Continuing my goal of visiting all the US National Parks, Felix and I decided to fly to Cleveland for Labor Day weekend and see Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Cuyahoga NP is located between Cleveland and Akron so it’s easy to get to. We flew out late on Friday night (extra late because our flight was delayed), rented a car, and drove to our hotel right outside the park. Despite not getting much sleep, we awoke on Saturday morning ready for adventure!

We drove to the small town of Peninsula, which is located within the park, and rented bikes so we could bike the tow path. The Cuyahoga River and the remnants of the Ohio Canal run through the park. Back when the Ohio Canal was in use, mules used to tow boats up and down the canal by walking on a path next to the canal. That path is now a popular walking/biking path. We rode the tow path north from Peninsula. It was a nice trail—very flat, not too crowded, and there was nice scenery. The path continuously intersects the Cuyahoga river and there were tons of wildflowers growing on either side. The remnants of the Ohio canal create ponds of water and there were a bunch of old locks from the canal. 

We eventually reached the Canal Visitor center and stopped there for a bit. It had exhibits about the Ohio and Erie Canal and how they affected Ohio’s economy. Also this statue of a mule:

We finished our 14-mile ride at Rockside Station where we met up with the train to take us back to where we started. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad operates a train that goes back and forth through Cuyahoga NP. They have a cool offering called the explorer program where you can board the train with your bike and they’ll take you to wherever you started from for only $5. 

We got to relax and enjoy views of the river on the ride back. We only took the train halfway through the park but it continues farther south. I know the train offers round-trip rides through the whole park that take three hours. I enjoyed my time on the train after a long bike ride but I think three hours would’ve been boring. It’s a historic train but from the inside it looks like any Amtrak train, so after a while it just feels like commuting. 

We stopped for lunch and then headed to Brandywine Falls which is one of the most popular attractions in the park. It’s a 60-ft waterfall that is accessible from a short board walk hike. We went at 4pm and it was still very crowded. It was a nice waterfall but hard to enjoy with so many people around. Felix thought it didn’t have enough water flowing over it to be impressive. 

We did the Brandywine Gorge trial which is a 1.5-mile loop trail going over the water fall and down around the stream. This hike was still pretty crowded. At one point, the path came right up to the stream and we decided to take our shoes off and wade in the stream a bit. This was really nice and had pretty views of the stream. 

We still had some sunlight left after seeing Brandywine so we decided to hit up a few more waterfalls in the northern end of the park that don’t involve any hiking to get to. The first was Bridal Veil Falls. This is a small waterfall and it seemed like the area hadn’t had rain in a while so it was not very impressive. I still enjoyed it because it was peaceful and there were only a few other people around. 

Next we went to the Great Falls of Tinker Creek, which were quite impressive. Enough water for Felix’s taste. We climbed down to the rocks and got our classic stacks photo here. That was all for day 1! 

On Sunday we woke up quite early to do a hike called the ledges. This is the most popular hike in the park and I wanted to do it while it wasn’t crowded. The hike takes you along a ridge of rock and there are areas where the rocks have split apart, forming caves and narrow valleys. We climbed all around these valleys and squeezed through crevices. 

I loved this hike and I’m very glad we did it early (started at 8am). There were very few other people on the trail so we had a lot of space to take pictures and enjoy climbing around the rocks. 

Near the end of the hike we heard a tree cracking and fall somewhere in the forest but we couldn’t find it. As we were driving out of the parking lot, we found the tree fallen and blocking half of the road. That was a nice button in the story. 

Next we went to Beaver Marsh. This marsh used to be an auto shop and yard but it was cleaned up by volunteers and flooded by beavers (I like that they worked together on this) to create a lovely marsh. There’s a boardwalk going over the marsh that is part of the tow path (the southern part that we didn’t bike) and it’s only a short walk from the parking lot. The marsh is known to be a good spot for wildlife spotting. We saw birds, fish and a couple of turtles. The marsh is allegedly a spot where you can see beavers and river otters but I knew that was very unlikely because they’re not active during the day. 

After the marsh, we stopped at a farmers market that we had spotted along the way. We got an ear of roasted sweet corn and a locally-made pie that we saved for later (it was quite good). 

We stopped for lunch and then headed to the Boston Mills Visitor center to do another hike. We hiked to Blue Hen Falls, which is another popular hike in the park and there were a lot of families doing this trail. The falls go over a unique dome shape that I thought was quite beautiful. We didn’t stick around for too long to admire it though because it was quite crowded. 

We then continued past the Blue Hen Falls trail along an unmarked trail to Buttermilk Falls. This waterfall is not actually part of the national park, it’s on land owned by a neighboring ski resort, but there’s a well worn trail to it. Felix and I actually abandoned the trail after a bit and just walked in the stream because it was fun. 

Buttermilk falls is quite tall and impressive. There were a few people there when we arrived but they left and we had the place all to ourselves. Felix didn’t think Blue Hen Falls was impressive but he liked Buttermilk falls quite a lot and said it had enough water. Given that Buttermilk falls is downstream of Blue Hen Falls, and presumably has the same amount of water, I told him his metrics for quality of waterfalls were inconsistent. I did like this one quite a lot as well. We stopped for a snack, enjoyed and peacefulness and the beauty of the waterfall, and then hiked back to our car. 

At this point we had finished all the activities in the park that I wanted to do we went back to the hotel for some rest. Prior to this trip, Felix and I had told a bunch of our friends that we were going to Cleveland for Labor Day Weekend. After their confused looks, we would explain that it was to see a National Park. I had not intended to actually spend time in Cleveland, but Felix thought we should do it for completions sake, so for our last evening in Ohio, we headed to downtown Cleveland. Felix suggested we go to the Museum of Illusions because it was one of the few places that was open past 5pm. It was a very small museum with some moderately interesting illusions. It had about half an hour’s worth of things to see, which I did not think was worth the $27 admission price. 

Afterwards we walked around downtown Cleveland. The Cleveland episode of 30 Rock (which Felix and I were joking about this whole trip) had me convinced that Cleveland was an urban utopia but it’s just like any other city. It’s pretty and has nice architecture but it’s loud and busy. I don’t really like cities except Boston. 

Anyway, Cuyahoga was pretty fun! There’s a solid two days worth of things to do there. The park’s offerings aren’t super unique or different from things I could do in New England so probably not worth going to unless you’re a National Park person like me. Still a fun weekend!