Episode Guest
Kathryn Conner, Park Manager
Hueston Woods State Park (Ohio)
Episode Transcript
Missy Rentz:
in today’s winter in the Parks episode, we are talking to Kathryn Connor, the park manager at Hueston Woods State Park in Ohio. Kathryn, welcome to the Parks podcast.
Kathryn Conner:
Thank you so much for having me here today. I really appreciate it.
Missy Rentz:
Of course. I love it. And now that I’m learning more about Hueston Woods, I love talking to you even more’cause I feel like you are a Winter Wonderland Park.
Kathryn Conner:
We really are, we’re really fortunate this time of year in any season, but we’ve got 3,500 acres of beautiful forest here for you to get to enjoy. Whether you’re hiking, mountain biking uh, we have equestrian trails here, or if you’re just getting out to drive your car to see the 10 mile loop that we have that really immerses you in the woods here at Hueston Woods
Missy Rentz:
Oh, that’s beautiful. So we did an episode yesterday on, and we talked a lot about what’s going on in Ohio State Parks, but today I really wanna talk about more specifically about Hueston Woods. You are located outside of Oxford, Ohio, which for those who aren’t familiar where Oxford is, it is on the western side of Ohio. Can you tell us about Hueston Woods State Park and why you’re a park?
Kathryn Conner:
Yeah, absolutely. So we are, so for folks who aren’t familiar with us, we are a Southwest Park. We are right on the border of Ohio and Indiana, both in Preble and Butler County. And our park is so amazing because. At the center of our park, we have a nature preserve. It’s called the Hueston Wood State Nature Preserve. So out of our 3,500 acres, this is 200 plus acres of mature forest that has never been cut down, and it is. It. It’s honestly like taking a step back in time, right? So you get to see these big open spaces, you can actually see the wildlife while you’re walking through this preserve. And then what makes it so special is it was uncut to help with the production of maple syrup. And so here at our park, we actually to still honor that, have a maple syrup festival in March where we tap the trees. We make the syrup in the sugar house that we still have here on our property. And so it is such a special tie to show people why we have a park, why we’re here, why we want you to come out and enjoy us, and it’s a pretty sweet reason.
Missy Rentz:
And it’s a park that has a lot of obviously natural conservation going on, but you also have a lot of history.
Kathryn Conner:
Yes, it is a very historical park. So not only do we have that Hueston family that kept that area uncut, but we also have the building of our park was very historical. So you have a lot of parks here in Ohio that were built by the three Cs. Our park was not like that. Ours is a true state park property that it was actually built with the help of some Oxford honor labor camp members. And so those labor members stayed here on the park property. So we had their original bunk house. We have their canning house. That was our old nature center. My office has a hump in the floor’cause it was the barbershop chair. But we have a lot of history that makes us special. We have that natural feature and then we are also the only state operated raptor rehab center. So we take in injured birds of prey like hawks and owls and try to get them healthy enough to go back out into the wild. And then for the ones that can’t, we are then responsible for finding them permanent homes. How can they best live out the rest of their lives? And sometimes that is over at our nature center, where we do have a really large display of animals that you get to see when you’re here. So you can, depending on what you like, people love the snakes and turtles and fish inside, but a lot of people like to see these raptors up close. We also have two foxes and a bobcat that we take care of.
Missy Rentz:
That is so cool, and I decided to start this Winter in the Parks series because I think winter is a spectacular time to visit parks, and as we enter the holiday season, there’s so much happening in our parks around the country. What’s happening at Hueston Woods this holiday season?
Kathryn Conner:
I think winter is the perfect time to get out into the parks because sometimes the hust and bustle, you need to take a step back and see that winter is a beautiful time to get outside because it helps reset you a little bit, right? The world has slowed down a little bit with the cold temperatures, but we’re still having so many things to get you involved so you don’t feel like you’re by yourself out here in the wintertime either. So we’ve got our naturalist programs that happen every weekend and a really special event for us is our winter drive-in. So we’ve been doing it now for four years where it is a true drive-in experience where you come out to our beach, we have a big screen set up and some really great holiday classics showing on the screens for you. We do two movies. We’ve got usually some really great food vendors, popcorn, hot drinks and everything like that. And this year we’ve been able to partner with our Hueston Woods Lodge to make it an all day event. So we’ve got breakfast with Santa, we’ve got different scavenger hunts throughout the day. We have a winter hike. We’ve got crafts and games, and then it all takes place here in the park all day long. You. End the day at the beach with that movie. Start Your Day at the lodge. So it’s really an opportunity to make, you could even do it as a all day stay overnight too. So you could stay at the lodge or the cabins. Our campground has winter water and a heated shower house this time of year. So whatever your comfort level is to get out into the woods, we’ve got it here for you.
Missy Rentz:
And that you bring up the lodge and I think that’s one of the unique attributes of Ohio Parks is many of them have these incredible movie-like lodges. Within their parks. That can create just a different kind of experience. What’s going on with the lodge? I’m gonna, I’m gonna post pictures of this lodge. It is unbelievable how pretty this is.
