We love to go exploring around our area with the kids. I get asked a lot where we like to take the kids to hike, so I decided to do a post on the best parks to take kids hiking in Greene County, OH.
I’ll elaborate…
We love to take the kids hiking, mainly short hikes between 2-4 miles. Thankfully, there are quite a few places within 30 minutes of where we live for us to go hiking. Here’s my current list of favorites. I’ll talk about these, then I’ll name a few other parks with fun play areas that we like to go to as well.
Best Hiking with kids in Greene County
- The Narrows Reserve
- Sweet Arrow Reserve
- Sugar Creek Metropark
- Siebenthaler Fen
- Glen Helen
- Bill Yeck Park
The Narrows Reserve
We discovered this park last year. The main parking has a trail that parallels the Little Miami River. It is shaded and fairly flat. There are several other trails, and another parking area has some cages with raptors in them. Here is the map. We love combining the River Loop with the Sugar Bush Loop.
Sweet Arrow Reserve
Sweet Arrow Reserve is a little hard to find in the Sugarcreek/Beavercreek area. The entrance is right around the corner from First Baptist Church Kettering. Our Apple map took us to the wrong place, but Google maps directs you to the right place. This park has many fun trails. You can find the trail map here. From the parking lot, we took the red trail, to the black trail, to the blue trail then back to the parking lot. This way is mostly shaded and has a lot of up and down. There is also a tree that is standing but hollowed out that is fun to stand in and take a picture!
Sugarcreek Metropark
We love this park. It is about 35 minutes away from our house, but well worth the drive! They have several different loops for you to hike. What I love about this park is that all the trails are marked so well! There is a section with really old oak trees called the Three Sisters. The kids love to go look at them and marvel at how old and gigantic they are. We normally do the 3 mile green trail, but in the fall, the Orange Osage Tunnel Trail is beautiful. On the Green trail, you do cross a few creeks and the kids love to jump in them and get their feet wet!
The big tree behind them is one of the Three Sisters. 
I love the swings at random places! 
This is the Osage Orange Tunnel. The draping trees create a tunnel. In the fall, the colors are gorgeous!
Siebenthaler Fen Wetland Boardwalk
This is a bit of a random park we happened to find one day. It is just a one mile boardwalk round trip in a marsh. There is an observation deck that you can climb up to see more of the wetland at the end before you turn around and walk back out. There are benches along the way at various places. It is located just off of Beaver Valley Rd on Fairground Rd in Beavercreek. Here is a good map.
Glen Helen
This is a unique park in Yellow Springs. The trails aren’t marked that well, but they are well traveled so you can find your way pretty easy using the map. You can see the actual “Yellow Spring” as well as a fun little cave called the “Grotto”. They also have a Raptor Center that you can hike to as well and see owls, raptors, and other birds they are rehabilitating. Parking is $5 and you will need to have cash! Here is the map!
The Grotto 
The Cascades 
The Yellow Spring
Bill Yeck Park
This is a huge park! It has lots of various trails and an awesome playground that is very unique! I suggest entering at the Forest Field entrance. That is the closest entrance to the playground, and you can easily hop on the purple trail to hike which is what we did! We do want to come back and hike the yellow trail that is longer and goes through the woods. This park is in Centerville and is within a mile of Sugarcreek Metropark. Find the map here.
A few others…
We have a few more places we love to take our kids, but I just don’t have time to write about all of them!
John Bryan State Park has wonderful trails and we probably go here the most since it is closest to our house. You can’t go wrong with any trail you do here! It connects with Clifton Gorge which is also awesome.
Cedarville’s Indian Mound Reserve is also a favorite of ours. We hike this often and come here to play in the creek. Find the map here.
Magee Park in Bellbrook has a fun playground and a creek that the kids love to play in. I bring a camp chair and sit in the shade while they splash and catch crawfish!
Morris Reserve near Lower BellBrook Road has some fun trails as well. We did the ones that were in the woods and had shade!
If you’re up for more of a drive, we love the Horseshoe Falls Trail at Caesar Creek State Park. It is about 35 minutes away from us in Cedarville where we live. I blogged about it here. The kids love the swinging bridge and walking through the creek picking up rocks with fossils on the back of them!
Please leave comments with places I am missing! We love exploring our area! I hope you enjoy reading about what I think are the best places to take kids hiking in Greene County, OH!