Strouds Run State Park is a gem, just a few miles from the City of Athens in southeastern Ohio. Lots of great trails around the lake and above on the many ridges throughout the park. Fairly large campground with spots that aren't too close together. Beach is typically dragged each morning in the summer and canoes, kayaks, and even motorized pontoon boats for rent. The motorized pontoon is blasphemy for those of us who have been going to the park since the 1970s, but they aren't so many that it is too loud or disruptive. There is one short trail that is accessible for all and there is a mix of pit and flush toilet facilities. There is no life guard at the beach but there is a safe and sizable enclosed playground for young ones. read more

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Pretty spot for a day in nature. They have a nice playground, boat launch, and plenty of bench's overlooking water. They do have bathrooms too! read more

Strouds Run State Park - Hiking Near Me - Athens, Ohio

Beautiful lake and hiking trails but not well marked. We stopped here on the way to Athens and the park is really beautiful. We had a hard time finding a map that had the actual mileage of each trail. We decided to take the white pine trail to vista point and then back down the thunderbunny trail. We found way but the trail splits a lot and is unmarked at points. The trail is also not blazed. We stopped right after a rain so the lake had a beautiful fog covering it. read more

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The lake was larger than we thought. Some little engine boats. Few people fishing and others picnicking. There was a small beach and some families cooling off on a hot summer day. Close to athens which is also a college town. read more

new playground put in! super fun, hung out with my friends today and we played on it a little bit. waters not the very cleanest but its a lake lol. read more

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This is a really fun oasis in Athens! Most folks who are visiting are going for the Hocking Hills vibes, and this is a place to be totally immersed in them. It can get crowded, especially on busy college weekends, but there's a lot of space in the water to spread out. There are buoys marking the swim-only area, and there is a beach for swimmers where you can set up your chairs, canopy, and/or beach towels. There is a separate beach/dock area for boats and paddle boards, etc. The view around the area is stunning, and a great place for drone photography. My only major complaint is that the parking lot area is weird! It's a one way roundabout that can be confusing and hard to park in, especially if you've never been there before. You can't scope out a spot and then come back to it. The intention is understandable, but it's the worst part of Strouds, other than the crowds. read more

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We decided to check out Strouds while on a recent trip down to Athens/OU. We wanted to hit the trails for a bit and enjoy the beautiful fall weather. The park is pretty large and it took us a bit to figure out where to go to access any trails. We ended up going over to the beach area to park. While it was too cold for swimming, the beach looks well kept and they have rentals for boats, canoes, ect. The trails are not all that well marked and there wasn't much signage around to tell you in what direction to go to find x trail. We finally found the entrance to the Lakeview Tail and decided to give it a go. This is a nice walk (mostly) along the water. The trail is well defined but really only big enough for one person (not room for 2 to walk next to one another). Since the trails are one way, you either have to decide to walk back the same way, or figure out which trails connect and how to snake back to where you started. We choose the later. Up the Boogie Trail we went. It's fairly steep going up and we definitely had to stop to catch our breath a couple of times. I would highly suggest taking (or finding) a walking stick here. The Boogie Trail was moderately difficult and the trail was clearly not well traveled. Multiple times we had to stop and figure out which way the trail went. We finally noticed there are red squares painted on some of the trees where the trail wasn't clear and that was really helpful! (Some spots it was a plastic red strip tied around the tree.) What was meant to be an hour or so hike turned into two. I'm just glad we made it out alive! While it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our hike, just beware some trails are easier than others. Better signage with info regarding distance and difficulty would be much appreciated. And a map at more of the trail intersections would have been helpful (we only saw one). Thank God I screen shotted the map before we left! read more

Strouds Run State Park - Beach - Hiking Near Me - Athens, Ohio

Oh, good 'ol Strouds Run used to be my escape from college courses. Now it's simply a nice park to enjoy if you happen to find yourself in the Athens area. While exploring you'll find hiking trails, a giant lake, and even a beach-like area. This is where having a frisbee comes in hand. Dogs are also more than welcome! If you're in the area and craving mother nature, Stroud's Run is a quick and easy place to get away and soak up the greenery. read more

This review is for the trails only, as that's the only park of the park I have been able to visit. The trails are beautiful, and much more natural than most. There are some serious hills along the path we took which was the rockhouse trail. Just be aware if you go the day after a rain (like we did) some of the inclines can be slick and harder to make your way up. One of the things that I appreciated about this trail system though was all of the connectors and alternate paths that allowed us to shorten our hike when we wanted to and take another way down that was less steep. The trails and intersections seemed very well marked, though we were lucky to be hiking with someone who runs the trails on a regular basis and knows them very well, so we weren't really relying on the signage. The views and serenity of this trail are fantastic. Once you get far enough in, you can't hear any traffic or civilization noises making for a very peaceful hike. read more

