Shawnee State Forest

Ohio's largest state forest, with 60,000 acres of rugged hardwood ridges

Shawnee State Forest spreads across 60,000 acres of hardwood ridges immediately west of Portsmouth — the largest forest in Ohio and one of the best places in the state for back-country hiking. The 60-mile Shawnee Backpack Trail is the headline attraction, but day-hikers can do shorter loops from any of several trailheads off Route 125.

The park inside the forest has a small lake, swimming beach, and lodge with cabins. Late October colours are spectacular and bring weekend crowds; spring wildflowers in April and May are quieter and just as rewarding.

things to do nature
A story
Locals call this the Little Smokies because of the rolling forested ridges and the morning mist that hangs in the hollows. It is the largest contiguous forest in the state, the survivor of an area that was almost entirely cleared for nineteenth-century iron furnaces and then allowed to regrow.