Blacklick Woods Closes In Three Stages This October

Since October 1, Blacklick Woods Metro Park has had three closing times. The Canopy Walk closes at 5 p.m., the Nature Center at 6 p.m. and the park gates at 8 p.m. The park now closes two hours earlier than it did through September 30. The free programs scheduled for the second half of the month fit those hours closely. All but one start and end while every part of the park is open.

The best way to plan the rest of the month here is by which part of the park closes when.

The three closing times

These are the October hours that Metro Parks lists for the park at 6975 E Livingston Ave, compared with the summer schedule that ended September 30:

1. Canopy Walk: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., down from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. April through September.
2. Nature Center: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., down from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
3. Park grounds and trails: 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., down from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

All three lose two hours at the evening end. Opening times stay the same, so the cuts come off the end of the day. The Canopy Walk goes first. After work, the window for the boardwalk is the narrowest one in the park. The trails stay open three hours longer than the boardwalk does.

The Canopy Walk also has a monthly closure:

The Canopy Walk will be closed until 12 pm on the 2nd Tuesday of every month for necessary maintenance and cleaning.

This month that's Tuesday, October 13, and next month it's Tuesday, November 10. On those days the boardwalk is open from noon to 5 p.m., the shortest schedule it runs all year.

Why the 5 p.m. close matters most

The Canopy Walk is the one part of the park that makes the 5 p.m. close a real constraint. Metro Parks describes it as a wide boardwalk that rises 40 feet and loops an eighth of a mile through maples, beech, shagbark hickory and several kinds of oak. An elevator makes the walk accessible to wheelchair users. Above the elevator tower, a viewing platform stands 55 feet above the forest floor. It's 99 steps from the ground to that top platform. Along the loop there are three rope bridges, a hammock-style cargo net and a large treehouse with climbing equipment and a fireman's pole. It's free and open every day.

Metro Parks lists the trees around the Canopy Walk by name, and they're the hardwoods that change color in fall. In October, the color is in the treetops, at the boardwalk's height. That's the one part of the park that closes at 5. Seeing the color from 40 or 55 feet up has to happen in daylight on a weekday afternoon or a weekend. The trails stay open into the evening, but the boardwalk doesn't.

The programs fit inside that window

Here is the free Blacklick Woods program schedule for the rest of October from the Metro Parks activity listing. Every program below shows "No Registration Required" and costs $0.00.

• Saturday, October 17, 1–3 p.m.: Blacklick Creek Clean-up, all ages
• Wednesday, October 21, 10–11 a.m. and 1–2 p.m.: Preschoolers: Halloween Party, ages 3–5
• Thursday, October 22, 5–7 p.m.: Trick-or-Treat Trail, all ages
• Friday, October 23, 10–11 a.m.: Tots on Trails, ages 0–4
• Saturday, October 24, 2–3 p.m.: Fall Colors Hike, all ages
• Sunday, October 25, 1–3 p.m.: For Adults: Science Sundays – Flying Squirrels, ages 18+
• Monday, October 26, 10–11 a.m. and 1–2 p.m.: Older Homeschoolers: Skull Study, ages 10–16

All but one of these sessions end by 3 p.m. That's two hours before the Canopy Walk closes and three before the Nature Center does. The schedule leaves room on either side of each program. The Fall Colors Hike on October 24 ends at 3, so there are still two hours of boardwalk time afterward. The Science Sundays program ends the same way at 3, which leaves the same two hours. The listing notes that program end times are approximate. For questions, call the Blacklick Woods naturalists at 614-861-8759.

The Trick-or-Treat Trail on Thursday, October 22, is the one exception. It starts at 5 p.m., just as the Canopy Walk closes, and runs until 7 p.m. That's an hour past the Nature Center's close and an hour before the gates close. It's the only event on the list that falls in the evening part of the October schedule, after the park's daytime features have closed.

