CASTALIA, Ohio - The Castalia Quarry Reserve is the highest point in tabletop-flat Erie County, Ohio.

From the park's overlook at the county's western edge, you can see Lake Erie in the distance and, on clear days, Perry's Victory and International Peace Monument at Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island.

The 152-acre park, a one-time quarry, sits off state Route 101 in Margaretta Township, south of Castalia and southwest of Sandusky.

It was acquired by Erie MetroParks in 1987 from the Wagner Quarries Co. of Sandusky. The company donated 110 acres and the park district bought 42 adjoining acres.

The largely undeveloped/natural area park features five short trails and a restored wetland.

The wetlands tract with two trails sits on the north side of state Route 101 next to the park's parking lot.

The old quarry - the park's centerpiece - covers most of 110 acres on the south side of the highway.

The preserve, with its cliffs, rock bed, forests and ponds, is ruggedly striking. It is a natural area that is recovering from its once-barren past.

The area is home to several rare and endangered plants and animal species. It has 240 species of plants, especially prairie grasses and flowers, and is popular with bird watchers and butterfly watchers.

Its rare plants found in the gravelly limestone soils that create a special habitat include the blazing star, the Canada summer bluet and the Ohio goldenrod.

The preserve's limestone was formed 380 million years ago when a shallow saltwater sea covered the area.

For that reason, you might find fossils of horn coral, crinoids and brachiopods along the trails and on the quarry floor. No collecting is permitted.

The park also houses some unusual glacial grooves like those on Kelleys Island, but Castalia's grooves remain largely covered with limestone soils.

You can get a glimpse of the grooves from the Quarry Rim Trail near the park's eastern boundary.

The Quarry Rim Trail, the park's main trail, stretches 1.8 miles around the edge of the old limestone quarry.

The preserve's Fossil and Dolomite trails stretch across the bare rock on the bottom of the old quarry, which provided stone for the building of the Ohio Turnpike in the 1950s.

The Quarry Rim Trail is an easy stroll that offers up-close looks at the limestone cliffs, the ponds and the wooded edge of the stone works.

Some of the rock faces are up to 90 feet high, and the vistas across the stark landscape are surprising.

Quarry No. 5 - that was its official designation - began commercial operations in the early 1870s and operated into the mid-1960s.

Until 1929, the quarried limestone was used as riprap along the Lake Erie shoreline and for general construction.

Two railroads served the quarry and hauled the stone to Sandusky and Huron for shipment on Lake Erie.

In the early days, the mining relied on horses, steam engines and lots of labor. Workers got 17 cents an hour and worked 12 hours a day. They set blast charges and swung hammers weighing 30 to 40 pounds.

Limestone was picked up by steam shovels and loaded into small rail cars on the quarry floor. Dinkies, or small steam engines, then pushed the cars up to the main crusher, which broke the stone into smaller pieces.

Conveyors moved the stone from the primary to the secondary crushers, which were located farther down the hillside. The stone was then separated by size and moved by wagons with steel and wood wheels to handle the weight or by rail.

The quarrying ceased in 1929 because of the Great Depression. It resumed in 1954, when the turnpike work began. The stone was also used on bridges across Sandusky Bay. Quarry No. 5 produced 400 tons of limestone a day. It was shut down in 1965.

There are a few remnants of the quarry's mining days in the preserve: an old steam shovel bucket and rusting cables.

Park officials advise visitors to stay on marked trails and away from the cliff faces, which can be wet, slippery and dangerous.

Horses are not permitted on the reserve, and rappelling and rock climbing are prohibited.

Mountain biking is allowed with a special permit from the park district or when riding the reserve's trails with a permit holder. Permits are not easy to get, so don't load your bike to your car right away.

To get a permit, one must complete a mountain-bicycling training program approved by the park district, show proficiency and be familiar with the quarry preserve.

A mountain biker wanting to get a permit can contact the Erie Metroparks' Southwoods office at 419-625-7783 to arrange the training to get a ride-alone permit.

Mountain bikers under 16 will not be issued their own permits. A permit holder is permitted two guests.

The park district advises people not to ride alone and to stay on designated trails that are marked by red arrows and yellow paint blazes.

Certain sites within the preserve are off-limits to mountain bikers because of the risk and because of the sensitive ecology.

Frankly, to a mountain biker living 75 miles away, the trails didn't look that interesting or that challenging to go through all the necessary steps to get a permit.

The riding would not be that tough or challenging. The key is a no-brainer: Use your brakes to avoid pedaling over cliffs.

I walked the trails instead. The hiking is easy, although the sun beating down on the bare rocks raised the temperature 10 degrees on the Dolomite and Fossil trails and at bare-rock spots along the Quarry Rim Trail.

There is a wooden observation platform along the Quarry Rim Trail offering a view from 200 feet above Lake Erie.

Preserve hours are 8 a.m. to dusk year-round.

Amenities are few. There are restrooms and a small picnic area. No drinking water is available.

The park district offers some interpretive programs at the Castalia Quarry Reserve.

For information, contact Erie MetroParks at 3910 Perkins Ave., Huron, OH 44839; 419-625-7783; http://www.eriemetroparks.org.