Is Everybody's Treehouse at Mount Airy Forest free?

Yes. Everybody's Treehouse is a free public amenity inside Mount Airy Forest with no tickets and no advance booking required for general access. It is more than 100 square feet, stands 14 feet up, is built into 12 trees, and is reached by a series of ramps that make it wheelchair accessible.

Is Mount Airy Forest free to visit?

Yes. Mount Airy Forest is a Cincinnati Parks property with no admission fee and no parking fee, open dawn to dusk, and the 30-acre Mt. Airy Arboretum is open daily without charge. Reserving one of the lodges or a reservable shelter does carry a fee through Cincinnati Parks.

How big is Mount Airy Forest and how many trails does it have?

It is 1,459 acres, the largest park in the Cincinnati Parks system, with more than 10 miles of hiking and multi-use mountain biking trails plus bridle trails located off Diehl Road. Pick one area before you arrive, because you cannot see it in a single visit.

Is Mount Airy Forest stroller friendly?

Partly. The ramps to Everybody's Treehouse, the arboretum paths, and the picnic areas handle strollers fine. The forest trails are unpaved, hilly, and not stroller terrain, so bring a carrier if you plan to hike with a baby or toddler.

What is there to do at Mount Airy Forest with older kids?

Mountain bike trails and a newer bike skills course are the strongest draw for tweens and teens, and both are free. There is also disc golf, more than 10 miles of trails to hike, and an annual Mt. Airy Forest Trailfest. There are no bike rentals on site, so bring your own.

Mt. Airy Forest

Name: Mt. Airy Forest
Address: 5083 Colerain Avenue, Cincinnati, OH, 45211, US
Telephone: (513) 357-2604
Rating: 4.6

Rating

4.6(2,893)

Price

Free

Duration

1.5 to 3 hours for most families. A treehouse-plus-arboretum visit with young kids runs about 90 minutes including the walk in and a snack at a picnic table. Families hiking a real trail loop or riding the mountain bike trails should plan 2 to 3 hours. At 1,459 acres this is the largest park in the Cincinnati Parks system, so nobody sees it in one trip. Pick the treehouse, the arboretum, or a trail, and save the rest for next time.

Best Ages

Works from about 1 through the teen years if you choose the right corner of it. Babies and toddlers do well at Everybody's Treehouse, which is reached by ramps rather than stairs, and in the 30-acre arboretum, where the paths and drives are gentle. Little kids get the playgrounds and picnic groves. Big kids and tweens are the natural fit for the 10-plus miles of trails and the disc golf. Teens are the reason to know about the mountain bike trails and the newer bike skills course, which is a genuine draw for a 14 year old who would otherwise refuse to come. Bridle trails off Diehl Road serve horseback riders.

About

Mount Airy Forest is the largest park in the Cincinnati Parks system at 1,459 acres, sitting right off Colerain Avenue on the west side, and the thing that gets families in the car is Everybody's Treehouse. It is more than 100 square feet, stands 14 feet up, and is built into 12 trees, and it is reached by a series of ramps rather than a ladder, which makes it wheelchair accessible and, practically speaking, stroller accessible too. It is the only public treehouse in the Tri-State, it requires no ticket or reservation, and a 4 year old will remember it long after they have forgotten a much more expensive outing.

The second thing to know is that the forest and the arboretum are two different experiences. The Mt. Airy Arboretum is 30 acres of curated trees, shrubs, and flowers with gentle paths and drives, open daily at no charge, and it is the easy half of the park.

Take a stroller through it, let a toddler walk, eat a snack, and go home happy. The forest proper is deep woods with more than 10 miles of hiking and multi-use mountain biking trails, hilly and unpaved, and it is where you go with kids who can actually hike.

For tweens and teens, the mountain bike trails and the newer bike skills course are the real draw, and they are free. There is also disc golf, and bridle trails off Diehl Road for horseback riders. Cincinnati Parks runs an accessible hiking wheelchair program in the forest, which is worth knowing about if you have a family member who needs it.

Practical logistics are simple because there is nothing to pay for. The park is open dawn to dusk with no admission fee and no parking fee. There are playgrounds, multiple picnic areas, and shelters, including the Area 10 Picnic Grove next to a first-come first-serve shelter.

Oak Ridge Lodge and Maple Ridge Lodge are reservable through Cincinnati Parks for birthday parties and family gatherings, and those do carry fees, so check with Cincinnati Parks for current rates and availability. There is no concession stand, so pack food and water.

Cincinnati Parks also programs the forest actively, with conservation workdays clearing honeysuckle, garlic mustard, and Japanese stiltgrass, and an annual Mt. Airy Forest Trailfest. Fall is the best season here for obvious reasons, and the day after heavy rain is the worst if you plan to use the dirt trails.

