Cuyahoga Valley National Park-A Surprise In Between Two Cities
We visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park in early June and the weather was fairly warm, if somewhat rainy. That did not detract from the areas natural attributes however. The park itself is somewhat jumbled into areas totally 33,000 acres that fall between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio. Each area has great elements that caused us some difficulty choosing what we wanted to see in two and a half days.
We had gotten off to a bad start when we hit the airport and had trouble renting a car. When we finally settled that, it was later than we could have wished and we missed the opening hours of the visitor center. Having no information for the park except the little we brought with us, this didn’t auger well for getting any decent filming done. Needless to say, we were a little bummed. It must have been divine intervention that let us run into an eager and very helpful young park ranger just getting off of work, who when we had told her our plight, readily told us all of her favorite places. As it turned out, we were standing right next to a sign that had a box of park maps that we had overlooked. Jackie, the park ranger, kindly circled all the places she told us about. (You can see her in our Cuyahoga video) We were set now!
Right off the bat, while we headed for Bridal Veil Falls, we came across a mother and fawn crossing the road. We were in awe of this small fragile creature, its legs still wobbly, which froze in the middle of the road, afraid to cross after the mother. My husband had stopped the car as soon as he saw them. The other wonder is that no other cars came by while we waited. It took probably three minutes for the baby to get up the courage to cross. My husband was afraid to open the window to shoot a picture for fear of spooking the fawn. The shots through the window were not too bad, but it sure would have been nice to have gotten better shots of this unique occurrence (for us anyway). As it turned out, this was not to be the only mother and fawn we would see that weekend.
The Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail runs from Cleveland to Akron as it follows the historic Ohio & Erie Canal route. 16 miles border the park and it has a unique bike and hike trail that on any given day during the summer will see a lot of traffic. You can rent bikes if you don’t have your own, something we didn’t have a chance to do as we ran out of time. We did some hiking on it however. We especially enjoyed the beaver marsh area which is a boardwalk over the marsh with benches situated right in the middle where you can sit and watch the playful beavers or lazy turtles. We saw many different birds as well living among the dead and live trees in the middle of the marsh.
We also rode the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad which took us from the historic town of Peninsula to the Canal Visitor Center where we viewed and filmed a lock demonstration. The train passes by a huge heron rookery where you are told that the birds nest on the very top of the tall trees as their wingspan of six feet, doesn’t allow them to get into a lower nest. We lucked out and just happened to be visiting during Peninsula Days where characters dress up in period clothing and walk around town telling visitors about their great history. The ranger at the lock demonstration was also in period clothing, as were his volunteers. It was fun to watch those biking on the Towpath Trail, stopping for a rest and to watch the demonstration. The visitor center is an old inn and has a model demonstration of the lock as well.
Brandywine Falls, dropping 65 feet, is the pride and joy of the park and is a beautiful waterfall at the end of a boardwalk stairway path. Along this wooded path, you can see ferns growing right out of the rock. The falls were running about half full when we were there. We were still able to get some great shots there for the website. There are several other falls that we never made it to see.
Another neat place we went were the Ledges, layered rock formations on the southeast side of the park. We hiked on a somewhat strenuous trail, for those with bad knees anyway, that lead down to a small cave where the temperature was decidedly cooler! We were hoping to get a glimpse of it at sunset when we were told the fading sunlight brought all the colors alive on the ledges. As it turned out, we took the wrong path in the opposite direction of the Ledges Overlook. The cave was still cool though so I guess we’ll have to come back another time.
There were other places we stopped at, but we really do want to go back and bike the Towpath Trail, see the ship museum, go to Hale Farm & Village, and check out the Frazee House. There are also numerous winter activities to enjoy. Check out our Cuyahoga Valley NP webpage for other great information about this park.
By Corie Marks