Connect with nature this winter in your Metro Parks

The 1.8-mile Spring Run Trail at Sharon Woods Metro Park is great for viewing wildlife. Photo/Bryan Knowles

Don’t let the shorter days and winter cold get you down. Send the blahs packing and move your body and soul to a nearby Metro Park. Make the parks your winter playground destination.

Blendon Woods Metro Parks features a  hill for kiddies. Photo/Dan Bissonette

It’s easy to feel like a kid again in your Metro Parks, where you’ll find some of the best sledding hills in Central Ohio. We’ve got plenty of spots where the young and the young at heart can engage in Ohio’s favorite winter pastime…flying down a snow packed hill on a sled. Face coverings are required on the hills at Battelle Darby Creek, Highbanks and Sharon Woods. These are our most crowded hills and sledding usually involves lots of screaming and yelling, which easily spreads germs and with crowds it will be difficult to achieve the proper social distancing. Click to see a list of sledding hills.

The Darby Creek Greenway Trail at Prairie Oaks Metro Park is great for a cross country outing. Photo/Tina Fronk

With a frosty nip in the air and fresh snow on the ground, step into a pair of cross-country skis and enjoy the quiet of the winter woods. You’ll get a good aerobic workout on the 3-mile Dyer Mill Trail at Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park. The trail is fairly wide and mostly clear of overhanging trees.

Lace up your skates and get the good times gliding with an icy exhilaration on the ponds at Battelle Darby Creek or Blendon Woods. Photo/Dan Bissonette

Your Metro Parks feature miles of hiking trails that transform into a winter wonderland once snow falls. There’s nothing like getting out in the woods and fields and experiencing the crisp, clean air and solitude that makes winter so magical. Get your heart pumping and mind cleared with a winter walk in the woods.