Cuyahoga Valley National Park Ohio

Did anyone else know that there's a national park just a half hour outside of Cleveland?! Somehow I overlooked this... even though I'm in the middle of a sultry love affair with the national park system...

So naturally, last Saturday I grabbed a couple friends and our cross-country skis and we hit the I-90 West! We spent most of the day bumbling around Cuyahoga National Park trying to see as much as possible and were awed by the beauty of this lesser known national park. There wasn't enough snow to xc ski, but the sun was shining and the 40 degree weather made it feel like spring to us Buffalonians! We had just enough time hike the Stanford trail at Brandywine Gorge (where we made some chicken & goat friends!), hike around the Ledges (my favorite hike of the day with moss covered sandstone boulders and dramatic icicles hanging from the rocks), check out the view of the nearby Kendall Lake and then made one last stop to see Bridal Veil Falls on our way out.

One of the most interesting things about this national park is that it's interspersed with a lot of private land. So as you drive from one area of the park to the next you're driving in and out of residential neighborhoods. For this reason (I can only assume) this particular park never charges an entrance fee - aka always FREE! Now you have no excuse not to go check it out : )

The Ledges Trail