Transformed into a national park in 2000, Cuyahoga Valley has a long history, dating as far back as 200AD.  More recently, the Erie-Ohio Canal was built in the 1820’s allowing for people and cargo to easily traverse into the Ohio Valley, all the way to the Ohio River.  We visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park at the end of August 2024, and really enjoyed the visit.

Day 1 – August 26

Can retirees oversleep? If so, then we did on our first day, likely just recovering from the long drive from Michigan City.   After breakfast, we headed up to the Boston Mill Visitor Center to figure out what’s what.  Amy got a magnet for David… kind of a tradition.  We then drove to Brandywine Falls, viewed the falls then did the 1.4-mile loop.  It was very warm (89 or so), and very little breeze.  We then exploited the older person’s prerogative, and had dessert first!  From Brandywine Falls, as luck would have it, the closest ice cream place we could find was the park vendor, called The Boston Store, next to the Boston Visitor’s Center, that we were just at!

We both ate a large cup of ice cream and cooled off in the eating area within the store.  We then drove over to the Beaver Marsh Boardwalk.  There were no beavers (or much of anything else), but still it was still interesting and was a nice, short walk. During the walk we also saw part of a lock from the original Erie-Ohio Canal.  After that, we drove home, cleaned up and then headed to the restaurant, Rocne’s, for fish-n-chips.  It was a long day, but a fun day.

Day 2 – August 27

Based on our first day at CVNP (Cuyahoga Valley National Park), we were pretty pumped for the second day.  We had actually delayed the start of our 2024 RV trip in order for me to receive a new e-bike.  At this point, I had only one lap around the local neighborhood soon after I had assembled it, and one 12-mile (total) ride at Indiana Dunes National Park (IDNP).  I still had a tiny bit of trepidation not just about the bike, but about my ability to ride it for long periods.  I did the 12-mile round-trip at IDNP without much difficulty, so I felt like I could double that at Cuyahoga Valley.

So, I researched the Erie-Ohio Towpath trail extensively and decided it would be the ideal place for me to try a longer ride.  It helped, too, that the temps were not too hot (mid-80’s) and it was a clear-blue-sky day.  The towpath trail is dedicated to cyclists, walkers, runners and, in some places, horses.  No cars!  So that relieved me (and Amy) from worrying about any serious interferences.  I had to take a guess as to how long I could ride, but since it was an e-bike and I got a little help, I figured I could do 12-miles out, and 12-miles back.  (In a worst-case scenario, and Amy had to retrieve me, there were the occasional intersections of roads which could be used.)  After careful consideration, I decided we would park at the Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park, and start our ride there, as our southern terminus.  We drove there, pulled our bikes out of the rack and set up for the ride.

Amy felt better to be following me… she had a rear-view mirror on her helmet (whereas I had none) and was experienced at checking it frequently, and could then alert me to any riders coming up from behind.  She could also easily see me when I stopped, which she knew I would do in order to take pictures.  Interestingly, I was so focused on the up-coming ride that I had left my camera at the RV!  But, that was probably for the best since it was large and would be cumbersome on the bike.  Instead, I simply used my smart-phone camera and that worked out fairly well.  I had planned ahead and had a smart-phone holder already installed on the bikes’ handlebars.  It was easy for me to stop, remove the camera, take the pictures, put the smart-phone back in the holder, and continue the ride.  I could even adjust the holder so the phone was straight up-and-down, and then turn on the video recorder, to capture my trek down the towpath.  That worked out ok, though the video isn’t stabilized, nor was it worth posting.

In all, it was a 25.5-mile bike ride.  At the end of it, I was bushed.  I decided that, for a while at least, 20 miles total would be my limit.

The only bad thing that happened was….  Just before we left on this RV trek, we had the a/c in the Honda CR-V completely replaced, since it was not working right.  Up to this point, it had been working just fine, but upon return from the bike trek, the a/c was kaput.  No amount of coaxing would get it to cool.  Now, the days in Cuyahoga Valley were fairly nice, and we had expected that as we ventured north in the coming days and weeks, the temps would be cool, too.  We were wrong.  It was unseasonably hot in almost every place we stopped at.  Sigh.  Oh well.  We would just have to live with it.  I will admit that it probably stopped us on at least one or two occasions from taking a hike, knowing that it would be very hot in the car, with a hot car ride back to the RV park.  There was no easy way to get it looked at given how short we stay at various places.

