Dog walking in Richwood

Delaware

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Delaware State Park’s 1,600 acres of water and wilderness are just 15 miles from Richwood. Rent a canoe for your water dogs in summer, or hit the sledding hill with your snow dogs in winter. The park has five hiking/cross-country skiing trails, all rated "easy" and ranging from the quarter-mile Fisherman’s Trail to the 1.6-mile Lakeview Trail. The 1.5-mile Bigfoot Trail sounds pawticularly exciting. If your pups really want to get off-leash, though, head south toward downtown Delaware. The Mutt’s Paradise Amusemutt Park and Training Center offers a six-acre seasonal private park available for rent by the hour, perfect for shy or special needs dogs. And, the public 5-acre Delaware City Dog Park, with small and large dog enclosures, is just east of downtown.

Eastern Marion

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Marion is 16 miles north of Richwood, and a great place for a doggy day out. Kauffman Dog Park at Kennedy Park has fenced, off-leash play areas with a water station, grassy lawns, and shady trees. There are 8 restaurants with dog-friendly outdoor seating in Marion, and the patio at TwentyNine Brew Pub is particularly inviting (maybe because of the not-quite-30 microbrews the pub keeps on tap). You’ll have plenty of opportunities to walk it off, particularly if you head to 83-acre Quarry Park on Hillman Park Rd, where the nature paths wind around a 23-acre lake. Please keep all pups on-leash, as the cliffs around portions of the lake can be dangerous.

Mill Creek

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A northern Columbus suburb, Marysville is 16 miles from Richwood. Head straight for the crescent of parks along the Mill Creek and catch the 3.4-mile Jim Simmons Memorial Trail at its northern trailhead. You can follow the trail down to Mill Valley Park, where you might stop and challenge Spot to some disc golf, then explore the woods on some of the branch trails as you continue on to Millcreek Park and Schwartzkopf Park. Not tired yet? If you cut down Elmwood Drive, you can pick up the multi-purpose loop trail at McCarthy Park. Maybe you’re tired but your pack is not? The Marysville Bark Park is just south of Schwarzkopf on the other bank of the creek, where you can sit on a bench and watch while your pups play off-leash.

Kenton

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The town of Kenton is a community of 9,000 dog-loving people and a commercial hub in this rural part of the state, about 17 miles from Richwood. The Kenton Bark Park is located in Wharton Park and offers two fenced areas for off-leash play. The park itself includes some additional on-leash lawn and walking areas surrounding the playground and picnic area. For a more dramatic kind of scenery, sniff out Saulisberry Park on France Lake, an old stone quarry. Now a pawpular fishing spot and a dog-friendly campground, the park also has nature trails and room to roam.