Shelterhouse Picnic Area — Attraction in Bentleyville

We recently visited the Metroparks South Chagrin Reservation. This is our first visit to this large Metropark. We parked at The Shelterhouse Picnic Area & Trailhead. There is a large sheltered picnic area with many other picnic tables in the immediate vicinity. The paved parking area is very big with a large vehicle capacity. There are parking spaces for horse trailers for those riding on the many bridle paths located in South Chagrin Reservation.

The Shelterhouse Picnic Area is off Hawthorne Parkway within South Chagrin Reservation in Bentleyville, Ohio. South Chagrin Reservation is bordered on the west by SOM Center Road and on the east by the Chagrin River.

Since this is our first visit we stayed on a paved trail. The paved trails parallel the paved roads. Sometimes they are immediately adjacent to the roadway. The Metroparks do a great job of providing physical demarcation between the paved trail and the paved road. There are clearly marked crosswalks where the paved trails cross the paved roads. The paved trails are ideal for in-line skaters, runners, joggers, dog walkers (dogs must be on a leash) and hikers/walkers. During our visit, every cyclist we saw were on the paved streets. The paved trails are wide with a center line.

We started our hike hiking out of the parking lot's entrance and turning right (westerly). Very easy trail with gradual elevation changes. Forest on one side. You can see some of the non-paved trails from the paved trail and there are access points to the non-paved trails and bridal trails. We could have turned left when we left the entrance to The Shelterhouse Picnic Area. On the route we took, we crossed several other paved trails running perpendicular to the paved trail we were on. This is a huge four-season Metropark. During winter, there is a sledding hill. There are small lakes and creeks within the boundaries of this park.

The Metroparks and the Emerald Necklace around Cleveland is very impressive. Having moved here from the Chicago area, Chicago does not hold a candle to the Cleveland Metroparks system. The Chicago metropolitan area has a series of forest preserves. Most of the forest preserves are not maintained and managed as well as the Metroparks. We really enjoy visiting...

We came for a group event & were very impressed! Beautiful and restful! Everything, including the picnic tables were absolutely clean! All of them were in excellent condition with no splinters or cracks in the surface. (Which was greatly appreciated considering most of us were wearing shorts LOL)

The restrooms were very neat & clean and fresh water was readily available at taps. There were more than enough garbage cans provided as well as a recycle bin for bottles & cans.

There was a FREE wood deposit not too far from the actual picnic area. (Not suitable for the grills) Not just wood, but wood chips! We availed ourselves of these on our way out seeing as fall's fast approaching wood chips are something we needed to replenish our existing mulch. The logs (wild cherry) were perfect for our fireplace insert, 8" diameter, cut 16" long. How very considerate of the park employees to cut them in manageable lengths!

All in all Shelterhouse far exceeded our expectations! Way to...

Beautiful space in a beautiful park. The facilities are all clean and well maintained.

The floors are a little uneven, but our guest who uses a wheelchair was able to navigate without issue. The tables are bolted to the floor and are EXACTLY the required 36 inches from the kitchen wall. It meets ADA requirements, but a wider chair may find it a tight squeeze.

The “kitchen” areas are spacious and very nice, with a wide ledge and two usable fireplaces. They are wheelchair accessible from the main seating area, but there are steps on the outside entrances

The only negative was that we requested firewood with our reservation and there was none provided. There is no way to contact park staff...