Skip to content
Oak Openings Preserve Metropark, Whitehouse, OH

Photo: Jmslagle, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

Sports & Outdoors

Oak Openings Preserve Metropark

A roughly 5,000-acre preserve near Toledo with oak savanna, wetlands and sand dunes, miles of trails, birding, and a treehouse village.

5402 Wilkins Rd, Whitehouse, OH 43571 · Whitehouse, OH

About Oak Openings Preserve Metropark

Oak Openings Preserve is the largest park in the Metroparks Toledo system and sits between Whitehouse and Swanton in northwest Ohio. Its name comes from early settlers who crossed the swampy region and found open prairies dotted with widely spaced oaks. The landscape mixes oak savanna, wet areas and vegetated sand dunes, and it supports unusual plants such as prickly-pear cactus and orchids. Birdwatchers visit for nesting species and spring migration. The preserve has more than 70 miles of trails, including horse trails, a cross-country ski trail and a mountain bike singletrack.

  • #nature preserve
  • #oak savanna
  • #birding
  • #hiking
  • #horseback riding

What's around here?

The closest stops to Oak Openings Preserve Metropark, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

  • Sightseeing

    Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site

    Check prices

    A Northwest Territory battle site and fort, run with Metroparks Toledo as an affiliated National Park Service unit.

    8.1 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing

  • Sports & Outdoors

    Toledo Botanical Garden

    Check prices

    A Metroparks Toledo garden of more than 60 acres with display beds, plant collections, sculpture, and arts programming.

    12 mi awayMore like this

  • Sports & Outdoors
    Local Gem

    Wildwood Preserve Metropark

    No admission fee

    Hike wooded trails along the Ottawa River, then take a free tour of the 1938 Stranahan family manor house and its formal garden.

    Transit: reachable by public transit

    13 mi awayMore like this

  • Museums

    Heritage Center Museum/The Cooke-Kuhlman House

    No admission fee

    A early 20th-century home and doctor's office run by Heritage Sylvania in the city's downtown.

    14 mi awaySwitch it up: Museums

  • Attractions
    Family Favorite

    Toledo Zoo & Aquarium

    $25–$50

    Meet polar bears, elephants, gorillas and penguins, and tour an aquarium housed in a 1930s WPA building.

    Transit: reachable by public transit

    15 mi awaySwitch it up: Attractions

  • Sports & Outdoors
    Family Favorite

    Maumee Bay State Park

    Check prices

    Swim at two sand beaches, bike paved paths and watch for some of 300 bird species from a wetland boardwalk on the Lake Erie shore east of Toledo.

    27 mi awayMore like this

Near Oak Openings Preserve Metropark

More of the same kind

Keep exploring