Dayton, Ohio - June 7th to 9th, 2023
We both grew up in Ohio, so we’ve been to Dayton many times before. The National Museum of the United States Air Force is definitely a place not to miss along with the various sites that make up the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. However, this time, we saw parts of Dayton that we’ve never visited before. Hiking the Aullwood Audubon Center, strolling around downtown, and cycling the Great Miami River Recreational Trail were on our itinerary.
During our drive from the Columbus area over to Dayton KOA, the air quality was poor due to the smoke from the Canadian wildfires, from Alberta, to Quebec, to Nova Scotia. We could see the smoky haze and smell that familiar odor of a wildfire. We’re used to experiencing smoke out west at home, but we don’t remember experiencing it in Ohio before.
Our assigned camp site was not very level, with one of the tires being off by as much as 7 or 8 inches. We requested to move sites and found another open one where we didn’t need any blocks at all. However, it was closer to I-70, so we heard the traffic noise all night, but not too bad. We only paid for one of the cheaper sites, electric hook ups only with no patio. If we spent more money, we could have a nicer site. We were already paying over $60 per night, which is well above our average of $35 for the season.
Thursday morning, we drove over to the nearby Aullwood Audubon Center & Farm to check it out. There is an entrance fee of $12 per adult. The center is a 200 acre wildlife sanctuary along with a farm. The farm raises heritage breeds of goats, sheep, and a variety of birds, such as turkeys, geese, and quail. Their products are available for sale in their store.
In addition to the hiking trails, you can visit the animals on the farm and see some large wooden troll sculptures by Thomas Dambo, a recycle artist in Denmark. Dambo has troll sculptures all around the world. We’ve seen his work before, in the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (Boothbay, Maine - September 30th to October 2nd, 2021) and another in Breckenridge, Colorado (Breckenridge, Colorado - Feb 11th to 18th, 2022). We enjoy seeing his work.
Aullwood is a wonderful place for children. They are set up to providing educational experiences for groups of school kids. The animals and trolls help motivate the kids to wander the grounds to the next exhibit.
Our stroll around the property took us four miles with an elevation gain of 236 feet lasting about two hours and 15 minutes. We counted it as hike number 26 of our 52 Hike Challenge for 2023.
After enjoying a picnic lunch while sitting in the rocking chairs at the farm entrance, we drove to downtown Dayton. We parked in a large parking lot on the edge of the Oregon District, then went exploring. The shops, bars and restaurants along 5th Street felt like the downtown area of a small town. The homes just south of 5th Street were beautiful with their old architecture. On the weekends, the street is closed to traffic, turning the area into a pedestrian mall (Out on 5th).
From the Oregon District, we continued our exploration by walking down South Patterson Boulevard to the Miami River. Pillars on some of the street corners provided local history information along with directions to the nearby attractions.
From the ballpark of the Dayton Dragons, we crossed the street to the RiverScape MetroPark. The impressive Five Rivers Fountain of Lights is just to the northeast of the Riverside Drive bridge, where the Mad River joins the Miami River. The fountain, one of the largest in the world, runs for ten minutes at the top of every hour during the summer, unless the winds are too strong. The five water jets shoot out 2500 gallons of water per minute. We could only imagine how much more impressive the fountain would be at night, when it is lit by colored lights.
In RiverScape MetroPark, we stopped at the snack bar for an ice cream treat. We both had chocolate ice cream cones. They called the ice cream Flavor Burst, as the flavoring was swirled into the soft serve ice cream. The chocolate flavor was rather weak and the ice cream quality was not the best, but it was cold and refreshing. We didn’t see any other options nearby, so it was better than no ice cream.
Our stroll continued around the downtown area. We really enjoy admiring old architecture. We were pleasantly surprised with all of the gorgeous old buildings in Dayton. Our stroll ended back at the baseball stadium, where we met some relatives at Lock 27 Brewing for dinner.
Friday we went for a bike ride. The Great Miami River Recreational Trail follows the river for about 30 miles from Picqua to Trenton. We chose a 20 mile section from Miami River County Park in Middletown to Carillon Brewery in Dayton. Then we could enjoy a lunch at the brewery before biking back to the trailhead.
On the way to Miami River County Park, we stopped in Germantown for a late morning treat. Germantown is a little town with a cute Main Street. The Creamery coffee shop opened in 2020 in an old house near Main Street. We enjoyed sipping our chai lattes and nibbling on our blueberry muffins while admiring the old features of the house. The fireplace was beautiful. The narrow boards of the hardwood floors reminded Ann of the house she grew up in.
The bike trail turned out better than we expected. We’ve seen it during our many visits to Dayton, but only the sections that were exposed in the more industrial sections of town. Much of the trail is in the woods or in the shade alongside the river. There were exposed sections, some alongside highways, but there was a variety of terrain, including passing through some small communities, that we didn’t mind the unpleasant sections.
In general, the trail was a gradual incline to the brewery, with just a handful of short steeper sections. We both left off the pedal assist on our bikes for most of the 20 miles, except for maybe a couple of miles near the end. Ann muscled up all of the steep sections, while Keith turned on some help. However, both of us had burning thigh muscles by the time we stopped for lunch. Our “cheater bikes”, as some people like to call them, gave us a good workout. They are heavy, weighing 65 pounds, and you feel all that weight when you don’t have the power turned on.
The Carillon Brewery is adjacent to Carillon Historical Park. The park, part of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, is worth the admission price. We’ve visited there in the past. The park is mostly an open air museum, with an emphasis on the history of innovations and transportation achievements in the Dayton area. The park includes the Wright Brothers National Museum which houses Orville’s 1905 Wright Flyer III.
You can visit the Carillon Brewery without paying to go into the historical park, which is what we did this time. The brewery brews its beer the traditional way, as was done back in the 1850’s. When we visited last year, we noticed that they had changed their food menu, from a wide variety of recipes from the 1850’s, to mainly just the fast food items, like a variety of wursts and soft pretzels. We were hoping that was just a change due to COVID, but it hasn’t reverted back yet. It was now counter service instead of being served at the tables. It was still enjoyable, but we miss the old menu. Keith had the curry wurst with chips, while Ann chose the brat with sauerkraut and fries. For our beverages, Keith drank two 4 oz beers, a kölsh and a lager while Ann tried their house-made ginger ale.
On the ride back to the trailhead, we both had the pedal assist turned on the whole way. Our thighs were barking. We alternated between using power levels 1 and 2 (out of four). To break up the ride back, we stopped in Miamisburg to have ice cream at Three Dips on Main Street. It was a welcomed treat, both the ice cream and being off the bikes for a little while. Miamisburg’s Main Street was also a treat to admire while we sat on benches outside.
We often go to cities many times without really exploring what the town has to offer. We’ve always liked Dayton, but now we have an even greater appreciation of the place. We’re so glad we decided to dive deeper into the area.
Check out our related video: Dayton, Ohio
(Ann)