Glen Helen Nature Preserve, Yellow Springs, Ohio

Located in Yellow Springs, Ohio right next to Antioch College. According to "50 Hikes In Ohio" by Ralph Ramey this nature preserve is one of "Ohio's best kept secrets". We hiked on Sunday, March, 16th. Glen Helen is an absolutely beautiful trail, well maintained, obviously well-traveled, but clean - we saw almost no garbage on the trail. http://www.antioch-college.edu/glenhelen/

The trail head is 23 miles from I70 & I75 intersection. About 88 miles from our home - worth the drive!! Map to 505 Corry Street, Yellow Springs Ohio and bring 2 - dollar bills for parking. It's an honor system and you have to have exact change.

We started the trail behind the museum and found beautiful stone steps. We headed to the stream and stayed on the trail that kept us close to it the whole time, we figure about 3 miles. There are beautiful falls and cascades.

There are really cool rock formations all over this hike, they are layered (I'm no geologist) but they look like big legos put together. And since we don't have spring quite yet - the moss really stood out in round, furry, green clumps, and looked almost magical. There were no leprechaun sitings here, but I half expected one!

Our hike took us 2 1/2 hours, but with 26 miles of foot trails, a day could easily be spent exploring this beautiful area. The hike was easy, not a lot of elevation changes.

After hiking, we made our way into town and found "Ye Olde Trail Tavern" http://yeoldetrailtavern.com/about_us.htm believed to be the second oldest tavern in Ohio. Yellow Springs is a nice town with a lot of interesting shops and deserves a visit on it's own merit!