FAMILY FAIRY TALE FUN IN THE
WOODS
Storybook Trails Await Exploring in State Parks
STORY BY DESTINIEE JARAM | PHOTOS BY LAUREN PAPP
A
t the Storybook Trails in Dillon State Park, a three-year-old ferociously races his parents to a trailside panel about Oak trees. He runs down a once-black path, now orange, yellow and red from fallen Sycamore leaves. The panel, featuring “Miss Maple’s Seeds” by Eliza Wheeler, shows an image of varying plant seeds next to the storybook page. The Storybook Trails program features activities, educational materials and children’s stories about nature, printed on panels placed along the looping trails of Ohio state parks for families to explore. Participating parks are chosen based on 22 | WINTER/SPRING 2021
accommodations for families such as restroom access, playgrounds, parking lots and trails that loop to make it easier for tired toddlers as they charge final victory laps. “It’s a fun way to get kids exercising, not just the body, but the mind,” says Director of Special Projects for Ohio Department of Natural Resources, or ODNR, Alyssa Yaple. “We hope that they will learn along the way and notice things that maybe they wouldn’t have before.” The project began in October 2019, when the ODNR collaborated with The Imagination Library. Inspired by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library and
