Wayne National Forest

Ohio's only national forest, Wayne National Forest covers 244,000 acres of the rugged, unglaciated Appalachian foothills of southeastern Ohio, spread across three geographically distinct units -- the Athens, Marietta, and Ironton Ranger Districts. The forest tells a remarkable story of ecological recovery, as much of the land was severely degraded by decades of coal mining, oil extraction, and unsustainable logging before being acquired by the federal government in the 1930s and carefully restored to thriving mixed-mesophytic hardwood forest. Old-growth remnants still survive in scattered pockets, preserving stands of massive white oak, tulip poplar, and American beech that hint at the primeval forests that once blanketed the Ohio Valley. Over 300 miles of trails traverse the forest, including the 26-mile Archer's Fork Trail loop through dramatic sandstone gorges, cliff-lined hollows, and ridgetop vistas overlooking the Ohio River. The Lamping Homestead and Ring Mill sites preserve remnants of Ohio's frontier settlement history, while the forest's streams support a recovering aquatic ecosystem with freshwater mussels, hellbenders, and native brook trout returning to waters once too polluted to support life. Wayne also offers some of the best mountain biking in Ohio on the Monday Creek trail system and provides critical habitat for Indiana bats, cerulean warblers, and timber rattlesnakes in one of the most biodiverse regions of the state.