Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Wednesday, Aug 16

Weather: 80, sunny, perfect.

This was a quick solo trip to visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Akron, Ohio. I got up early and was on the road about 6:15a and did the 400 mile 6 hour drive arriving at the park around 1:00pm (lost an hour with the time change). The drive was easy but long.

Stanford and Brandywine Gorge Trails

After a stop at the visitor center for maps and a talk with the ranger I headed to the Stanford trail head at the Stanford House.

The trail is an out and back through the woods and connects with the Brandywine Gorge loop trail. The highlight of the trail is Brandywine falls which was very pretty. After finishing the loop went back down the Stanford trail back to the trail head. An easy and nice hike very lightly trafficked.

Thursday, Aug 17

Weather: 75, Partly cloudy, cool breeze, perfect.

Ledges and Pine Grove Trails

Ledges is a loop trail that has lots of cool ledge formations. At about the midway point in the loop there is a short connector trail to the Pine Grove Trail so I did this loop trail that wandered through all the pine trees and then connected back up with the Ledges trail to finish the hike. Another easy and nice hike and even though Ledges is the most popular hike in the park it was still very lightly trafficked.

After the hike it was time to head back home. Seven hours later, Home Sweet Home.

Summary

A lot of driving for a couple of nice hikes but, I think it was worth it. The drives were easy and a small price to pay to go visit a National Park. I really liked the hikes but I should have been more motivated to get more hiking in. I only did about 5 miles each day and should have really done 8 to 10. It was still an easy solo road trip well worth it.