Dayton Grotto Gardens — Attraction in Dayton

This is one of the most wonderful places in the state that I've visited. We are in town for a baseball tournament! We were looking for a nature park to Vista! Stumbled into this via lakeside park. First is the fact it's very vast and open. Next is that it's absolutely beautiful! Small Lakes, wild life, flowers and plant life of some of the most amazing things. Then the real surprises started. We found the historical connections, which I loved. As an excavator, I'm a bit of a rock need. There are some amazing rocks. Layers of mixed types, millions and millions of years of river sediment!. Then you can in the orignal stair cases. These Civil War vets had picked and hand placed along the side. When we think of that era and it's soldiers we think of gray sky's, hard times and hard times. Then you get a glimpse to post war vets, finding the beauty in the same rocks today. Then the icing on the cake is small picturesque caves and water features. Then stuff like the monarch butterfly bed, masonry, and more.

One last thing that was my favorite, while this is open To the public, the signs around the lakes saying no fishing except vets. That's great to me. The public has plenty of places and opportunities to fish anywhere. Many of the vets housed here can't. So saving the fish here for them is very important and special

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The Grotto is beautiful and well managed, everything was neat and had a lot of diversity. The park felt safe and was lovely to walk around, I do have a few complaints though. First of all you will constantly hear traffic fly by as it’s placed just before the expressway, this may affect your visit if you are looking to try and relax. Secondly there are tons of mosquitoes since the grotto itself is pretty still making it a breeding ground for...

In wintertime obviously the gardens are dormant but I only get to Dayton around the holidays. I had never visited this historic post-Civil War site and wanted to see it. Even in winter repose it is quite nice. The spring is still flowing so the waterfall is active. As a conscientious objector, I appreciated the Purple Heart memorializing a medic who died protecting two...