Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Brandywine Falls
The busiest part of the park

After Snake Road we planned two and a half days to make it to Matt's house on Saturday night. After spending a day on Snake Rd we decided to use our extra day as a third day there. However, that day (Thursday) was raining. So instead of wasting it we decided to use the rainy day as a travel day. We left southern Illinois and headed through Indiana (stopping at a cavern) and continued into Ohio. We drove almost twelve hours in the miserable rain. It worked out because it got us close to Akron. We slept in the car Thursday night. This gave us a travel free Friday. We chose to go to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Cuyahoga Valley is one of the newest national parks. It was designated in 2000. It is 32,000 acres which would be small for a western park. It became a national park to give the east one more. It is kind of an urban park because the citizens of Cleveland and Akron are only thirty minutes away. It is somewhat wild though. There are waterfalls, beaver marshes, and 125 miles of hiking trails.

I knew what to expect when we decided to spend the day at CVNP. It was going to feel like "the country" but not a true wilderness like you'd get at Yellowstone. There would be pretty scenes worthy of a postcard but wouldn't take your breathe away. This is exactly what the park ended up being. Spending the day was a nice relaxing way to kill a day before heading to Matt's house.

The first thing we did was go to the main visitor center. We picked up a map of the park. Our goal was to see as much of it as we could. This did mean we wouldn't make any ten mile hikes. We hit as many scenic areas that we could either roadside or via short hikes. At the VC we ran across a ranger that told us the busiest part of the park was a waterfall named Brandywine Falls. Since it was early we should go there before it got busy. Since she was heading there anyway she had us follow her. Once parked, it was a short walk to a very impressive falls. There are three different vantage points to see it from. We went to all three but the observation deck easily had the best view.

A view from the Ledges Trail

The park runs north to south and is very thin east to west. North to south it is probably twenty miles while it is less than a half mile in some places east to west. There is a main route going the length of the park top to bottom. After the falls we decided to head to the southern point and work our way north hitting all of the points of interest. There was a beaver pond in the southern half that is known for wildlife from birds to otters. I was hoping to see frogs and snakes but in the morning it was a raw fifty degrees, cloudy and breezy, so I knew snakes weren't going to be out and about. We stopped at the pond and saw some Wood Ducks and Mallards but all was quiet. If it got sunny later we would go back.

One of the few things I actually wanted to do at the park was walk part of the towpath. The path parallels the Cuyahoga River and the Ohio/ Erie Canal. The canal is historic. It was used to transport goods before railroads. The path runs most of the length of the park. I just wanted to walk a small scenic portion of it. The trail to the beaver pond goes along the towpath. We walked past the pond along the edge of the canal for a short while so I got my fix.

Ohio and Erie Towpath

Most of the day was spent traveling to different ponds and viewpoints. There are multiple roadside ponds where you can picnic or use a bathroom. Mostly we'd get out of the car walk to a pond, take a photo, try to scare up a frog, and move on.

There is an area outside the national park boundary but still touching the park called the Bedford Reservation that is maintained by the Cleveland Parks Dept that has two waterfalls and an overlook. We drove up there and had lunch at a picnic area. After lunch we walked down to the two waterfalls. They each had their own trailhead so he had to drive between them. They were short walks from the car but well worth the drive and short hike.

The best hike we did inside the park was the Ledges Trail. The ledges are a large rock formation I'm sure was cut out of the hill by glaciers. You can walk to the top of the ledges and look down but the best views are when we walk at the bottom of the hill and look at them. They are really impressive. There are mini canyons cut out. There is a cave closed to the public to protect bats. The scenery is very pretty and I was blown away by the geology.

Later in the day it did clear up so we went back to the Beaver Marsh. We saw a Northern Watersnake and two turtles. One turtle was a Midland's Painted Turtle. This is a subspecies of Painted Turtles so not a new species for me. The other was a Red Eared Slider. We saw some frogs but they jumped in the water before we could ID them. There were some very accommodating Wood Ducks. Laurie was hoping to see an Otter but no luck. Still, it was well worth going back to the swamp for a second time.

Great Falls in the Bedford Reservation

All in all, our day at Cuyahoga National Park was very rewarding. We saw three waterfalls. We did a hike along some really cool ledges. For wildlife we saw deer, a Northern Watersnake, two turtle species, Wood Ducks, and some common birds. We hit multiple small ponds and had a picnic. While CVNP was never on my bucket list, I am glad we went. Driving all day Thursday in the rain allowed us to go visit this park I never would have visited. After leaving the park we got a motel and had a relaxing night with pizza. It was only a four hour drive to Matt and Susan's house on Saturday morning and the scenery driving through western Pennsylvania made the drive really pleasant anyway.