Sand Run Metro Park

This 987-acre park features more than 14 miles of trails and areas for sledding, cross-country skiing and ice skating. In the cool, shady ravines of Sand Run and its tributary streams, hemlocks, ferns, skunk cabbage and large colonies of horsetails grow.

Each spring, large-flowered trilliums and other seasonal blooms appear, and salamanders migrate to vernal pools. The towering forest is home to a variety of squirrels, owls and pileated woodpeckers. Red-tailed hawks roost in the treetops when they are not soaring over the ridges. Many rare species inhabit the park, including sharp-shinned hawks, butternut trees and native orchids.