Parks and Recreation
Hudson, Ohio is home to one of Northeast Ohio’s most admired park systems—offering residents and visitors over 1,100 acres of natural beauty, active recreation, and year-round programming that encourages connection, wellness, and outdoor exploration.
Hudson’s Parks are a proud reflection of the city’s values—encouraging healthy living, environmental stewardship, and a strong sense of community. Whether you’re seeking a scenic walk, family fun, a round of golf, or a day on the lake, there’s something for everyone.
Hudson’s award-winning park system offers over 1,100 acres of scenic beauty, recreational space, and outdoor adventure. With more than 20 parks and preserves, residents and visitors alike can enjoy hiking and biking trails, playgrounds, picnic shelters, fishing ponds, and serene natural areas year-round.
At the heart of the system is Hudson Springs Park, a local favorite featuring a 50-acre lake perfect for kayaking, canoeing, and other hand-powered watercraft. With wooded trails, scenic views, and abundant wildlife, it’s an ideal destination for relaxation and outdoor fun.
The Hudson Parks department is dedicated to maintaining high-quality, accessible green spaces that enhance quality of life, foster community connection, and preserve the natural beauty of our town. There is something for everyone in the Hudson Parks.
Ellsworth Meadows Golf Club, considered by many to be one of the finest public courses in Ohio, is a beautifully manicured 18-hole course that is challenging to all skill levels. With its strategically placed bunkers, water hazards and picturesque fairways, the course was named one of the top 12 golf courses in Northeast Ohio by Crain’s Cleveland Business magazine and ranked in GolfStyles magazine as one of the top 100 best courses in Ohio.
Conveniently located between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, Ellsworth Meadows Golf Club is the perfect place for your next golf outing or event with its undulating greens, pro shop, snack bar, cart rentals and banquet and catering facilities. The course is open year-round, weather permitting. Booking tee times in advance is highly recommended from April through October.
Friends of Hudson Parks is a 501(c)(3) organization, independent from the City of Hudson, which actively
supports the use and enjoyment of the Hudson Parks
through volunteerism, advocacy, promotion, and fund
raising.
They are guided by their shared values: environmental conservation and restoration, education, community engagement, recreation, health and wellness — to serve, preserve, and enhance the Hudson community through a vibrant park system.
Discover events and programs held in Hudson’s parks sponsored by the Friends of Hudson Parks as well as other ways to get involved by volunteering or supporting those programs.
A generous yet unexpected gift of 150 acres made to Summit Metro Parks in 2009 was the catalyst behind Wood Hollow Metro Park.
That gift of land, by a man whose family “loves the parks and the Fall Hiking Spree, but wants to remain anonymous,” led to the purchasing of several adjacent properties that brought the park’s current size to a little more than 300 acres.
Visitors may see and hear a variety of native amphibians, birds, insects, mammals and reptiles in the park’s forests, wetlands and open areas. The park’s 1.2-mile Downy Trail gets its name from the small woodpeckers that are among the species inhabiting “wood hollows” in the area’s beech-maple woods.
