North of Granville Street, the bike path crosses by Creekside Park (a separate hotspot) before bending west to join Olde Ridenour Road. This scenic road borders the golf course for a half mile before cutting through McCorkle Park and winding over a forested creek side bluff, then dropping into the narrow floodplain along Big Walnut Creek before finally emptying out onto Carlin Court. The mix of habitats here not only make for a beautiful drive, but also for good birding. You can park at the golf course for the lower part, at McCorkle Park in the middle, or along Carlin Court for the upper part.

The lower part with the open fields of the Golf Course often has small flocks of geese and mallards, as well as flocks of Robins with the occasional bluebird. McCorkle Park has a wooded bluff on the west and a soccer field surrounded by shrub swamp on the east and birding the margins here can turn up a wide variety of birds. If you walk the road further north from here, you can often get a diversity of forest birds as the road goes over the bluff, then down into the floodplain. Yellow-throated Warblers breed here, as do Acadian Flycatchers. The creek is narrow and winding, but easily visible from the floodplain sections of the road; watch for small groups of ducks here in migration and winter, especially Hooded Mergansers.

The Big Walnut Trails follows the Big Walnut Creek from Hoover Reservoir to Inniswoods Metro Gardens, running through various beautiful parks along the way. Several segments also pass by Creekside in Gahanna and the southeast area of Columbus.

Communities: Columbus, Gahanna, Westerville

Points of Interest

• Hoover Reservoir
• Gahanna Creekside Park
• Inniswood Metro Park
• Elk Run Park