Once an industrial site, Scioto Audubon Metro Park is now a public park and nature preserve on the Whittier Peninsula in Columbus, Ohio. Managed by the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks and part of the Scioto Mile, this was a formerly industrial site that required extensive remediation before it could become green. Planning here began in 2003, and the park opened in 2009 with 94 acres, later expanded to 120 acres.
As you look around, you’ll see numerous trails and wetlands, rock-climbing walls, volleyball and bocce courts, and the kinds of amenities that invite people to stay and explore. At the western edge sits the Grange Insurance Audubon Center, considered the first nature center built in close proximity to a downtown area. The park was designed by MKSK, the landscape firm behind other Scioto Mile work in Columbus.
You’re on Columbus’s Whittier Peninsula, bordered by the Brewery District to the east, Interstate 71 and the Scioto River to the north and west, and downtown to the northeast, with railroad tracks partially isolating the site. It’s only a 10-minute walk from downtown and still offers views of the city skyline. Notice the city skyline to the northeast, the Scioto River and Interstate 71 nearby, and the Brewery District just to the east.