Field Trip: Woodland Mound Park and Caesar Creek State Park

This weekend we visited two other parks in our must-visit list: Woodland Mound and Caesar Creek State Park. 

Woodland Mound

Woodland Mound was AWESOME.  This park has got to be in my top 3 list of my favorite Cincinnati parks.  First of all it has a really cool visitor center that has a lot of information about Ohio’s creatures (small and large).  It even has a sycamore tree replica inside with little doors so you can learn more about animals you might encounter in the area.  I had a great time trying to identify the birds by their calls in one of the exhibits.  The boys and I have visited other visitor’ areas in other parks that had similar goals but there was something about the Woodland Mound visitor area that the boys really liked!  There are three floors of things to look at (you can even peek through some binoculars to look at the Ohio river!).  The areas around the visitor center and the Splash pad were beautifully kept and landscaped.  You know how there are places that are so nice and inviting that you just want to hang around and soak it up?  that was Woodland Mound for me.  

After checking out the Visitor’s center, we went to the Splash pad and the boys had a blast.  It was hellishly hot so perfect day for them to frolic in the water.  After the splash pad, we were going to go nature walking but I wasn’t feeling too well so we went home.  On the way out, we noticed the disc-golf areas.  While I have never done it, it seems like a really cool thing to do!  

Caesar Creek State Park

Caesar Creek was just “meh”.  The lake is HUGE but they had a LOT of motorboats and jet skis just buzzing around, eliminating any possibility of listening to nature.  We got the canoe and paddleboard in the water in one of the calmer sides so we at least had a chance to move along without listening to the motorboats for a good 30 minutes.  Once we got to the main part of the lake, it was a challenge to stay on the paddle board.  By that point, Lucas was sitting at the front of the paddle board while I paddled and we had so many waves that his pants got drenched.  Of course, this is the part he enjoyed most of all (the waves).  Once we turned and headed back, the waves pushed us and it was like surfing! (which was my favorite part).

We looked around at some of the campsites, and they seemed wooded and nice.  Maybe we will come back and camp here!  Caesar Creek is a big drive for us, so we probably wouldn’t come back just to canoe/paddleboard but we might come back for a multiple day camp trip.