Cook Forest State Park — Attraction in Farmington Township

Stayed at the Indian cabins to get away from a city apartment and do some woodland birding. Mixed experiences.

The cons: While they did a great job keeping the bathrooms clean- something very lacking in many parks- they use the same bathroom cleaner for everything and don't fully wipe it off when supposed to. They saturated the insides of the fridge and microwave with so much of it that I had to throw away food because it tasted like the bathroom floor and smelled 50x stronger like very cheap fragrance even from inside packages and even after i tried to wipe some of it out. It's impossible to get off of your belongings as well. So triple bag your food, don't put anything in there you want to keep, and don't use the microwave. Consider avoiding the stay if you're migraine prone.

I wish they'd have used the time spraying toxic bathroom cleaner on food surfaces to instead clean up all the food and other stuff under the mattresses.

The cabins are very close together. If you have good neighbors, it's fine. If you have trashy ones that blast music all day and are loud until 2am or more and ignore your requests for them to respect quiet hours, it will not be fun to relax at the cabin like I hoped to.

There is a very busy loud road with lots of trucks right next to the cabins. Not the parks fault of course.

There was a massive loud construction project on part of the park right next to the cabins all day every day that I wish I knew about before booking.

Pet peeve: they use the phrase "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints..." but deliberately cut off the end of the poem, "kill nothing but time," so people who want to hurt and/or kill animals while they're there don't feel slighted.

The pros-

The cabins are situated within walking distance of almost everything. There between two great trails, 4 modern plumbing bathrooms in the center that are clean, a creek and pond area, the park office right up the hill, and access to the river right over it. I enjoyed not having to drive to experience a variety of habitats.

It was great for birding for the aforementioned reasons. I could get up and walk right out my door to a trail and many birds were raising their young right around the cabin areas.

The trails I tried were all well marked and maintained.

Staff at the park was hard working and kind.

The old growth Forest areas are truly beautiful.

Overall I'm glad I went, if I was closer Id take day trips to visit, but I would not stay in those cabins again based on the cleaner alone. You're not supposed to consume bathroom floor cleaner even if it didn't ruin all of your things and smell like an exploded dollar store...

We went to visit Cook Forest on 2-15-2023, since the weather was perfect for February.

Driving in from Brookville was a beautiful view. No matter the season it really is amazing view.

Most of the stores in Cooks Forest were closed since it is the off-season, but there are a few options if you need something.

When we pulled off the road to one of the hiking trails it was nice to get the breeze of fresh air. There were some muddy areas but overall it was nice to walk around. There were 3 other cars when we arrived and 2 more cars coming in when we were leaving.

The traffic was not bad and the roads were fine. There were a few spots of snow on the hills but nothing on the road.

It was a perfect day to get some walking in and see the streams. The view from any spot in Cooks forest is truly amazing with the trees, water and wildlife.

We were able to see a few squirrels and one deer about 90 yards away.

No matter when you visit Cook Forest, please be aware of the wildlife on the road such as deer.

Cell service is very limited, but that is a reason why we visit Cook Forest.

A lot of things to do if you enjoy the outdoors in any season.

I highly reccomendvtaking a drive out to...

Went here with a few friends and my boyfriend and it was gorgeous! We even had the opportunity to find a geocash on accident when we went hiking ! We went camping on their campground and I dont love camping next to other people but overall everyone was respectful and quiet! The only issue at the camp is you cant bring out of state wood which is 100% understandable and important for native species, you dont want non native insects to travel over. But with that being said, they do provide firewood (which is a bit pricey) and unfortunately it was a little frustrating, because the firewood wasnt very dry, it wasnt wet outside, but the way it burned it was very wet inside, and the wood had a very hard time catching fire, even with the starters they gave us. We ended up putting the fire grill Overtop the fire and letting the other wood dry out on the fire, which helped but not a lot. Other than that their trails were beautiful and I would honestly come back here again! Just make sure you bring a map and know how to follow it, because you have 0 service in most places lol! 10/10 though, I would recommend :)...