Kathryn Conner:
Thank you. We are big fans of our lodge as well. It was actually talking about history, the largest a-frame building in the entire world when it was built.
Missy Rentz:
Oh, wow.
Kathryn Conner:
So it is very impressive when you first arrive to the lodge. So our lodge and all Ohio State parks lodges are open year round, so that’s a really another great factor for’em. So any season you can come out and stay, a lot of them have pools. So if you’re here in the hot summer, you’ve got that. And then even in the cold, we’ve got indoor pools here. So the lodge is really great because it allows you to have a restaurant there as well and have a really nice staycation there. And with that large A-frame comes a lot of large windows. And so you still get to feel like you’re immersed in the outdoors. A really like you said. Makes you feel like you’re in a movie, like a winter movie, being out in this rustic lodge, but still being comfortable because it was recently renovated just a couple years ago. Every room has new fixtures and furniture, and it’s a very modern take to have that rustic feel.
Missy Rentz:
And so when you come for the, you talked about the whole day experience in the lodge what else is the lodge doing? You said breakfast with Santa, anything else happening in the lodge?
Kathryn Conner:
Yeah, so the breakfast with Santa is specifically at the lodge and that’s gonna have cookie decorating and there is a cost associated with that one, but it’s any, you don’t have to have reservations, anybody can come to it. We are doing our very first gingerbread house competition, so we get to display those in the lodge. There might be a choir singing there too to welcome you guys and we’re really excited’cause we also take some of our wildlife ambassadors from the nature center. To the lodge. So while you’re walking around doing all these really great activities, you’ll get to see a show from our naturalist over there and then the lodge and. All, a lot of the great the Ohio State Park lodges do this, but the Christmas decorations that you see here at the lodge are spectacular. We have a really wonderful garden club that goes all out in these decorations. There’s different themes, but it just, not only will the architecture take you away, but the decoration and the work they’ve put into it will really Wow. You.
Missy Rentz:
Are there key dates that this is happening?
Kathryn Conner:
Yes, thank you. It is Decem Saturday, December 13th is the day that everything takes place for you. But you’re welcome to check in on Friday, stay Saturday night, and then if that weekend just doesn’t work for you. Like I said, we’ve got stuff every weekend. So you can book with us on you can go to Ohio State Parks website to Hueston Woods, and you can find our lodge cabins and campgrounds all from that website.
Missy Rentz:
And we’ll put a link on the episode page so people can go directly there for sure.
Kathryn Conner:
Appreciate that.
Missy Rentz:
As people start to plan their beyond the holiday season, Ohio parks are busy and I know it can be very hard to get reservations there like campground and stuff throughout the year. When can people start making reservations and plans to come to Hueston Woods throughout the
Kathryn Conner:
so I think that’s a really good thing to bring up,’cause sometimes people get very discouraged when they can’t get booked for some of these really special events we have. So you can book six months up in advance. And a lot of times for some of those busy things, like our Halloween weekends that we have, or the 4th of July, the earlier you can get that reservation in the better.’cause we have so much great stuff for you to get to take place of. But obviously the campground, lodge and cabins, we only have so much space.
Missy Rentz:
And what do we have? I think this is a good thing that, you know. Of Mark your calendar or do your research now because Ohio Parks are incredible and you do need to be refreshing your browser six months before and make sure that you get a spot beyond Christmas time. What do we have to look forward to at Hueston Woods?
Kathryn Conner:
Yeah, so that’s actually the nice thing about some of our big events is we try to make them to where you can plan for them. So we know that our Maple syrup festival is always going to be the first two full weekends in March. So this year for us in 2026, you’re gonna have March 7th and eighth, 14th and 15th. You always know that we have our fireworks display on July 5th, which take place best viewing from the lodge, and that’s always that July 5th, and then. Just in general I’m sure a lot of your listeners know, but in 2026 it is America two 50. We have turned 250 years old, and Ohio State Parks are really taking advantage of that great celebration and doing all sorts of really great programming. So when you are on our website, take a look and see if there’s any Special America two 50 events you wanna take place and check out which parks have the lodges and cabins and campgrounds for you.
Missy Rentz:
That’s perfect. Kathryn, thank you so much for sharing Winter in the parks at Hueston Woods State Park. I’d love to invite you back’cause I would like to tell more of the story about Hueston Woods and its history and its conservation. So hopefully you’ll be open to coming to do a full episode with us sometime soon.
Kathryn Conner:
I would absolutely love to do that with you, and maybe we can bring out some of our animal ambassadors to show too.
Missy Rentz:
I would love that. Thank you so much. Happy holidays to you and to the whole crew at Hueston State Park.
Kathryn Conner:
Thank you so much. You have a wonderful day.
Missy Rentz:
Thanks to everybody for listening. If you are in Ohio, plan a trip to Hueston Woods State Park this holiday season. And until next time, we’ll see you in the parks.
Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please be sure to like and share on your favorite podcast platform. Music for the parks podcast is performed and produced by Porter Hardy. For more information, please follow us at The Parks Podcast, or visit our website at TheParksPodcast.com.