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Visiting and Hiking Cuyahoga Valley National Park

It sure is nice to be back on the road and seeing new sights again!  We absolutely love spending time with family and friends and had a great time visiting Aaron’s parents while we were in Indiana, but the open road calls to us.  We’ve now begun what will likely be a two year adventure exploring the entire east coast and all of the states and National Parks that it has to offer.  We begin, by visiting Ohio.

Where we stayed

We were fortunate enough to snag up a spot at West Branch State Park in Ravenna, Ohio, which was about 30-45 minutes away from Cuyahoga National Park.  We were blown away by the serenity and tranquility that this park had to offer and suggest you check out our in depth review to learn more.

What we did

Since our week was a bit messed up with Hayden coming in late from the 2017 Animal Rights Conference, we didn’t get here until Monday.  We did, however, do a lot of walking around in the state park itself and got a chance to launch our kayaks on Friday morning.  The lake’s surface was like glass since it’s mostly covered by a no-wake zone.  It was absolutely beautiful and we were lucky to have the whole lake all to ourselves. What a relaxing way to begin your day!

We spent most of Saturday visiting Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which is our 6th National Park to visit. First, we stopped over at Brandywine Falls as the ranger at the visitor center said it was their most popular attraction and they would close the parking lot if it got full. Luckily it wasn’t very crowded when we arrived and it was a short walk down to the observation decks. The lower observation deck seems to have a much better view than the upper deck, but both give you a good look at the falls.

We also went to Blue Hen Falls and Bridal Veil Falls but neither of those were as cool in comparison.  Blue Hen Falls was awesome because we were able to get all the way to the bottom of the falls.  There wasn’t much water coming over the edge but it was still cool to see.  Bridal Veil Falls, however, was less impressive from the observation deck.  It could have been a combination of both the angle we were at, the lighting, and having already gone to Brandywine Falls, but we just felt this was underwhelming.  We hiked up the stream a little bit and were treated to an incredible view where the trees were reflecting off the water over a smaller set of falls.

We also visited the covered bridge and hiked the Ledges trail. We hiked down underneath the bridge to get a better view, which was nice to put our feet in the water.  That being said, the Ledges trail was absolutely incredible!  It felt like we were walking through a set from the Hobbit or transported back in time somehow.  All of the rocks were this incredible shade of green from the moss and the lighting gave the entire area this magical feeling.  Of all of the sights we saw, this will be the one we remember most vividly.

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