Vernal ponds are freshwater ecosystems that seasonally dry and are biogeochemically important in forests. Urban ponds may differ in chemistry from those in non-urban, forested settings. We observed physicochemical and water quality changes over one year in two vernal ponds in northeast Ohio: one on an urban, university campus (Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, USA), and the other in a patch of temperate forest (Jennings Woods, Ravenna, Ohio, USA). We measured depth, physicochemistry, and collected samples for chemical analysis weekly in 2021 when surface water was present and not frozen. The forested pond’s water was present from early spring to September, dried, and then refilled and remained into the winter (deepest 0.33 m on May 20). The urban pond held water from early spring until mid-July before drying (deepest 0.46 m on May 13). Specific conductance was measured in the field and was consistently greater in the urban pond (mean ± std dev 581 ± 117 µS/cm) than the forested pond (46 ± 12 µS/cm). We found that the urban pond had much higher concentrations of salt (Cl- 121 ± 29 mg/L, Na+ 78 ± 16 mg/L) over time than the forested pond (Cl- 1.4 ± 0.3 mg/L, Na+ 3.4 ± 1.4 mg/L); likely due to urban runoff containing road salts. Surface-water inorganic nutrient (NO3-NO2, NH3, and SRP) concentrations were uniformly below detection limits in both ponds (7 µg/L for each), indicating that runoff may not introduce greater nutrient loads to the urban pond than the forested pond as with salt. Although we did not detect dissolved inorganic nutrients, excess nutrients may be associated with particles or in algal biomass. Although biogeochemically and ecologically valuable, vernal ponds in urban environments are impacted, particularly by freshwater salinization.