prarihil

I'm trying to plan a trip to Cuyahoga Valley NP but I've had difficulties finding feedback from anyone who has been there. I would appreciate any comments about the park, positive or negative. I am mainly interested in hiking, the scenic railroad trip, viewing wildlife and the waterfalls.
Thanks.

caribbean_dreamin

I haven't been there yet. I've been curious about it since the local paper featured it on the front of the travel section. We may be going this weekend, so if we do I'll post back and let you know what I thought. I'm assuming you've checked out the website? http://www.nps.gov/cuva/home.htm. Good luck!

wanderluster

The park is not like other national parks, it was established as a national recreational area in the late 1970's while cleveland and akron were pushing urbanization into it. For this reason the park is not contiguous and consists of private lands, metropark lands, as well as federal preserve.

The fall foilage is wonderful.

My favorite aspect of the park is the hiking trail around "ledges". Take this trail and explore and once you have worked up a sweat in cleveland's indian summer, stop by "ice box cave" for a bit of natural air conditioning.

The best time to see the waterfalls is in the spring when the snow is melting. If you can get there then, the waterfalls rival those in the bigger more mainstream national parks i.e. yosemite for example. Brandywine Falls is powerful but unless you go right after a heavy rain, the others are not. But check out Blue Hen Falls anyway.

Also, check out the ohio and erie canal portion of the park, very infomative.

prarihil

Thanks for the great ideas and "must do" at the park. I think that I'll plan to go next spring...sounds wonderful.

caribbean_dreamin

We drove up to the park yesterday from Columbus. We did the hiking trail around the Ledges and went to the overlook. We stopped by ice box cave. We also saw Brandywine and Blue Hen falls and the beaver marsh. Brandywine falls is quite impressive and we got some great pictures. Blue Hen falls is minuscule in comparison but still pretty. It was our first time at the park and we found it difficult to navigate. Even some of the hiking trails that we were on were not particularly well marked. They have so many trails in basically the same area that interconnect and cross through each other that the park map was not really very helpful. We enjoyed it though and will possibly go back someday.

maj

Thanks for the report. We were thinking of going there at some point. Have you ever been to Hocking Hills? If so, how would you compare it?

caribbean_dreamin

Love, love, love Hocking Hills. Might be prejudiced, but to me it has a more backwoodsy and less developed kind of feel to it, which would make sense since it's not really close to any major cities and CVNP is close to Cleveland and Akron. The terrain is much more hilly and it feels more like hiking and less like walking. However if you're looking for somewhere to bike, I'd choose CNVP for the same reason. None of the falls at HH compare to Brandywine Falls at CNVP though. But the falls and rock formations at Hocking Hills are still worth seeing. I've been there in the summer, fall, and early spring when everything was covered in ice. My husband and I have taken a lot of pictures there and when we get them onto our website I'll post the link so everyone can see them.

maj

Did you go up there and back the same day? About how long did it take you from Columbus? We've been to Hocking Hills once and want to go back (Cedar Falls trail was closed when we were there). Had never thought about Cuyahoga Valley NP until I saw this post, but now considering going there first and swinging by Hocking Hills on the way back (to Cincinnati). It will be a spur of the moment trip (depending on weather this year). We aren't going to bike--mainly hiking and taking pictures, so is one day enough for Cuyahoga Valley?

caribbean_dreamin

In my opinion, 1 day would be enough for CVNP. You could probably take 2 days and stay over at the Inn at Brandywine Falls if you really want to fully explore the area. We drove up and back in 1 day, it takes about 2 hours from Columbus.