The Buckeye Trail at East Fork State Park
The Buckeye Trail circles East Fork Lake using the 37-mile Steve Newman Perimeter Trail. Ohioan Steve Newman hiked around the world, and this trail is where is worldwide circumference came to an end. While you don’t need to walk the whole thing, you should at least check out the Twin Bridges Bridle Trail on the north side of the lake. At nine miles in length, this intermediate level hike leads through a forest and along the lake. It never gets too crowded as numerous options of smaller trail sections give plenty of room for everyone.

Clermont County’s rolling hills and meandering river valleys provide a colorful backdrop for spacious East Fork State Park. Shaped by the forces of the Illinoian and Wisconsinan glaciers, the East Fork region is characterized by beautiful hill country scenery and is noted for the occurrence of remnant prairie habitats. Illinoian glacial deposits are not common in Ohio but can be observed at East Fork and the surrounding area.

East Fork’s diverse landscape includes dry-forested hills, rocky cascades, abandoned farmlands, thickly grown floodplains, marshy grasslands, and swamp forests. This diversity lends well to an abundance of plant and animal life. Woodlands are composed of beech, sugar maple, red and white oak, shagbark hickory, and wild black cherry. The swamp forests contain silver maple, American elm, sycamore, and black gum. The meadows and remnant prairies contain big bluestem grass and purple coneflower among others.

Animals of the area include eastern plains garter snake, fence lizard, red fox, deer, raccoon, Canada geese, song sparrow, eastern meadowlark, and the barn swallow.

Restrooms are closed from late November to early May on the south side. The north side has open restrooms all season (no heat).

Park in the parking area on the south side of Greenbriar Road, just west of Greenbriar Cemetery and Fawn Lane. A paved road, gated for hiking, biking, and horses — no motor vehicles — goes south from there. From this gate on, it is part of East Fork State Park. The main road goes clear to the water control tower on the north side of the lake. A side trail (unpaved) goes to the right (west) and will eventually hit the dead-end turnaround loop at the end of Slade Road. It is marked with green paint blazes for the horseback riders. We walked the paved road to the right-hand turn-off. It was along this path, part of the Steven Newman Perimeter Trail, that we heard and saw Worm-eating Warbler and Wood Thrush. There are steep banks that fall away from the trail, one on the left-hand side as we walked out, and another on the right further along where we first found Worm-eating Warblers.