Welcome to Honey Run Waterfall
In late April of 2007, the Knox County Park District, with financial assistance from the Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County, acquired a 2+ acre property that includes a stunning, 25-foot high waterfall. This park,
named for the stream, Honey Run, that cascades over the waterfall, is open to the public 365 days a year. In 2009, the Park District purchased an additional 19 acres from the Millwood Sand Company, which provides visitors the
ability to hike from the waterfall to the Kokosing River. Along the walk, visitors can view spectacular blackhand sandstone cliffs and boulders. The bridge nearest to the Kokosing State Scenic River was built by the 2015 Leadership Knox Class.
A parking lot to access the falls is located at 10855 Hazel Dell Road , Howard 43208. In 2010, an additional 348 acres was added to the site, across the road from the waterfall, known as Honey Run Highlands.
Originally identified as a priority park area in the original Knox County Comprehensive Plan in 1975, the Honey Run Waterfall site contains a rare plant community (disjunct boreal habitat more often found in Canada) and unique views
of the blackhand sandstone, formed some 350 million years ago. To read an article published by the Ohio Geological Society highlighting the various geologic features of Honey Run Waterfall click on the link below “Honey Run Geological
Features”.
Towering Eastern hemlocks, witch-hazel, partridge-berry, wild ginger and round-leaved hepactica grace this natural area. Since 2014, several construction projects (a staircase and two bridges over Honey Run) were developed to protect
the unique ecosystem and natural resources on the site. In 2021, a group of volunteers spent countless hours to compile a plant survey for all of the Knox County Parks. This survey highlights the baseline data for the presence of
forbs (herbaceous flowering plants) that are not graminoids, within selected county parks. The project furthered determined flowering time for each identified species. During the 2021 growing season, surveyors identified a total
of 320 distinct species forbs. Click on the plant data icon above to view results. You may also view the narrative of the project on the link below.