The Beauty Around Us

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Visit (Day 2 of 2)

By Linda G. on April 19, 2017

We spent two days during the Easter weekend, enjoying the sights and sounds of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.  This blog post provides photographs and details of our second day in the park.  If you missed reading about our first day in the park, you will find the blog post here.

After a good night’s sleep, I awakened at 5:45 am, took a shower and got dressed. We went to breakfast around 6:30 am. Our hotel accommodation included a complimentary Deluxe Breakfast Buffet. I had scrambled eggs, sausage, Tater Tots and French Toast.

We spent a few hours in the morning visiting points of interest in the central and south regions of Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Our first stop was at Brandywine Falls, arriving there shortly before 8:00 am.

A boardwalk takes you to upper and lower observation platforms.

Brandywine Falls
Bob and I on the upper observation platform

Brandywine Falls is 65 feet high;
it is one of Ohio’s highest waterfalls.

Brandywine Falls
Bob and I on the lower platform observation

Here is a short video that I took of Brandywine Falls.

Our second stop was at Blue Hen Falls, arriving there at 9;00 am. The trail leading to Blue Hen Falls begins at a small parking lot and takes hikers down an old driveway to Spring Creek.  The trail crosses Spring Creek via an old wooden bridge.

Blue Hen Falls Trail

Just beyond the bridge, we continued to the right and quickly reached the Blue Hen Falls viewing area.

Blue Hen Falls Trail
Approaching the waterfall viewing area

Just past the wooden fence we found a trail, something akin to a goat path, that led us below the viewing area. I managed to hike down that trail, with the assistance of a hiking pole. I needed the hiking pole and Bob’s help to hike back up the trail!

Blue Hen Falls

Blue Hen Falls

Here is a short video that I took of Blue Hen Falls.

Our third stop was at Beaver Marsh, arriving there around 9:50 am. We stopped here the day before as well, but later in the day. We wanted to see if we would see anything different earlier in the day.

We walked from the parking lot, a short distance, along a tow path to an observation platform.

We saw the same wildlife at Beaver Marsh, as we did the day before…wood ducks, Canadian geese, and tree swallows. What we didn’t see were turtles. The day before there were lots of turtles out, basking in the sunshine.

Wood Ducks are beautiful.
Add in reflections for a lovely scene!

Our fourth stop was at Deep Lock Quarry Metro Park, arriving there at 11:00 am. Deep Lock Quarry features a 1.4-mile loop trail, which leads from the parking lot through the forest to the deepest lock on the Ohio & Erie Canal. We began hiking the trail but decided to turn around, as radar showed rain moving in. We did get to see a train go by, which was very cool as it was close to us.

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad Train

We left Cuyahoga Valley National Park around 11:30 am and drove to Chagrin Falls, OH for lunch.  I will share photographs and details of our visit to Chagrin Falls in a later blog post.

After our visit to Chagrin Falls, we returned to our hotel and relaxed for a few hours.

Around 5:00 pm we decided to return to Cuyahoga Valley National Park to see one more point of interest. We drove to Everett Covered Bridge.

Everett Covered Bridge crosses over Furnace Run.

We returned to the hotel around 6:00 pm, where we stayed for rest of evening.

It was a nice day, but not as nice as the day before. It was a mostly cloudy and sometimes rainy day. We dodged the raindrops for the most part. The rain fell hardest, as we were driving to Chagrin Falls and while we ate lunch. It began clearing up, when we stopped for the day (around 2:15 pm). The weather didn’t hinder my picture taking. In fact, the overcast day provided great lighting for photographing waterfalls.