Day EscapesLake Escapes

3XP is Buckeye Lakes’ original bike, boat, and brew tour. Enjoy a scenic bike ride and kayak tour with stops at the most famous restaurants, bars, wineries, and breweries around Buckeye Lake. Choose from the Buckeye Lake East Tour or the Buckeye Lake West Tour– each with unique stops and varying experiences. Click here to learn more about each tour.

After years as a summer resident, Captain Buck has been proud to call Buckeye Lake his home since 2006. As a passionate boater, his friends and family knew that no visit to the lake would be complete without exploring the shores and seeing the sites of Ohio’s first state park aboard Captain Buck’s pontoon boat. Now you can enjoy that same experience and see Buckeye Lake the way it was meant to be seen – from the water!

Enjoy the beautiful view, have fun and relax at Buckeye Lake on Captain Ray’s Pontoon Boat Tours. Captain Ray is a boating enthusiast who loves spending time on the water. He is Coast Guard licensed and has his OUPV Captains License. His business provides private tours of Buckeye Lake including, sightseeing tours, sunset cruises, and build-your-own cruise tours. 

 

Buckeye Lake was once a large wetland complex, called the “Great Swamp” that was to be turned into a reservoir to feed the Ohio and Erie Canal system. The plan however didn’t work because the reservoir was too shallow to feed the canal for barge traffic especially during the dry season. Strangely enough, it was the impoundment of the swamp in 1830 which made Cranberry Bog so unique.

As the waters backed up behind the dike, all of the big swamp was inundated and destroyed, except the very youngest and therefore most buoyant segment of the bog mat. Instead of disappearing beneath the mucky waters, as did most of the adjacent swamp forest, a 50-acre upper segment of the bog mat along the north shore stretched and expanded like a giant waterlogged sponge and rose 8 feet with the new water level. No longer did the floating bog mat surround the glacial lake as is typically the case with such bogs. Now the lake surrounds the bog mat, a unique situation.

An access permit from the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves is required to visit Cranberry Bog State Nature Preserve. Note, poison sumac is abundant at the preserve.

 

Freedom Watersports is a boat rental company based at the North East Harbor Marina at Buckeye Lake!  Currently offering 22′ pontoon and 20′ pontoon, book your rental and spend a day on the lake. Call 740-739-7992 to book or learn more info.

Cruise around Buckeye Lake State Park by land or lake!  Got Buckeye Lake delivers boats and/or golf carts right to you. Check out their inventory and book your next ride on their website or by phone (740-704-7516).

Ohio Fun Excursions provides pontoon rentals, kayak rentals, and water taxi services (dock-to-dock) for the Buckeye Lake area. Ohio Fun Excursions also offers guided and non-guided kayak tours as well as captained and non-captained pontoon rentals.

Enjoy standup paddleboarding or kayaking at Buckeye Lake! Launch from 14713 Township Rd 1070, Thornville, OH 43076, located between Horvath’s Harbor & Port Lounge Smokehouse BBQ less than 2 miles from Interstate 70, near the public kayak launch site.

Experience Fit N’ Paddle at Buckeye Lake’s Snug Harbor a unique paddleboarding and fitness class combination.