Leaving Wisconsin after our Harris Walz rally, we got back on the road and continued heading east. Our next destination was Cuyahoga Valley NP in Ohio - our first state on Eastern Standard Time (EST)! It was a long travel day with ALOT of toll roads… but a good playlist and some entertaining banter and we made it.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Cuyahoga (pronounced Kai-uh-hoe-guh) Valley National Park follows the Cuyahoga River and is a mix of forested areas, grasslands and open prairie. We were about 2 weeks too late for the full autumnal/fall colours but still enough yellow, orange and red to make it pretty special. While not a big hiking park, we managed to walk around several of its most known trails - Ledges loop and Brandywine falls.
The ‘must do’ activity we read about in multiple guidebooks was to ride the scenic railroad. They didn’t have much availability (classic Ben and Mel leaving booking to the last minute) but did manage to get 2 seats on the last train ride of the day in the ‘dome’ car meaning you get 360 degree views as you travel through the park. Having done something similar in Alaska - we were pretty excited! What we hadn’t quite anticipated was the cramped carriages, smelly toilets and windows that looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in a decade… one very old and rickety ride.
The only thing older and more rickety, was our carriage ‘trainman’. Lovely chap but boy did we worry every time he went to go up and down the stairs. We made friends with the people sat next to us (how could you not when you were pretty much sat on their laps) and joked we didn’t know how our volunteer trainman remained this enthusiastic traveling the same line multiple times a day or whether his wife made him volunteer so he was out of the house…
Falling Water and Flight 93 National Memorial
Due to the long distances we are now driving, we are attempting to break the long journeys up with some interesting stops.
One of these was to Falling Water house in Pennsylvania which was designed by famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Built in 1935, the house sits above a waterfall (hence the name!) and is one of the most iconic Frank Lloyd Wright houses out of the ~1,000 he designed. It was nice to meander around and through the house and grounds that became a UNESCO World Heritage site in the late 90’s.
Our second stop was at the Flight 93 National Memorial. This serves to commemorate the crash of the fourth aircraft hijacked during the 9/11 attacks that was destined for Washington DC in 2001. A beautifully put together memorial and a very sobering stop.
Shenandoah National Park
Next on our National park tour was Shenandoah (pronounced Sheh-nen-doe-uh). The park follows the Appalachian mountains. It’s center piece is an 105 mile Scenic Drive that meanders along a ridge through the length of the park, with a total of 75 overlooks. Every couple of miles the drive crosses the Appalachian trail, a famous 2,200 mile through hike, that cross 14 states from Georgia all the way to Maine. Ben hasn’t convinced Mel we should tackle this one yet…
A little like Cuyahoga we were a few weeks late for the full autumn colors but it was still spectacular at lower elevations. This park however is one of the busiest we have been to in a while with a full campground on a Sunday night in November… who would have thought? