Ohio's State Parks are a treasure, and should be cherished as such. Our recent stay here turned from a not-so-great rainy Friday night, into a beautiful crisp fall day. Findley is a great park and a great place to spend a few days.
CAMPGROUND:
We primitive camp (no electricity, in a tent, the way camping should be!) It just so happened that the site we picked (59) got us a complete private weekend. The rain and the chilly Ohio fall mornings might have taken a part in that. But the site handled the rain well, and was a great private location. We were even visited by a family of deer and a curious raccoon during the weekend. The woods surrounding the campground are beautiful as well, offering lots of flora and fauna to admire, key this weekend was the abundance of many species of fungus, which were growing everywhere around Findley. The picnic table was solid, and the fire ring had a grate for cooking. Clean outhouse, short walk to the shower house, fresh water and a dumpster closeby, not much more we could ask for.
HIKING TRAILS:
The closer you stay to the campgrounds, the less the trails are marked due to a large amount of unmarked cross trails that cut through the woods. We were able to find the lake trail, and subsequently followed the lake on the creekbank, buckeye, larch, and hickory grove trails. Although the mountain bike trail intersects in a few places, we never encountered any bikers. Some areas of the trails needed some maintenance, as there were some standing puddles and epic mudholes. But for the most part, the weathered wide trails were pleasant and easy to hike, offering great views, and more excellent floral and fauna sightings.
PARK IN GENERAL:
The park is great, enough for me to want to buy a magnet to put on my fridge as a reminder of the wonderful places like this I get a chance to visit. The camping price is a bit steep for primitive non-electric ($22/night), but I can see that the sites are well maintained, the fire pits and bathrooms get cleaned regularly, and there's not tons of trash everywhere. For a place with 200+ camp sites, that's no easy feat. I'm very happy that the fee I pay supports the cause of having such a wonderful resource so close. True you can hear the occasional train whistle in the background, and some planes flying overhead, but given the location, there's plenty of nature to connect with and enough quiet to make for a peaceful trip. read more