Paddling in West Jeff: Praire Oaks State Park

Prairie Oaks: good for the polar extremes of paddlers, those who are looking for a relaxing quarry lake paddle and those who want a bit of excitement and don’t mind a rough portage.


We put in at the biggest of the 3 Darby Bend Lakes, following the road to the last (third) parking area. Off to the right you’ll see a bunch of rocks and a dog swimming area. There’s a short portage from the parking lot to the lake, but the trail is plenty wide and flat, allowing for even me to carry the big SUP board from my car. 

Location of portage spot,
 looking toward the parking lot.

The lake was flat and a scenic paddle, but even circumventing along the shore took us less than an hour. Not that it wasn’t scenic and full of wildlife, but after dragging our gear out there, we wanted a bit more to do. 

We saw on google maps that a small creek flowed from the lake into the Big Darby and found (sort of!) a way to go from the lake to the river. The take-out for this adventure is directly across from the parking lot to the northwest. You’ll see a tiny, faded trail up from the lake’s edge, across a wide trail and wooden walkway, and down to a tiny waterfall. It’s a tricksy little portage, but head upriver a short ways and it’s very worth it for the adventurous paddler. 

The river goes from wide and deep to short and fast quickly, so dragging our boards up the rapids and riding them down gave us lots of fun! If you’re feeling slightly lazier, you can paddle downstream. There’s a few rapids to go through, but it widens out to spots a good 4 or 5 feet deep to give your breaks from paddling. We paddled up a ways past the Beach Road bridge before turning back downstream and went all the way past our put-in to the River Rock Trail Bridge over the creek, portaged to the nearest quarry lake, and paddled back over to the road. The lake was extremely cold (and extremely deep), great for a quick afternoon swim after the long paddle. 

The best part of this trip was the seclusion. Though only 20 minutes out of Columbus, we felt as though we were the only people on the river and miles away from civilization. It was silent enough to paddle and chat or listen to birds, cicadas, and frogs. Occasionally we’d hear a dog barking, but never saw another soul on the lakes, and just one friendly kayak fisherman on the river itself.