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Oakwoods Metropark covers 1,756 acres northwest of Flat Rock in southern Wayne County. This area is rich in Native American history; in the early 1800s, it formed part of the Wyandot Indian Reservation.
A 1968 bond program provided funding for the Oakwoods Nature Center, which opened to the public in 1975. The 6,800-square-foot facility offers hands-on exhibits and seasonal displays, an indoor turtle pond, and auditorium. Outdoors, the nature study area covers four hundred acres and features an ancient sandbar, backwater trails for canoeists, five nature trails, a three-acre pond, and a butterfly garden.
Interpreters lead visitors on nature tours and voyageur canoe adventures past the nesting grounds and feeding territories of egrets, herons, turtles, and the other wildlife that make their homes on or near the backwaters of the Huron River. Four nature trails guide visitors through the land’s important natural features: the Split Log Trail (a woodland experience), the Big Tree Trail (featuring trees, wildflowers, and birds), the Long Bark Trail (where a post-glacial beach line can be identified and the various stages of lake development are pointed out), and Sky-Come-Down Trail (which wanders over long-abandoned farm fields and past a three-acre pond created for aquatic life studies).
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Oakwoods is the flattest of the Metroparks, which makes its trails particularly appealing to beginning joggers, hikers, and bicyclists; the land features tall trees, wonderful woodland scenery, and the Huron River’s backwaters. Equestrians enjoy the five miles of horse trails—and, speaking of trails, Oakwoods is one end of the hike-bike trail that stretches to Lower Huron Metropark. |