Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve
The Little Miami River races through a postglacial gorge of Silurian limestone and dolomite, revealing potholes, slump blocks, fossils, rapids, and cool habitats along cliff-edge trails.
Artwork inspired by Worthington Whittredge
Clifton Gorge is western Ohio’s clearest lesson in how water exploits fractured carbonate bedrock. Meltwater and the modern Little Miami cut a narrow passage where resistant dolomite, softer layers, joints, potholes, and collapsed blocks can be compared at close range. Cool, moist slopes support plants uncommon in the surrounding agricultural plateau.
Start near the Clifton parking area and walk the Narrows toward the exploration center, then decide whether to continue into John Bryan State Park. Stay on trail: cliff edges, fast water, poison ivy, wet rock, and sensitive plants leave little margin for shortcuts. Pets are prohibited in the nature preserve even though policies differ in the adjacent state park.
- River
- Little Miami
- Core trail
- Narrows Trail
- Pets
- Not permitted
Quick guide
- Watch the water
- Rapids mark resistant layers and constricted bedrock.
- Find straight joints
- Fractures guide erosion and future block collapse.
How to read a gorge without leaving the trail
- Watch the water
- Rapids mark resistant layers and constricted bedrock.
- Find straight joints
- Fractures guide erosion and future block collapse.
- Compare microclimates
- Cool shaded walls support plants absent from sunny rim.
- Know the boundary
- Pet and trail rules change at John Bryan State Park.
Good to know
This is a protected nature preserve with no pets and no off-trail travel. The river is fast and cliff edges are close; swimming and scrambling are unsafe.
Notice these
- The Narrows
- Dolomite cliffs and potholes
- Little Miami rapids