Strouds Run State Park - Hiking Near Me - Athens, Ohio

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Hiking trails could use some trimming of branches but other than that they're nice. Not too strenuous of a hike around the place. Beach area and water were clean, great place for a swim on a hot day! I didn't go out on the lake, but there's a boat rental that didn't look too expensive read more

Strouds Run State Park - View from parking area over lake - Hiking Near Me - Athens, Ohio

Some of the hiking trails at Stroud's Run are a bit more rugged than at many of the other state parks in Ohio. There are some very steep hills. The hiking itself here is enjoyable, but it's not for everyone. My main complaint, however, is that the park map is very poor. Some of the trails are not even labeled on the map. The actual trails themselves may be ok in terms of signage, but what good does that do you if they cross other trails and you can't match up a trail name with a corresponding one on a map? A friend and I wanted to hike for about an hour and it turned into a three hour hike because we accidentally ended up on a bridle trail instead of a hiking trail. It took us a long time to find our way back. It was a pretty hike, but I would have enjoyed it more if we had been better able to tell where we were. All that said, I do have great memories of this place from back when I went to O.U. and my friends and I would come hang out here when we just had to get away from campus. The lake is really quite beautiful. I would definitely be willing to come back and maybe try the trail around the lake or one of the other trails. read more

Camping & Swimming Review I've camped here twice the summer of 2016 and had a wonderful time each trip. I'm giving it a 4 star based on the tiny bathrooms at the campsite, and the overall non-impressive setting. CAMPGROUND There are probably around 70 camping slots, many of them are close together. 3 of the sites have wooden canopies, which can be nice. The road that runs through the campsite is paved and there are multiple outhouses and water pumps. The bathrooms are dreadfully small; the smallest outhouses I've ever seen. Also extremely smelly and full of flies. No showers. The sad thing is, the campground is right next to a river, but you can't see it. There is a wooded patch between the sites and the creek, and be careful crossing through it because it's full of poison Ivy. CABINS They have two cabins next to each other that I think are $40/night to rent. I peaked in the window and they were just 2 single sized bunk beds and a desk. Looks like it fits 4 adults comfortably. Not sure if it's first come, first serve or if you have to pre-arrange. SWIMMING The campground is within a medium length walk from the swimming area at Shrouds Run. We drove because of my girlfriend's knee issues. They do have handicap parking at the beach. You can rent kayaks, canoes, paddle boards, pontoon boasts, etc from a little shop that sells ice cream and firewood. You can also bring your own watercraft. The water is warm. It's easy to stir up a bit of sediment while you're swimming. Flotation devices are not permitted. We were on inner tubes and a park ranger came and asked us to come out of the water. I have really good memoirs of camping here and will come again soon. read more

My wife and I had heard of this park before and since we were in the area, we thought we'd stop by and check it out. A beautiful park, much larger than we had anticipated on the outskirts of Athens. The hiking trails we enjoyable. We felt for the most part they were marked well and provided some great scenery that we're not use to seeing in Northwest Ohio (the flat lands). We could tell there was definitely a Friends group that was working hard to maintain trails as there were newer foot bridges installed and newer signage posted. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to hike any other trails, just about 3 miles worth. Kudos to the local Friends group and volunteers for showing obvious signs of upkeep and improvement. As for the campground area, what a huge disappointment. My wife and I are tent campers and often prefer quieter, non-electric areas etc. but one word sums it up, "neglected". The 80 site campground was sparsely populated (about 5 sites taken on a weekend). It's sad to see a state park campground look like this. The grass was a grown up and shabby, broken swings hanging from swingsets that obviously haven't been maintained for years, fire rings not even visible because they were so overgrown in weeds. The vault latrines looked like they were from the 50's and weren't well maintained. The camp pads had dead grass and brush piled on them that had obviously been there for a very long time. Weeds and trees growing up and completely in front of the amphitheater screen at the campground entrance. This is one of the biggest reasons I rated the park as a "3-ok". If you want to go hiking, fishing, hang out by the lake and enjoy the views, it's a nice park that seems to offer a lot of recreational activities, but if you plan to camp here, I'd consider other state parks first. read more

Not a bad place if you got kids to take swimming , the fishing is fare but seen better