Cuyahoga Valley National Park – May 2018
My next trip to a National Park was another day trip while I was actually in town for something else.
Let me paint you a picture – its may in Central Ohio, its very warm (like hot – for real), slightly humid, and its time for my younger brother to graduate from the Ohio State University. We were all very excited. My parents graduated from Ohio State in the 1980’s and I graduated from OSU in 2012 – now, 2018, it was time for my brother to walk onto the field and get his diploma. Graduation day comes and he walks onto the field and into the stands, I knew this because at this point I have a pretty good quality zoom lens for my camera and I was there to take photos. Throughout the ceremony I keep trying to take photos of where he was in the stands to make sure I could track him when it was time for him to walk, but periodically I was unable to locate him. Ok, so after around 3 hours of the blistering heat and burning sun, he finally walks across the field to get his diploma.
We leave to celebrate and get dinner, all is well. My brother says he’s not super hungry because he ate during the ceremony. We think, ok, so he had some stadium food – NO!! This kid LEFT the stadium to go to the nearby formal dining restaurant and had a full meal, all the while,his parents and sister were BAKING in the sun! But – he got his degree and we’re all happy.
The next day my family departs and does their own thing, I however, took an extra day and decided to go to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, This National Park is between Cleveland and Akron and is considered an urban National Park because of its proximity to both of these larger cities in Ohio. There is a long and storied history of this park, so please ready more about it on the NPS webpage.
I went up in the morning to the park and went on the hike to get to the falls, which is probably one of the more famous and iconic viewpoints in the park. I did a short solo-hike near the falls and then through the forested area for a couple of miles. After I did that hike I drove to the beaver marsh area to try to see some wildlife and do a short nature walk. I ended up seeing quite a few birds and had a nice time exploring. I didn’t do much else in the park, but I know there is so much more that this area offers! I had some plans back in Columbus with some of my college friends so I had to leave the park, but I know I only saw a fraction of what there is to see!
Daring, Dangerous, and Defining 