Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park was named a National Recreation Area in the late 1960’s and a National Park in the 2000’s. The area preserves a corridor of the Cuyahoga River from about Cleveland to Akron, Ohio. The park itself is an environmental turnaround story. The Cuyahoga was once considered one of the most polluted waterways in America. As explained on a website about America’s rivers, “a hundred years of dumping unregulated factory waste had smothered the river in a foot of oil. In fact, the Cuyahoga had burned at least 13 times since the 1860s.” The call to clean-up the river, and its primary feeder, Lake Erie, inspired the creation of the Enviornmental Protection Agency and the Clean Water Act. Today, the park encompasses 33,000 acres which are nestled between farms and residential developments.
With two nights in the area, we focused our time on two highlights in the park.
Our first afternoon in Cuyahoga, we took Toby and hiked the Ledges, a trail that circles these funky, tall, mossy, sandstone walls. It was shady and cool and fun to climb and explore. The whole family gave it a thumbs up.
Ben revived our annual tradition of staging Lego characters for themed photos. This year’s travelers brought a kayak, so it was only natural that they run some rapids in Cuyahoga.
The next day, we explored a portion of the park’s Tow Path Trail by bicycle. Here was our first trip disappointment: Our original plan, and a much hyped feature of the park, is to travel on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. With a bike-aboard feature, we planned to take the train about 17 miles and then bike the trail back to our starting point. Unfortunately, heavy spring rains eroded a portion of the track and the train is running a modified route in a different portion of the park then where I had wanted to explore.
So, we made the ride an 11-ish mile out-and-back, which still gave us a taste of the area, but was less fun than if we had been able to do it as a loop with the help of the train.
The train we weren’t riding.
Also tricky was that Ray’s bike wasn’t working right, so she and I traded, and I had about two miles of pedaling something reminiscent of the worst bike I ever rented in Amsterdam. Everyone else left me far behind to ride ahead to lunch and I arrived long after them sweaty and grumpy. A local bike tech was able to remedy the issue and then, ever the trooper, Eli rode Ray’s bike and I rode his for the rest of the day.
Our ride included a stop at the Visitor’s Center, where Ray and Ben picked up their 18th (we think, though we’ve lost official count) Junior Ranger badge since we started these adventures. So, still, in many ways, the day was a success.
We bolstered our stay with a visit to the Saturday farmer’s market where Ray bought her weight in fresh raspberries and Ben at a s’mores brownie the size of his head.
We ate dinner the second night of our stay at a local winery with a big outdoor patio and dog-friendly tables. Here, over mediocre Ohio-grown table wine, Ray and Eli debated the fineries of wine tasting and we all laughed until wine came out our noses.
Perhaps the best part of our stay was our campsite which was on the grounds of a small, private, petting farm called Gaga for Goats. The farm only has one spot for camping and no hook-ups, but in exchange, it offers unlimited access to the animal pens. Ben and Ray spent a lot of time chilling with the chickens and the goats, but, as usual, it was Ray who truly loved all of the time with the animals.
