Step into the Treetops on the Blacklick Woods Canopy Walk

Winding a one-eighth-mile loop through the treetops, the Blacklick Woods Metro Parks’ Canopy Walk offers a fun and easy way to explore the treetops, especially if you have little ones or strollers in tow. A 72-step staircase takes visitors up to the elevated walkway, but there is also an elevator, ensuring that people of all ages and abilities can reach the top. 

An observation platform at the top of the elevator tower offers views from 55 feet above the forest floor and buttonbush swamp below. The boardwalk offers ample shade under a tree canopy that spans beech and shagbark hickory as well as red, white and pin oak trees. 

“It’s just a different way to experience a forest and to take a different vantage point higher up in the trees, says Cody Berkebile, senior naturalist at Blacklick Woods Metro Park. 

Features of the Canopy Walk also include a giant cargo net that can be used for play as well as rope bridges (for those who feel up to it) and a treehouse. Four feeders along the way encourage birds from warblers to woodpeckers to stop by for a quick bite to eat. 

The Canopy Walk opened in May 2024, after years of discussion among Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks planners about bringing such an attraction to the area. 

“There was this idea that we could make a nature center multiple stories, Berkebile says.” “It’s a really unique feature in Ohio, especially in central Ohio.” 6711 E. Livingston Ave., Reynoldsburg 43068, 614/208-4247, metroparks.net

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