My visit to Cuyahoga Valley National Park brought me to rock ledges and waterfalls, found in a state not known for any interesting topographical features.  This Ohio park, on the outskirts of the Cleveland metroplex, has a massive quantity of different hiking trails.  In fact, the mileage of bike trails makes this park a popular place to rent and ride bicycles.

Part 1: The Ledges Trail

The Ledges Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park has ratings that exceed those of all of the other trails, so we considered this trail a must-see.  Like our visit to Congaree National Park, which was a few days before our visit to this park, it seemed that Cuyahoga Valley had one prominent popular trail that makes the park memorable.  This is probably the most memorable trail to most of those seeing the park.  Cuyahoga Valley has a ton of hiking trails, but it looks like most of them typify the flat, forested hiking trails I am used to seeing in the Midwest. Those are a joy in their own right, but they don't stand out like the caves, crevices, cliffs, and karst formations of the Ledges Trail, as you will see.

The Ledges Trail is a loop trail, though curiously, the main parking lot to reach the trail is in the center of that loop. A few trails radiate outward from the central parking area to the circuitous trail. I think we picked the best radial trail, because it descended down this scenic staircase (northeast of the parking lot):

I would say that this is one of the eponymous "Ledges":

Generally, the rock faces stand alongside the trail, on the interior side of the hiking trail, toward the center of the circle (and the parking lot). The trail circles around the interesting rock formations.  The southwestern corner of the trail has an elevated overlook, but the views from that overlook are hindered by the many trees around the looker. It does help achieve that feeling of being "on top of the world", which some people crave.

The rock walls to the side of the hiking trail have occasional crevices in them, and this first one looks like it might even be a little cave entrance:

It's fun going alongside the rock walls, and some of them seem like fully-blown cliffs:

Here are some more scenes viewed from along our hike:

Ice Box Cave is a feature on the east side of the Ledges Trail. The cave is closed off to hikers with the intent of protecting bats that live in the cave.  But the air in the cave was noticeably cooler than the warm, humid June air through which we were hiking.  We could even enjoy a burst of cooler air from several feet outside the barricaded cave entrance:

Part 2: Nearby Waterfalls and Other Things

​We took a lot at two peripheral waterfalls around the park before making our final stop at Brandywine Falls, which also sounded like a must-see. But first, we stopped at the Great Falls of Tinkers Creek at Viaduct Park in Bedford.  This is a central park to the town of Bedford. 

In my opinion, the best look at the falls came from a spot just off to the side. 

Here is a view of the falls from the very bottom:

After our stop in Bedford, we took a lot at another waterfall, Bridal Veil Falls. This waterfall is technically outside the national park, like the previous waterfall.  Bridal Veil Falls is included in Cleveland's system of "Metroparks",  but it nicely accompanies a visit to Cuyahoga Valley, especially if you love waterfalls as much as I do.  This first look is along the trail to the falls, at an upstream portion of the stream that's about to take a downward plunge.

Lots of American waterfalls are called "Bridal Veil Falls", and this naming is a sign that the volume of water passing through will be relatively small. However, that doesn't mean the waterfall will be short in height.  This was my best view of the little waterfall, unobstructed by trees:

This view came from a spot hosting a manmade platform, but trees got in the way a bit more:

The nice thing about a waterfall along a small stream is that you can often rock-hop out to the middle of the stream to get a nicer view.  Just don't get too close to the precipice!

Part 3: Brandywine Falls

Brandywine Falls is a favorite waterfall within the national park area. The trail is a well-built boardwalk with wooden stairs. Walking down to Brandywine Falls takes a very short amount of time, and the walk looks like this:

The waterfall looks like this, below. This is a really impressive waterfall, despite the parapet wall for a road overpass easily visible just upstream (in retrospect, I was a dope; if I just took the photo from a slightly lower camera position, I could hide the overpass). This was a nice finale to close out our visit to Cuyahoga Valley National Park:

Count: Cuyahoga Valley is the 24th national park we've visited.
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