Park Unit 81: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

LA to NJ Road Trip: Day 8

8/4/16. This morning we headed out to visit the last park of our road trip: Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. It was difficult to find the visitor's center at the Hunt House since there are few signs.

Hunt House Visitor's Center

There is also no real entrance to this park, and no fee, which seemed strange until we watched the film that explained the history of the park. It was established in 1978 as a National Recreation Area and later was designated a national park in 2000. There has been a lot of resistance by homeowners and landowners who have not wanted to sell their land to the government to be included in the park. Things are slowly progressing in making this park more like a national park. It still feels like a recreation area with lots of trails for hiking and biking, including the Ohio and Erie canal towpath. The towpath trail follows the historic route of the Ohio & Erie Canal which opened up Ohio to rest of the settled eastern states. It was built between 1825 and 1832, connecting Cleveland on Lake Erie to Portsmouth on the Ohio River.

Views along the Ledges Trail

View from the Ledges Trail Overlook. This is from the top of the large rock walls.

We got good advice from two of the rangers at the Hunt House and spent most of our time at the Ledges which was originally part of the Virginia Kendall Park, a state park that was created in 1921 and includes many infrastructure improvements by the CCC. The Ledges trail was wonderful and really felt like a national park in its scale, it beauty, and the sense of being removed from the real world. The relative quiet was a relief, although it was so different from the western parks that had virtually no sound except the wind. Instead there were the sounds of the woods: cicadas, mosquitoes, crickets, birds, that made it feel alive.

With only a short time to spend in the park, this was a great choice and we highly recommend the Ledges Trail. There are also a lot of historic buildings throughout the park, but it's necessary to have a plan since the park is spread out and interrupted by highways and residential neighborhoods. Hopefully with more funds and good leadership, this park will continue to develop and improve the natural environment in this beautiful valley.

It was very special to be in an eastern park that looks more like home. We tend to think of national parks looking like Yosemite or Yellowstone, so it's great to see that we are also preserving and protecting the beautiful areas of the east.