Ten minutes from downtown’s towers stands a wild surprise: Scioto Audubon Metro Park, a 120-acre riverfront oasis built on a reclaimed industrial peninsula — and home to some of the best free family adventure in Columbus.
The headline is the climbing: one of the nation’s largest free outdoor climbing walls (35 feet, on the park’s old water towers) plus bouldering rocks for beginners. Add the Grange Insurance Audubon Center’s kid-friendly nature exhibits, wetlands boardwalks full of herons, a dog park, boating on the Scioto, and skyline views that make every photo look planned.
Bring bikes for the trail connections, binoculars for the birds and a picnic for the bluff.
Columbus calls it a metro park. Families call it the city’s adventure backyard.
