Cuyahoga Valley

After Acadia, 2014 was quiet on the hiking front. I went camping with my family and squeezed in a rad hike up Mount Tripyramid in the White Mountains, but Nicholas didn’t get to hike that one with me, unfortunately. 

2014’s Labor Day weekend was approaching, so Nicholas thought we could kill two birds with one stone: visit our friends that moved to Ohio and visit the random national park there. Yes, Ohio is home to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

We left late Friday afternoon and drove north to Niagara Falls because Nicholas thought we should take a scenic route, and I had also never been, a win-win.

We arrived after dusk and viewed the falls under a night sky, gigantic lights illuminate the falls. We tried to nap in the car, but a police officer nicely tells yes we can’t nap here, so it’s time to hit the road. 

We arrive at Cuyahoga in the late morning and proceed to the visitor center. I honestly had no idea what to expect from this park because I didn’t know it existed. And let me tell you, I now know why I didn’t know of its existence: it’s lame, to be frank. I’m quite surprised it was made into a park. Anyway, the park is fairly new in that it was added in 1974. The park seeks to preserve the land and historic features around the Cuyahoga River. While at the visitor center, we decide to take a walk.

We chose to hike the Brandywine Gorge Trail Loop, a short 1.5 miles. The trail was flat and meandered through meadows of tall winter cress, a yellow wildflower growing in abundance in the park. The path’s main feature was the Brandywine Falls that we viewed from several outlooks. 

We concluded our visit with some locally made ice cream and headed onward to our friends in Columbus.