Columbus to Washington drive: 24 ranked stops, break in Monroeville

George Washington’s favorite spa, a state-park bathhouse in town

a wide, powerful Youghiogheny River fall in the heart of town

A 1.7-mile trail system enters one of Ohio's few old-growth mixed forests, with white and red oaks, beech, and maple specimens more than 400 years old. The preserve's rocky, steep sections make this a real hike rather than a quick pullout.

Elegant French fine dining inside a restored 1853 church with a 700-bottle cellar. Order: Lamb chops.

3,118-foot brick canal tunnel (1836-1850) you can walk with a flashlight — the C&O Canal's great engineering folly. On the Maryland side opposite Paw Paw, WV.

September 17, 1862 remains the single bloodiest day in American history -- over 22,000 casualties in about 12 hours around this small whitewashed Dunker meetinghouse. The battle's outcome gave Lincoln the opening to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. A quiet, reflective stop rather than a triumphant one.

Fast-casual gateway to Somali food in the city with the nation's second-largest Somali community. Order: Hilibari with sambusa.

Bison occupy two enclosed pastures amid more than 1,600 acres of restored prairie and wetland, while the Nature Center holds a 53-foot living stream stocked with Big Darby Creek organisms. The pairing makes the diversion more than a generic metro-park walk.

a boardwalk fall tucked in suburban Columbus

The signature 2.3-mile trail crosses ravines and forest to a deck 100 feet above the Olentangy River. Shorter accessible river paths and a nature center provide alternatives, but the bluff overlook is not drive-up.