Hi! My brother, Andrew, and I are avid hikers and it is our absolute favorite form of exercise. There is nothing better than hitting the beautiful trails in our neck of the woods and chatting away while immersed in nature and it’s safe to say that I live for our biweekly walks. We have recently decided to travel thirty minutes or so to explore even more trails and it has been so exciting to check out new to us Metro Parks. This past week we took a little road trip to the Barberton Trailhead and it was easily the best hike and bike trail we have been to yet. We saw more wildlife on this trail than all of our hikes of the past year combined!

The Barberton Trailhead is a flat, paved path directly across from a lake like body of water and right off the bat we were seeing animals left and right. Seconds after we began walking, we saw something we have never seen before – a river otter!!! River otters returned to Ohio a few years back and it has been my mission to catch a glimpse of one during our hikes that never came to fruition until now. It was SO cool to see its sleek body weaving in the water and the little face popping up for air. In a similar breath, we also saw a beaver for the first time too. We enjoy hiking at a trail called Beaver Marsh and ironically have never seen any there in the water so this was such a great added bonus. 😀

And then, there were the turtles. We saw fifty-five of them to be exact during our three mile trek! Posted up on logs, swimming, or camouflaging in the algae, we surpassed our original personal turtle sighting best of seventeen by far. Spotting them was literally like playing I Spy in nature and it was a thrill every time we added another one to our tally. As if all of this weren’t enough, we also saw five Blue Herons, two of which that flew directly in front of us. Seeing Blue Herons is like seeing a dinosaur in real life and they were so majestic! As you can see in the last picture, I think that Heron was ready to catch itself some lunch!

Finally in our wildlife jamboree, we saw more baby ducks than we could possibly count. We stopped at thirty something because it was just too much and also too much cuteness! There were baby ducks swimming, resting on the grass, and playing peek a boo behind the logs in the water. The cuteness overload went simply over the top when we were in the right place at the right time. We walked past a family of baby ducks tentatively stepping into the water and then taking off at a rapid pace. I’ll post a video on my TikTok soon so stay tuned because holy adorable. ❤

After our excursion, we treated ourselves to Skoops for a well earned frozen treat. All the while recounting the amazing wildlife we were so lucky to see. We can’t wait to go back!

Do you have a favorite hiking spot? What kind of wildlife do you see on your hikes? I want to hear from all of you, so leave me a comment and let’s chat! Much love. -Sarah