Waterfalls and Rocky Mazes, but Bike Aboard was Best!

Cuyahoga Valley National Park is situated between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio. It’s a bit different from most of the National Parks we’ve visited so far – for one thing, there’s no entrance fee! There are so many roads running through the park, it just wouldn’t be feasible. Even though you are never far from civilization, there are still lots of trails to explore. One of the main attractions is the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail. Cuyahoga also has the ONLY mountain biking trail in a National Park, plus there are excellent mountain bike trails in the adjacent Cleveland Metro Parks. You can bet Rog was all over that.

We arrived at the Streetsboro/Cleveland KOA on Friday afternoon, 9/2. Saturday, we hit the local farmers market and snagged some beautiful produce, locally made cheese, sausage, and snacks. Hey, just doing our part to stimulate the local economy. Lol. We also did a couple of hikes – the Brandywine Falls and the Ledges loops. The Ledges is an area of huge cleft boulders that is like a maze. There are old carvings and you could spend hours just scrambling around.

Brandywine Falls

Lovely hike through a deciduous forest.

It's a long way down!

Exploring some narrow spaces.

Very cool old stone carvings deep in the cleft. 

Fun scrambles.

Another tight fit. 

The narrow cleft opened up into a hidden room.

Pretty bouquet of mushrooms (no flowers here!).

Look up.

On Sunday, we did what was my favorite part of our stay. “Bike Aboard” lets you ride the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for $3 (with your bike!) and then bicycle the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail back to your starting point. Awesome! To maximize our adventure, we boarded the train at the northernmost station (Rockside) and rode it all the way to the southernmost station in the park (Botzum) and then biked the 20 miles back. The Towpath Trail is very, very cool. There are old canal locks along the way, you border the canal and the Cuyahoga River is places, pass through forest and wetlands, and can stop by the visitor centers with excellent exhibits (and ice cream!), and the whole path is well maintained and nearly level! This is totally my idea of a great bike ride.

We got off the train at Botzum Station.

One of several  Blue Herons we saw along the Towpath.

The trail runs through forest....

...and wetlands...

...and along the Cuyahoga River.

Carp in one of the old canal locks. 

We ended our bike ride where we had boarded the train, at the Rockside Station.

Monday we did some more hiking – the Deer Lick Cave Loop and Blue Hen Falls. There was supposed to be a trail connecting Blue Hen to Buttermilk Falls but it had been washed out. We scrambled over logs and across creeks and made it to Buttermilk Falls. On the way back we opted for another route. In fact, we managed to get totally off the official trail system and into the gray area past the edge of the known world where, as Rog quoted, “There be dragons”. Lol. We eventually connected back up to the trail without incident and it was fun. With modern technology and GPS tracking we weren’t in any real danger of getting lost. (honest!)

Off the beaten trail.

Huge paper wasp nest - we did not disturb the residents.

Buttermilk Falls - pretty, but not much water.

The stream bed was nearly dry.

Tuesday was our final day here and Rog spent some time on the mountain bike trails (sorry no pictures he was busy trashing the single track) while I attended to over 2 weeks’ worth of laundry. You can guess who had more fun. Lol. 

Tomorrow we head north to Brocton, New York. We’ll overnight there and on Thursday we should arrive at Four Mile Creek State Park which is just 15 minutes from Niagara Falls. We have three nights booked there and I’m excited – neither of us has ever been to Niagara Falls. Hopefully we’ll get decent pictures to share.