Another National Park that is closer to the majority of us at Penn State is Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio. Although Ohio is not my favorite state in the world, I am still gonna give the park a chance. 🙂 This park is relatively new, being recognized as a National Recreation Area in 1974, but not designated as a National Park until 2000. From the pictures I have seen it reminds me a lot of the landscape and forestry of Pennsylvania, which makes sense considering its close proximity. This may make it slightly less unique to us Pennsylvania natives, but that doesn’t mean it is any less beautiful.

The park features waterfalls, rock cliffs, over 33,000 acres of forest, and is centered on the Cuyahoga River. One of the main things that draws visitors is the changing colors in the fall. The forest turns brilliant shades of orange, yellow, and red, providing a picturesque view for anyone who happens to be in the area. As always, there are many hiking trails that allow you to take in the park in its entirety and get a different view of all of the aspects of the park.

The main centerpiece of most of the hikes are the various waterfalls throughout the park. Some short, easy hikes that provide fantastic views of the falls are Blue Hen Falls Trail (0.5 miles), Brandywine Gorge Trail (1.5 miles), and Bridal Falls and the Buckeye Trail (0.2 miles). The two shorter hikes are flat and easy, and both lead to a different waterfall at the end of the trail. The Brandywine Gorge trail although slightly more of a lengthy hike, provides some of the best views of various waterfalls from the multiple observation decks along the trail (National Park Foundation).

You might be wondering where the park got its unique name. As some of you may have guessed, it stems from Native American roots. The word Cuyahoga actually means crooked river. Native Americans survived off of the river and the surrounding life for years until settlers started to move further West. Initially the Cuyahoga River and area was known for tis great trading posts and most of these were focused on fur trading. Eventually the Natives were pushed off of their land, and the beautiful natural landscape was overrun by the industrial revolution. The river was becoming extremely polluted in the 1800s and 1900s. There was oil, natural gas, sewage, and other pollutants being dumped into the river at an alarmingly fast rate. In 1969, the river actually caught on fire and burned for over 2 hours due to the large amount of flammable materials present in the water. In the 1970s, laws began to be passed about river pollution, and the Cuyahoga began to recover. It made a great recovery, and is now almost as beautiful as it once was (NASA).

There are many more hiking trails and views to see within this park. There are also many other activities such as bike trails, camp sites, and trails open to backpacking. I thought that the history was interesting so I thought that I would focus a bit more on that this week and the amazing recovery of the river. I hope I get to visit this park soon, especially since I wouldn’t even have to fly to get there! Thanks as always for reading my blog.

Citations:

“Cuyahoga Valley National Park (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/cuva/index.htm.

“Cuyahoga Valley National Park.” National Park Foundation, https://www.nationalparks.org/connect/explore-parks/cuyahoga-valley-national-park.

“HISTORY OF THE CUYAHOGA RIVER.” NASA, NASA, https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/fenlewis/History.html.