Lorain County Metroparks Steel Mill Trail Extension in Lorain, OH

Hi ! I'm Sadie Lou's Momma!
Today we're going to share a Travelin' Tail with you from our hometown.


At the north end of the 3.5 mile Bridgeway Trail in the Black River Reservation, you will find the Days Dam picnic area. It is located in Lorain on East 31st Street, near the Sheffield Village border. At this end of the trail, you will find 2 scenic loop trails. One trail takes you around what is believed to be the oldest and largest tree in Lorain County. The other is the Waterfall Trail. Both trails offer beautiful scenery and are well worth the hike off the beaten path.

This year, the Lorain County Metroparks opened the 2 mile Steel Mill Trail Extension, which connects to the Bridgeway Trail at Days Dam and goes north through the slag fields and along steel mill property to SR611. The extension ends at SR611 across from the First Student bus company. There is no designated parking area at the north end of this trail yet.
I've read so many different articles and opinions on this trail, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Some people thought there was too much 'green', others thought there wasn't enough, and so on. We finally got a nice day and decided to go down and check it out. Besides, we needed to get back on our walking schedule with the Busters.

Here's the entrance to the Steel Mill Trail:
Even though the crosswalk is clearly marked, we still recommend activating the crosswalk signal. Don't expect people to stop for you just because you are in the crosswalk. Push the button, the traffic in both directions gets a red light, and you can cross safely.

The first portion of the trail is flat and winds through some woods. The first thing we noticed was a 'steel mill smell'. Even though I've lived north of the mill for most of my life, I don't recall this being one of the common 'smells' that the steel mill gives off. However, this trail does skirt along the edge of the steel mill property and it takes you closer to the mill than most people have ever been before. It wasn't an awful unbearable 'smell' and it doesn't last long, so please don't let that deter you from checking out the trail.
Then, up ahead, you see the fence rise on both sides of the trail and meet over your head as the train bridges loom above. This part of the trail is downhill. And yes, I did say that I wasn't walking down that hill because I didn't want to walk back up. Let me tell you - the walk back up that hill wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Always be on the lookout for people on bicycles on this trail and especially here, as this portion of the trail is totally fenced in. There's ample room to share the trail, but there's no place to jump out of the way of a runaway biker at the last minute.

Here's a picture of that section as taken from the bottom of the hill heading south:


Here are the new (on the left) and old (on the right) train bridges that you will pass under on this portion of the trail:
At the top of the picture you can kinda see the canopy that goes over the trail at this point. It was a little wetter and muddier here than we had anticipated for a paved trail. The mosquitoes were abundant and hungry in this area.

Going down the hill and around the curve brought us to a large bridge spanning the Black River.

Here's a view of the bridge from the north side of it.

From the bridge, looking south, we get a view of the train bridges that we had just passed under.

From the bridge, looking north, a view of the Black River.
Now that's what we came down here for! We were hoping that Mother Nature had some hidden treasures in store for us back here in the slag field wasteland and this was a good start.
I imagine that this is a view similar to what some of the first settlers in this area saw when they arrived. Absolutely beautiful!

You can also kinda see the steel mill from here, but you'll get a much better view of it from the north side of the bridge.


Did you know about the mountain range?
I'll bet you didn't - since we don't really have mountains here.
The huge piles of slag just look like mountains.




Just to the north of the 'mountains' on the same side of the trail, we spied this:

Upon closer inspection, we discovered it was a wildlife oasis:

I know we went looking for hidden treasures, but I never expected to see something like this.
Alas, it was on the other side of a fence and marked private property/no trespassing, so we weren't able to get any closer. I never imagined something so beautiful and pristine could exist in the barren landscape of the slag fields.


We went a little further past this point and came upon another bridge. At this point, we turned back because it was getting late and the mosquitoes were swarming. We will go back another time and walk the complete trail and I will be sure to bring you that update. We are also looking forward to the different things we will get to see along the way as the seasons change. I have a feeling that the fall colors are going to be absolutely amazing along this trail.

We encourage you to take some time out of your busy day and go take a hike!
There are plenty of other trails in the Lorain County Metroparks system if you don't think this one is for you.

A great walk and a good night's sleep were had by all!