Columbus: Clifton Gorge
Watch the Little Miami River transform from calm to violent in a deep limestone chasm on this 5.2-mile dayhike in John Bryan State Park.
Trail Facts
- Distance: 4.2
Waypoints
CGT001
Location: 39.7850494384766, -83.8638610839844
Head on the E-bound trail, down the stone stairs and around a prompt bend in the Little Miami River
CGT002
Location: 39.7859268188477, -83.8610534667969
Turn R; cross footbridge and watch great blue herons float the calm currents
CGT003
Location: 39.7855796813965, -83.8602981567383
Head L onto heavily wooded S bank, choked with oaks and the giant peeling trunks of sycamores
CGT004
Location: 39.7891464233398, -83.8474578857422
Canyon walls constrict and grow taller, forcing the river to crash over man-sized boulders
CGT005
Location: 39.7908706665039, -83.8410720825195
Cross bridge then R @ T onto a historic stagecoach route that once ran from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh
CGT006
Location: 39.7931518554688, -83.8397521972656
A waterfall cascades roughly 55 ft., providing a gentle sparge for riverside Jack-in-the-pulpits and tri-petal snow trilliums
CGT007
Location: 39.7959518432617, -83.8362426757812
R@ Y; flocks of geese typically swarm the hemlock-shaded southern slopes
CGT008
Location: 39.797046661377, -83.835334777832
Steamboat Rock on L: Nicknamed for its rectangular underbelly and smokestack-shaped top
CGT009
Location: 39.7992095947266, -83.8344879150391
Climb stairs above a raging gorge then veer L onto The Narrow’s Trail along a cliff edge to Darnell’s Leap, where a gutsy member of Daniel Boone’s outfit escaped Indian pursuers by jumping the chasm’s dizzy 22 ft. expanse
CGT010
Location: 39.7974014282227, -83.829231262207
The roar of battling waters swooshes up the steep, tight walls; backtrack to car
Clifton Gorge
Location: 39.79931640625, -83.8350067138672
©Ohio Division of Natural Areas & Preserves
Little Miami River
Location: 39.7894668579102, -83.8446960449219
©Ohio Division of Natural Areas & Preserves