Plethora of Parks

Dublin’s 60 parks offer a range of year-round activities

By Megan Roth

Photos courtesy of Robb McCormick and Visit Dublin Ohio

Within Dublin’s 15,870 acres of land, more than 1,000 are dedicated to parks and recreation. Featuring 60 acres of developed parks, athletic facilities and more than 100 miles of recreational paths, the city’s recreational offerings aren’t just worth experiencing – they’re nearly impossible to miss.

But with so many parks, the question looms: How do I experience them all? Visit Dublin Ohio has planned accordingly with its Park Pass, helping residents take full advantage of all 60 parks in the community.

Created in partnership with OhioHealth, the pass for mobile devices takes three simple steps to use. First, register for a pass online by providing your name, postal code, email and phone number. Parks are not limited to just Dublin residents, so bring your extended family or long-distance friends. Shortly after registering, you’ll receive a text and email that your Park Pass is ready to use. You can even save the pass to your phone’s home screen for easy one-tap access. Finally, redeem your pass. When visiting a park, simply make sure your location services are turned on and check in via GPS.

The idea for the pass was born out of Visit Dublin Ohio’s experiential trails, which offer immersive experiences throughout the city. The idea began with the Irish Fairy Door Trail and after widespread success, inspired the Celtic Cocktail Trail.

After another successful experiential trail, Visit Dublin began to look at how they could use the immersive experience concept to promote Dublin’s parks.

“People know that we have parks,” Sara Blatnik, marketing director for Visit Dublin Ohio says, “but they don’t understand how much there is to do with one of them.”

With so many options, including public art, historical assets, play-

grounds, river access, sports courts and many more, the pass makes the large realm smaller by allowing users to filter the park options.

“We have so many things here, and we want to make it as easy as possible to find those,” Blatnik says.

Some users view the app as a challenge to see how many parks they can visit, while others see it as a fun way to explore the area, Blatnik says.

As of August, more than 700 people have accessed the pass and parks across Dublin have been checked in to more than 2,798 times. The top parks visited were Coffman Park, Indian Run Falls, Veterans Park, Riverside Crossing Park and M.L. “Red” Trabue. Ferris-Wright Park

Many of Dublin’s parks offer education as well as recreation. Ferris-Wright Park, located on Emerald Parkway, is a preservation site for ancient earthworks and holds vast historical significance.

The land the park is set on has been home to many over the years, from indigenous people to some of Dublin’s first settlers in the early 1800s.

The ancient earthworks and other precise geometric shapes were constructed by the Hopewell people when they were living in eastern North America around 100 B.C. to A.D. 400. The park contains three earthworks – two circles and a square – and five burial mounds.

With so much history within the parks, the city offers free open house tours with Dublin Heritage Interpreters. These free guided tours take guests through the historic parkland, showcasing the earthworks and what is said to be the first framed house in the area. The next open houses take place Oct. 9 and Nov. 6 from 1-3 p.m.

Year-round Fun

Though summer has come to an end, the parks’ recreational options surely have not.

Riverside Crossing Park offers breathtaking views of the Dublin Link Bridge on a bike/multi-use path. Sunrise Kayaking also offers a downtown neon-lit view under the famous bridge and a two-hour paddle from Amberleigh Park to Dublin Spring Park. In the winter, the park will be home to the Riverside Crossing Park Ice Rink. The rink is slated to open in late November.

Coffman Park, home of the beloved Dublin Irish Festival, has everything from public art to pickleball courts. Its covered shelters, gazebos and grills make for the perfect fall picnic.

Another fan favorite, Indian Run Falls, offers breathtaking waterfalls just five minutes from Bridge Park and Historic Dublin.

“We say (you can go from) nature trails to cocktail trails,” Blatnik says. “You can be in Indian Run Falls and come out and go to dinner and get a drink on a patio. It’s the best of both worlds.”

Scioto Park is another popular option, and features the revered 12-foot Chief Leatherlips stone memorial. Home to the Sundays at Scioto Concert series, river views, a picnic shelter, nature trails, amphitheater and sledding hill, the park offers year-round activities for the whole family.

Megan Roth is an editor for CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mroth@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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