Saturday the 17th has three events, close together

October 17 has more going on in this part of town than any other day this month. Three events overlap or run back to back across three locations:

• 1–3 p.m.: the Blacklick Creek Clean-up at Blacklick Woods
• 1–3 p.m.: Reynoldsburg's Spooky Pet Parade at Huber Park, also known as the Heritage Sports Complex, at 1520 Davidson Drive
• 3–5 p.m.: the Jefferson Township Fall Festival, which the township describes as an afternoon at the park with hayrides, games and family activities

The township's announcement doesn't say which of its parks will host the festival. Its parks page lists five community parks, including Jefferson Community Park at 7494 Clark State Road. Check with the township for the venue before you go.

The two 1 p.m. events run at the same time, and the festival starts the hour they end. A household can do the creek clean-up or the pet parade first, then go to the township festival. The clean-up is listed at $0.00, the township bills its festival as one of its free community events, and the whole afternoon ends by 5 p.m.

The night before, Reynoldsburg hosts HallowEATS Food Truck Friday on October 16 from 5 to 8 p.m. at John F. Kennedy Park, 7232 E Main Street.

Where to walk once the boardwalk closes

After 5 p.m., the ground-level trails are open until 8 and still go through the same forest. Metro Parks describes Blacklick Woods as 652 acres that hold one of the best remaining beech-maple forests in central Ohio, along with a buttonbush swamp.

The short gravel loops are all rated easy and ADA accessible:

• Beech Trail, 0.7 miles: goes through the beech-maple forest and past a swamp forest area.
• Buttonbush Trail, 0.5 miles: runs through a hardwood swamp forest.
• Maple Trail, 0.9 miles: goes through hardwood forest and past a small wetland, and Metro Parks notes it's good for birding.
• Walter A Tucker Trail, 0.1 miles: a gravel and boardwalk connector between the Buttonbush and Maple trails.

The Tucker connector runs through the 54-acre swamp preserve named for Walter A Tucker, one of the founding directors of Metro Parks. Its northern part is a maturing beech forest with some sugar maple. The wetter southern part has white and pin oak, white ash, red maple, shagbark and bitternut hickory, and dogwood, with spicebush and buttonbush underneath.

Dogs can't use those loops, because the park page lists the paved Blacklick Creek Greenway as its pet trail. Pets also are allowed in picnic areas, in parking lots and on roadways, on a leash no longer than 6 feet.

The Greenway goes beyond the park

The Blacklick Creek Greenway is 16 paved miles from Reynoldsburg to Groveport. It connects three Metro Parks and several smaller parks. Metro Parks manages all of it except a short section north of Blacklick Woods.

For an October walk that starts somewhere other than Livingston Avenue, two more Metro Parks have named access points:

• Pickerington Ponds: the Burning Lake Picnic Area at 4432 Gender Road, with 67 parking spaces plus four accessible spaces, and the Glacier Knoll Picnic Area at 4071 Bowen Road, with 38 plus two accessible
• Three Creeks: the shelter-house area at 3860 Bixby Road in Groveport, at the trail's southern end

Columbus Recreation and Parks also lists Portman Park and Retreat at Turnberry as trailheads with parking.

Trick-or-treat night comes a week later

Halloween in Blacklick doesn't end with the Trick-or-Treat Trail on October 22. Reynoldsburg has set Community Trick or Treat for Thursday, October 29, from 6 to 8 p.m. That matches the Central Ohio trick-or-treat date MORPC recommends, and MORPC advises checking each community's own schedule. Both of this month's evening Halloween events fall on Thursdays a week apart, one inside the park and one in the neighborhood.

The rest of the month in the woods runs on the daytime schedule. The Canopy Walk is open 9 to 5, closed until noon on October 13, and the 5 p.m. close is a hard stop. The Nature Center and trails stay open past it, and the Metro Parks Blacklick Woods page has the current hours and a printable 2026 map.

Being a few minutes from a 652-acre park, with a treetop boardwalk and a paved greenway that runs 16 miles south, is part of what a Blacklick home is worth. Angel Perez and the Perez Team include that kind of local detail in every valuation they prepare. To see where your home stands this fall, get a free home valuation.