Gilmore Wetlands Loop

Dogs Unknown

Features Birding · Fall Colors · Lake · Wildlife

The Wetlands Loop is located at the north side of the parking lot; look for tan colored floating boardwalk. If it is particularly wet, the boardwalk sometimes becomes covered in water! To get to the loop, you'll first be on the Conservancy Loop, taking that on the Miami-Erie Canal Towpath; continue straight on this path when the Conservancy Loop juts off to the right.

You'll see the old ice pond that served the Cincinnati area for centuries; now it is home to some amazing waterfowl. Continuing on, you'll turn a tight right and pass along the South Pond which has an observation deck that really gets you up close and personal to the action.

Continue on your way past the pond and enter the prairie area, and your first wide open view of the skies, which invariably have a few birds crossing! Continue on and you'll see another observation platform extending into the Cattail Marsh area that is a great place to just sit and be still.

Cattails, sumac, honeysuckle, oak, elm, some cedar and wildflowers in the summer in the prairie. Birds are numerous including Great Egrets, Black Crowned Night Herons, Green Herons, Great Blue Herons, Grebe, Least Bittern, Warblers, Blackbirds and more!