Dinner that night was left-overs (enchilada’s for Amy, fish-n-chips for Robert).  Here are some of the better photos I got on the bike ride:

Day 3 – August 28 – The Ledges

The Ledges is an area of striking rock formations, and a few nice views of the surrounding area.  The parking lot was in the middle of the loop trail and most of the entire area was forested (but younger trees).  This was a relatively easy hike, and the scenery was excellent! Most of the pictures do not have anything to provide scale, but I assure you that these rocks are huge… almost house-sized. Very pretty, very amazing.  The entire trek was about 1.8-miles and not difficult (but lots of rocks, tree roots and some stairs).

We thoroughly enjoyed the hike, and sight of these rock formations was fantastic.  We were less impressed with the “scenic views” only because the trees kept you from seeing much, and the low elevation over the area didn’t really allow you to see much.

Overall, the Ledges area is cooler and moister than the surrounding area.  This attracts plants and animals to this microenvironment, adapting to its conditions.  Evergreen hemlocks are perhaps the most striking of these plants.  They hint of a time when they thrived in the cooler, moister climate that followed the glacial retreat 14,000 years ago.  And when standing next to the Ice Box Cave — though closed — there was no doubt that the temperatures in the area stayed cool.

 

 

 

So far, we have been quite amazed at how nice this national park is, and were very glad we came!

Day 4 – August 29 – Canal Exploration Center, Bridal Veil Falls

For our last day in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, we headed over to the Canal Exploration Center.  This was the turn-around point in our bike trek on the 27th, but we didn’t visit it then because it was closed.  So we made a special trip to see it, since this entire national park is really about the canal.  The exhibits inside had a large amount of information about the canal, how it was designed and built, and include a simulator that let you guide a boat through a series of locks to get yourself upstream!  That was fascinating.

It was well worth the special trip to see it.  The docents were enthusiastic and highly informative.

 

After that, we decided to head over to Bridal Veil Falls and do the loop trail there.  Again, we were impressed with all the beauty in the area.  It was only a short walk from the parking lot before you were surrounded by a thick forest, and you could hear the rushing water not far away.  With the help of a footbridge, we quickly found ourselves admiring the beautiful (if less than dramatic) falls.  After we finished looking around and got back into the car, we stopped at an overlook of Tinkers Creek.  You could hear the creek through the forest below, but it was hard to actual see the water in the creek.

That was the last full day at Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  Looking ahead, our next destination was supposed to be Isle Royal, in northern Michigan.  But after considerable research, we found out that getting to the island via ferry was difficult, and getting OFF the island at this time of year was virtually impossible.  So, after much discussion, we decided that we would have to skip that national park.

That, then, meant that our next destination was Voyageurs National Park, way to the far north of Minnesota… quite a distance away.  It would take us three days of travel — and three RV park stays — to get there.  Leaving the next day — August 30th — our first destination was very near where we were at our first national park on this trip, Indiana Dunes NP.  The park was Elkhart RV park, in Granger, Indiana. On this segment, the RV passed the 30,000-mile mark.  Elkhart had a pizza delivery service, so we ordered pizza and had it delivered right to the door!  That was kinda cool.  In the evening, we had long video chat with my brother Jim and wife Sue.

The day after that, we found ourselves in DeForest, Wisconsin at Madison Campgrounds.  To get there, we had to drive straight through downtown Chicago!  (Luckily, it was a Saturday.)  Even more interesting, it was the only route that didn’t require us to pay tolls.  Then on Sunday, September 1, we drove to Red Pine RV, which is just a little beyond Duluth, Minnesota.  Red Pine RV was very nice with a pretty lake.

The temps for the last few days had gotten a bit cooler and we were very much enjoying that!  We had the windows and door open, and the fan blowing (which pulled air through the RV).  What we didn’t know, is that this was the last of the really nice temps for quite a while.  We had anticipated that the further north we got, the cooler the temps would be but we, unfortunately, happened into a period of unseasonably warm weather.

On our final day, we drove from Red Pine all the way through International Falls, MN and on to our RV park that we would stay at during our visit to Voyageurs National Park, Rainy Lake RV Park.