Cleveland's Former Golf Course Is Now A Scenic Ohio Park With Rolling Hills, Wildflowers, And Wildlife

Whether you love it or loathe it, one thing's undeniable about golf — this game takes up a lot of space. And when golfers are on the course, the manicured greens and water features don't really mix with other activities. Random people can't just throw a blanket on the sand trap and have a picnic — in fact, at most private courses, non-members aren't even allowed on the property. Public golf courses can sometimes be more versatile, as the grounds serve well for cross-country skiing, grassy parking lots, or other athletic events. But whether the location is private or public, once the clubs come out, everybody else has to steer clear.

This sprawling consumption of land is particularly evident at the Acacia Reservation in Lyndhurst, Ohio. The former golf course has been converted into a public park, which encompasses a staggering 155 acres. No longer a private domain for carts and caddies, Acacia is free to visit and open to all, and it's just a half-hour drive from downtown Cleveland.

Ohio is already well known for its repurposed Rust Belt properties, such as Friendship Park, a former mining site turned scenic park for camping, hiking, and lake fun. Acacia Reservation is proving that even luxury estates, formerly reserved for moneyed suburbanites, can be adapted in new and innovative ways. The new status has allowed nature to reclaim these former fairways – researchers have documented 465 species here, including 139 types of birds, so be sure to pack your binoculars.

Most people will come to Acacia Reservation to walk the trails and admire the scenery. A paved trail, Woodpecker Way, curves into a loop through a significant chunk of the park for a total distance of 1.8 miles. Additional trails branch off Woodpecker Way, allowing you to extend or shorten your trek. Paved surfaces make these paths good for walking, cycling, and rollerblading, and there's still plenty of regular mown grass for picnics and lawn games. Center Pond is partly ringed with a raised boardwalk, which helps keep your feet dry in the soggier seasons. And the gentle hills found throughout the landscape are ideal for a scenic stroll – Ohio is a famously flat state, but one popular loop around the park still manages to gain over 100 feet of elevation.

Acacia is open year-round, and the foliage turns colorful in autumn; this is one reason the Cleveland area is an affordable Midwestern travel destination to visit in the fall. Lyndhurst gets a decent amount of snow in winter — on average, it sees around 66 inches every year. After a good snowfall, Cleveland Metroparks are a prime setting for snowshoers and cross-country skiers.

You might take a moment during your adventure to look around and imagine how much this place has changed. It's hard to picture golf carts humming their way across this feral-looking scenery, yet for nearly a century, that was the case. The Acacia Country Club opened in 1921 as a golf resort that only Freemasons were allowed to enter. At its height, the 18-hole golf course consumed 300 acres, nearly twice as much real estate as today's park. However, membership dwindled in the early 2000s, and ownership of the land was passed to Cleveland Metroparks in 2012 — which spearheaded efforts to bring the land back to its natural state.

Just as Cleveland Metroparks intended, the flora and fauna at Acacia have grown diverse. Euclid Creek meanders through the grounds, and waterfowl frolic in Acacia's three different ponds, including wood ducks, mallards, and Canada geese. True to the main trail's name, you'll find woodpeckers here, along with other birds like hawks, orioles, and cardinals. You're likely to spot deer, chipmunks, and red squirrels, and even coyotes have roamed this reclaimed reservation. Colorful wildflowers grow abundantly here, including yellow sunflowers, violet ironweed, and tufts of goldenrod. Ohio wildflowers typically bloom in May, especially in these northern parts. 

Lyndhurst is a suburb of Cleveland and lies around 16 miles from the city. The only realistic way to get here is by car. If you decide to beeline here from Cleveland International Airport (CLE), it's a quick 30-minute drive. When you're in the reservation, you can lose yourself in nature, but you're actually very close to Lyndhurst's commercial district: a Nordstrom, Container Store, and L.L. Bean are all within a block of the park's grounds. Chain hotels are clustered within a couple of miles of Acacia, but road trippers are more likely to stay in Cleveland proper or find a cute inn near the lakefront. You could also make a pit stop here on your way to Conneaut, a cozy Ohio city with specialty shops and serene beach beauty.