^Looking south from the eastern split with US Route 20 southeast of Toledo, October 2023.

US Route 23 forms the backbone of Ohio, and it approximates a central north-south meridian through Ohio better than any other route.  In Ohio, US Route 23 runs from the Toledo area to Portsmouth, by way of Upper Sandusky, Marion, Delaware, Columbus, Circleville, and Chillicothe.  US Route 23 enters Ohio from the north as a freeway that descended southerly from Flint and Ann Arbor in Michigan.  That freeway crosses the state line near Sylvania, Ohio, and it soon picks up Interstate 475, which comes from the east.  US Route 23 and Interstate 475 join together to bypass Toledo to the west, but they serve the city's western suburbs. US Route 23 follows Interstate 475 until the Interstate ends, and it jumps on Interstate 75 northeast for one exit.  US Route 23 jumps onto US Route 20 southeasterly out of the Toledo area, and soon, US Route 23 finally gets some independence as a southward surface route. That southward surface route passes through Fostoria before joining a new freeway at Casey, Ohio. That freeway carried Ohio Route 15 in from the west, but US Route 23 takes over as the freeway's designation as it heads southeast to Upper Sandusky.  US Route 23 is mostly a rural expressway from Upper Sandusky until it reaches Delaware.  It returns to surface road status as it leaves Delaware and passes through Columbus.  US Route 23 serves downtown Columbus, but becomes a high-speed four-lane highway once again as it leaves Columbus for places in south-central Ohio.  US Route 23 is the main north-south highway through Circleville and Chillicothe, where it acts as a freeway bypass. US Route 23 slows down through downtown Waverly and Piketon, but it quickly regains expressway characteristics after that. It's a surface route through Portsmouth, and then it exits Ohio on a bridge over the Ohio River into Kentucky.

My photo of US Route 23 signage in Ohio comes from its interchange with Ohio Route 231, several north of Marion.  The signage shown in the photo serves eastbound travelers on Ohio Route 231, as they encounter the eastern set of interchange ramps interacting with the northbound side of the US Route 23 expressway. The guide marker informs eastbound drivers that the northbound lanes of US Route 23 are accessed via a left turn at this location.  This photo was taken in October 2016, as I was using the US Route 23 corridor to detour north from West Virginia to Toledo before coming home (I needed pictures of route signs!).
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