Cuyahoga Valley National Park
At the end of Summer, 2024 I found myself needing to burn a few extra days of leave from work. I could not think of a better idea than a quick solo trip to Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio to cross another of the big 63 National Parks off my to do list (and even catch a ball game in Cleveland to cross another baseball stadium off the list too!). Scroll past the photos to see my full perspective on Cuyahoga Valley national Park.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park has a much different feel to it than so many of the other official National Parks. Certainly there is nature viewing, hiking, trails, and thankfully some waterfalls to journey to. However, it does not have any where near a "wow" factor like the more famous ones out west or Shenandoah or even New River Gorge.
The most apparent thing taking away from the park is that is does not feel secluded. There are a lot of roads with extensive through traffic in the park to the point where when hiking a trail, it is still possible to hear and sense the civilized world. National Parks, for the most part, seem to pull visitors away from civilized society to escape into another world (which why Hot Springs continues to be at the bottom of the list for likeability for me).
Brandywine Falls is gorgeous and visitors have the option of a direct short walk along the boardwalk to the falls or enjoying a fairly low strenuous hike in the woods for a few miles before happening upon the falls.
If visitors are interested in biking and bike trails, this appears to be a wonderful park for that activity with a lot of paths for bike riders to spend at least a full day pedaling around.
It's a National Park worth visiting once and it really only takes one full day of adventuring to discover the best parts of the park a second day may allow a few other less explored areas, but it's recommended to keep expectations low if this is early on the list of National Parks to be conquered.
