This is a very mature wood. The surprising thing is that it is so urban, basically surrounded by the earliest Cincinnati suburban development. It, with the neighboring Buttercup Valley Preserve, totals 89 acres. The property had been in the Langland family since the original purchase of a 266 acre farm in 1822. Grandson Alexander Langland Parker sold approximately 28 acres to the Park Board in 1911, with additional acreage added in the 1950s. Many of the trees are felt to be two hundred years old and are over one hundred feet in height.

We parked on a city street near a well marked entrance to the greenspace. The concrete sidewalk, with mature woods on both sides, was a bit surprising. As we investigated it, the formal pathway connected neighborhoods to each other, as well as to the park.

It led us to our trailhead, an inviting footpath into a maple, oak, and beech wood.

The visual image was outstanding – mature trees with a clean understory that allowed nice vistas of the valleys and rolling terrain. 

There were massive American Beeches and many of them were hollow, as can be noted in this specimen, which we could see through. These hollows make mature beeches important den sites for wildlife.

But our auditory sense reminded us that we were in the city, as the background noise was the hum of the nearby expressway.

We were trying to get in one more hike before predicted frigid winter weather settled into the Ohio River Valley and probably did not respect the recent precipitation enough. The trail was muddy, especially in the valleys, which made trekking difficult. It was clear that others were of like mind, as the preserve was busy despite the overcast skies and trail conditions.

The path dropped down into the valley and crossed a simple bridge.

Soon we utilized similar stairs to climb a sister hill, which gave us a view back on the terrain and stairs that we had recently completed.

At the crest we found these four remnant stone pillars causing us to ponder their history. Given their symmetric positioning, perhaps they were remnants of a shelter that allowed folks to enjoy the view into the valley.

Nearby we saw several trees that had been marked and girded as part of the extensive efforts in this wood to remove invasive species. I believe that they may have been Tree-of-heaven.

The next interesting sighting was this cluster of wrapped trees right on the edge of the trail. We presumed the wrapping was to protect the saplings from deer rubs.

The trunks of these small trees had thorns that were frequently arrange in a circle around the stem.

The terminal bud at the top of the stem was very pronounced.

The remaining inflorescence (flowering structure) from last season was unique as well.

This is the somewhat rare Devil’s Walking Stick (Aralia spinosa). It is a small tree (less than 30 feet) and often does not have any branching. It spreads by root sprouts and frequently occurs in dense groupings of vertical single stems. It is often confused with Prickly Ash (Xanthoxylum americanum) which has a more branching shrub appearance, and its thorns are somewhat larger, less numerous, and slightly curved. 

Infrastructure wise, the trail was well marked including these posts which had names to exits that took you to the various residential streets that bordered the parkland. Without those the frequent branching of the trail would have been confusing.

The latter part of the hike was quite different from the first due to the presence of a significant amount of invasives, particularly Bush Honeysuckle, which appeared to overwhelm the understory and no longer allowed for vistas across the terrain. 

But we could see that the Park Board staff was trying to address them here as well.

With the difficulty of hiking on the muddy path we cut short this outing, but not before we had a few interesting observations. The first was this Shingle Oak leaf with paired holes. It appears that the insect that caused these avoids the parts of the leaf with veins. 

This Turkey Tail fungus was in good form on a decaying log.

And lastly, the photographer did a great job capturing the intricacy of the rather common moss that would be easy to underappreciate.

One last shout out to the park staff for the quality of the trail, and of the numerous stairs in particular. There is a lot of terrain change on this trail and good stairs are a must. Those at Parker Woods were in outstanding shape and very stable. They appeared to be made of native logs held in place by rebar that was hammered through the drilled log and into the soil.

In summary, our hike at Parker Woods Nature Preserve was a good outing. It is a smaller preserve that is clearly well utilized and embraced by the Northside neighborhood of Cincinnati, with which it is well integrated. It features excellent mature trees and large sections have open vistas. The website states that it has excellent spring ephemeral wildflowers and, given its soil quality and lack of competing understory, I would expect that to be so. It is always exciting to find these gems so close to home and within a major city, allowing people to see the beauty of nature without a road trip. Finally, I was impressed with the efforts of park staff to remove the invasive plants and to return this wood to its native state. That is no small task. Their website emphasizes this effort and the results were notable in the majority of the preserve. Well done.

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Photo credits to Peggy Juengling Burns (her last hike before the walking boot).

Overview:

Location – 1535 Glen Parker Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45223, about 7 miles from downtown Cincinnati. There are really multiple access points to the loop trail (see the map link below). 

Parking – on residential street but ample spaces.

Trail Conditions – leaf covered or bare dirt.

Print Map Link – https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cincyparks/visit-a-park/find-a-parkfacility/parkers-woods/parkers-woods-printable-trail-map/

Benches – none noted on trail, but at the Glen Parker Avenue trailhead there is a pocket park with swings, benches, and picnic tables.

Picnic Tables – we noted one at the Glen Parker Avenue trailhead.

Facilities – none.

Kids – there are quite a bit of stairs here so I would say 6 and older would be best.

Dogs – welcomed on a leash.

Suggested Paired Hikes – There is an additional trail in Buttercup Valley Preserve that we did not pursue on this wet day. The website states that this area also has very mature trees, had more challenging terrain, and does have a re-established prairie meadow.

Links:

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cincyparks/visit-a-park/find-a-parkfacility/parkers-woods/

https://www.cincinnati-oh.gov/cincyparks/visit-a-park/find-a-parkfacility/buttercup-valley-nature-preserve/