 25-mile Mohican Mountain Bike Trail covers the scenery on two wheels.
Yellow Springs
Few places in Ohio concentrate as much autumn into as small an area. Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, a National Natural Landmark, cuts a narrow dolomite canyon where the Little Miami River drops through rock walls, and the trail along the rim looks straight down into the color. It runs directly into John Bryan State Park next door, which has the best hiking in southwest Ohio and a gorge rim trail that stays busy through October for obvious reasons.
The village itself is the other half of the trip, a few walkable blocks of independent shops, bookstores, and the Little Art Theatre, an art-house cinema running since the 1920s. Glen Helen Nature Preserve wraps around the edge of town with 20 miles of trail and the yellow spring the place is named for, an iron-rich seep that stains the rock orange. Just up the road at Clifton, the grist mill on the Little Miami is among the largest water-powered mills still standing in the country.
Ohio's Amish Country
Holmes County and the country around it draws visitors all year, but autumn makes the trip better. Through early October the oaks, maples, and hickories turn deep red and soft yellow across the farmland. This is the largest Amish settlement in the world, and the Amish Country Byway is the way to see it: the route winds about 160 miles past farms, woodlots, and hills, with stops in Sugarcreek, Berlin, and Walnut Creek.
Pull over along the way for pumpkins, gourds, apples, and handmade goods at the roadside stands, and expect buggies sharing the road the whole way. In Sugarcreek, the World's Largest Cuckoo Clock performs on the half hour through the warmer months, with a carved band and a little couple that comes out to dance a polka.
Circleville
This Pickaway County city on the Scioto River hosts one of the most anticipated fall events in the state, drawing over 400,000 people a year. The Circleville Pumpkin Show, billed as the Greatest Free Show on Earth, has run since 1903 and brings the downtown to a standstill in mid-October with giant pumpkin displays and a pumpkin pie measuring several feet across.
Beyond the festival, parades, carnival rides, craft stalls, and pumpkin-based food fill the streets. A few minutes out of town, A.W. Marion State Park brings the quieter version of autumn, with wooded hills turning above Hargus Lake and boating and fishing on the water.
Salt Fork State Park
About an hour and a half east of Columbus, Salt Fork is the largest state park in Ohio at more than 17,000 acres, and it holds one of the more varied landscapes in the state: forested hills, valleys, and open meadow. In autumn the whole thing turns. Trails run throughout, with good odds of seeing deer and wild turkey along the way.
The park also has Ohio's largest inland beach. Standing at the lakeside you get the foliage doubled on the water, and there is fishing, boating, and the rest of the lake recreation besides. Salt Fork has a second reputation locally as prime Bigfoot-sighting country, which the park leans into with an annual conference.
Shawnee State Forest
Shawnee is Ohio's largest state forest at roughly 65,000 acres, and the ridges here are steep enough that locals call the area the Little Smokies. Color starts in early October and peaks around the middle of the month. At the center sits the 1,095-acre Shawnee State Park, which draws boaters, kayakers, swimmers, and birders.
Several hiking trails run the reservoir perimeter, including the Park Loop Trail, and the backpack trail network reaches well into the forest for anyone wanting more than an afternoon. This is one of the darker corners of the state after sunset, which makes it worth staying past the last light.
Bainbridge
This village in Ross County, in the hill country of southern Ohio, has the outdoor ground to make a full autumn weekend. Paint Creek State Park spreads over about 5,600 acres where the reds, yellows, and oranges come in strong, and the reflections off Paint Creek Lake make the photographs. Nearby, the Highlands Nature Sanctuary protects forest, gorges, and dolomite caves in the Rocky Fork valley, with trails through some of the most unusual terrain in the region. It rewards a visit in any season, with trillium carpeting the slopes in spring and the gorge walls turning in October.
The Bainbridge Fall Festival of Leaves is reason enough on its own. The weekend runs a parade, carnival rides, craft booths, and pumpkin decorating, and it has been going since the 1960s. Chillicothe and the Hopewell earthworks are a short drive east if you want history alongside the scenery.
Timing Your Trip
Color moves south through Ohio over about three weeks, so the timing matters more than the destination. The Cuyahoga Valley in the north usually peaks in the third week of October, while Shawnee and the southern hill country run a little later. Circleville is the one fixed date, since the Pumpkin Show is always mid-October. If you want the quietest version, Salt Fork and Shawnee have the space to absorb a crowd. If you want the busiest, Hocking Hills will oblige. Either way, give yourself a weekend rather than a day, because the drive between any two of these is half the pleasure.