Google visitors rate it 4.6 across roughly 2,893 reviews, which for a free city forest reflects how much ground it covers, from a treehouse a toddler can reach to trails a teenager will actually respect.

Age Suitability

Infants (0-1)Toddlers (1-3)Little Kids (4-6)Big Kids (7-9)Tweens (10-12)Teens (13-17)

Parent Logistics

Stroller-Friendly

Limited

Nursing / Changing

Unknown

Kid Meals

N/A

Setting

Outdoor

Rainy Day

Not ideal

Plan Your Visit

Best Time to Visit

Weekday mornings and October. The forest is open dawn to dusk and the arboretum is open daily at no charge, and fall color in a 1,459-acre hardwood forest with a curated tree collection is the best version of this park. Spring brings the arboretum's flowering trees and shrubs. Summer weekends bring picnic groves and shelter reservations, which makes the roads busier but does not crowd the trails much. Skip the day after heavy rain if you plan to use the dirt trails or the bike skills course.

Wait Times

No waits. There is no gate, no ticket, and no line anywhere in the park. The only competition is for parking near Everybody's Treehouse and for the first-come first-serve picnic shelters on a nice summer weekend, both of which are easily solved by arriving before noon. Reservable lodges like Oak Ridge Lodge and Maple Ridge Lodge require booking through Cincinnati Parks.

Nearby Food

There is no food service inside the forest, so pack a picnic and use the groves. Colerain Avenue right outside the park has fast food and casual chains within a couple of minutes. For an actual sit-down meal with kids, The Park Diner in Northside is the closest listed restaurant and is a short drive east, and Northside more broadly has the best mix of casual, kid-tolerant places near this side of the park.

Why Kids Love It

Everybody's Treehouse is the hook and it delivers, a more than 100 square foot structure standing 14 feet up, built into 12 trees and reached by ramps, which makes it the Tri-State's only public treehouse and something kids talk about on the drive home. Beyond that there are more than 10 miles of trails to get pleasantly lost on, a bike skills course, and disc golf. The forest is 1,459 acres, which means kids get the feeling of real woods rather than a landscaped park with a path through it.

Pro Tips from Parents

Everybody's Treehouse is the reason most families come, and it needs no ticket or reservation. It is reached by a series of ramps and is wheelchair accessible, which also means a stroller can make it up.
Do not confuse the forest with the arboretum. The 30-acre Mt. Airy Arboretum is a curated collection of trees, shrubs, and flowers with gentle paths, open daily at no charge, and it is the easier half of the park with a toddler.
Pick a trail before you arrive. There are more than 10 miles of hiking and multi-use mountain biking trails across 1,459 acres, and wandering without a plan is how a short outing becomes a long one with a tired 5 year old.
Bring bikes for older kids. The mountain bike trails and the newer bike skills course are the strongest draw here for tweens and teens, and there is no rental on site.
Book ahead only if you need a guaranteed space. Oak Ridge Lodge and Maple Ridge Lodge are reservable through Cincinnati Parks, while several picnic groves, including the Area 10 grove, sit next to a first-come first-serve shelter.

What to Bring

Water bottles and packed snacks, since there is no concession stand anywhere in the forest
Trail shoes for the dirt paths, which are hilly and get muddy
Bikes and helmets if anyone wants the mountain bike trails or the bike skills course
A picnic blanket or a plan to use one of the first-come first-serve picnic groves
Bug spray and sunscreen, since the arboretum is open and the trails are deep woods
A downloaded trail map, because cell coverage in a 1,459-acre forest is uneven

Cost Info

Free Admission

Estimated Cost (Family of 4)

$0 for the visit itself.

Mount Airy Forest is a Cincinnati Parks property with no admission fee and no parking fee, and the arboretum is specifically noted as open daily without charge.

Budget $0 to $20 for packed food and drinks, or $40 to $70 if you finish with a sit-down meal in Northside afterward.

Reserving one of the lodges or a reservable shelter for a birthday party or family gathering does carry a fee, and Cincinnati Parks handles those bookings and posts the current rates.

Tips to Save

The park costs nothing, so the savings are in how you structure the day.
Pack a picnic and use one of the first-come first-serve picnic groves rather than paying to reserve a shelter, unless you need a guaranteed spot for a group.
Combine the treehouse and the arboretum in one trip so a single drive covers two very different experiences.
Bring your own bikes rather than renting elsewhere, since the trails and the bike skills course are free to use.
Watch the Cincinnati Parks calendar for free events like the Mt.
Airy Forest Trailfest and volunteer conservation workdays, which are free ways to get kids invested in a place they can return to.

Hours & Contact

Contact

5083 Colerain Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45211

(513) 357-2604

cincinnati-oh.gov/cincyparks/visit-a-park/find-a-parkfacility/mt-airy-forest/

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