Wildlife fills secluded park

 Dr. Edward Thomas made the secluded Clear Creek Valley one of the most scientifically studied areas in Ohio.

Thomas, the curator of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society from 1931 to 1962 and a nature writer for 40 years for the Columbus Dispatch, built a small cabin in the valley south of Lancaster.

He called the Clear Creek Gorge ''one of the most scenic and interesting natural history areas in the state'' and ''one of the most beautiful gorges in Ohio.''

He named his 80-acre tract up a hollow where the trees had been timbered Neotoma. That name came from the Allegheny wood rat, a rare species he discovered in the valley in 1923. It was the second sighting of the creature in Ohio and the first in the 1900s.

The creature, later a federally endangered species, was last spotted in 1984 and is presumed gone from the Clear Creek Valley as the forest has returned.

Today Thomas' pristine valley is called Clear Creek Metro Park and covers 5,252 acres. The semi-primitive day-use area is managed by Columbus Metro Parks.

The narrow, wooded valley along Clear Creek is also Ohio's largest dedicated state preserve with 4,769 acres.

It is a secluded, seven-mile-long valley with forests of oak and hemlock, ferns and rhododendrons, Please see Valley, E8

along with rocky outcroppings. It is a place where Ohio prairies meet Appalachian forests, where hemlocks pushed south by ancient glaciers meet Southern species like black vultures.

The rustic park — about 21/2 hours from Akron — is easily accessible off U.S. 33 about seven miles south of Lancaster.

It is a surprisingly rugged park with nearly 15 miles of trails that explore ridges and ravines in Hocking and Fairfield counties.

The Cemetery Ridge Trail runs 2.5 miles and climbs to a ridge top. The three-mile Chestnut Trail runs along a ridge. Creekside Meadows Trail is an easy two-mile walk along the stream. Fern Trail is about two miles through a ravine. Hemlock Trail is a difficult 1.5 miles that traverses ravines, hemlock groves and thick forests.

You can create a great three-mile walk by hiking portions of the Hemlock, Fern and Creekside Meadows trails.

Glacial flooding created the valley from the underlying Blackhand conglomerate sandstone that is also found at nearby Hocking Hills State Park. The result is spectacular cliffs, steep ravines and scenic outcroppings that overlook Clear Creek.

Leaning Lena is the name of a house-sized boulder that fell from the cliff and sits at the edge of Clear Creek Road, which runs east-west through the valley.

Written Rock is a graffiti-filled cliff that sits along the road at the western edge of the park. Spray paint has been used, unfortunately, in recent years. Grooves on a rock at the base of Written Rock may have been used by ancient Indians to polish axes, archaeologists report.

The old cabin used by Thomas, one of the first Metro Parks commissioners, still stands. Nearby is the Mathias family log cabin from the 1920s.

Today about 95 percent of the park is forested with oak-hickory, south Appalachian oak, mixed woodlands and bottomland forests. You may encounter white-tailed deer, coyotes, bobcats, wild turkey and ruffed grouse.

Typical trees include dogwood, redbud, wild plum, sour gum, tulip, hemlock, sassafras, sourwood, pitch pine, Kentucky coffee, sweet birch, sycamore, willow, red maple, black walnut, American beech and scarlet, black and chestnut oaks.

The moist, shady ravines are filled with rhododendrons and lots of ferns, more than 40 species in all.

More than 800 species of plants and 1,400 species of animals have been documented at Clear Creek. That includes about 40 species that are on Ohio's rare and endangered list. The park is popular with wildflower lovers and is also home to 80 species of butterflies and 1,200 species of moths.

Clear Creek has been named an Important Birding Area by Audubon Ohio. It is home to 150 species including 20 types of breeding warblers. Clear Creek's birds have been widely studied since the 1920s, thanks to Thomas and his friends.

Visitors can fish from 5-acre Lake Ramona and you may catch rock bass, smallmouth bass and stocked brown trout in Clear Creek, a pretty riffle-and-pool stream that empties into the nearby Hocking River.

In the 1960s and early 1970s, the valley was eyed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It wanted to build a flood-control dam and flood the Clear Creek Valley. Those plans were defeated.

In 1973, the family of Columbus businessman Allen F. Beck donated 2,234 acres to Metro Parks. It became a state nature preserve in 1985.

Other families donated additional land, and tracts were sold to the park district. It also acquired the Barneby Environmental Studies Center on Lake Ramona from Ohio State University.

In 1996, Clear Creek Park was opened to the public by Metro Parks. Public access to large areas within the park is difficult. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to dark daily.

Directions from the Akron area: Take I-76/U.S. 224 west to I-71. Take I-71 south to Columbus. Follow I-270 east to U.S. 33. Take U.S. 33 south for 31 miles to Lancaster. Continue south on U.S. 33 another seven miles to Clear Creek Road (County Road 116). Look for the Sunoco gas station. Turn right on Clear Creek Road. Picnic areas and trailheads are scattered along the road for the next seven miles.

The park office is located at Starner House, 185 Clear Creek Road, Rockbridge, OH 43149, 740-385-1834. That's about five miles down Clear Creek Road from U.S. 33.

You can also contact the Metro Parks main office at 1069 W. Main St., Westerville 43081, 614-891-0700, http://www.metroparks.net. The park district features 15 natural area parks that cover more than 23,500 acres in central Ohio. You can also get information from http://www.ohiodnr.com/dnap or 614-265-6453.

Another nearby option is Wahkeena State Nature Preserve managed by the Ohio Historical Society.

The 150-acre heavily wooded tract is not big and has two trails that stretch 1.5 miles. There is a boardwalk through a pond and small lake, Lake Odonato, plus sandstone cliffs. Eight different wild orchids have been identified there.

Wahkeena comes from a Shawnee word for ''most beautiful.'' The property was purchased in 1931 by Columbus businessman Frank Warner and his wife, Carmen. It was later used as an outdoor education center.

It will be open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekends from April through October.

Admission is $7 per vehicle.

Wahkeena is at 2200 Pump Station Road off U.S. 33 in Sugar Grove in Fairfield County, just north of Clear Creek Metro Park.

For information, call 740-746-8695 or 800-297-1883. You can also check out Print    Reprint    Most Popular    Subscribe

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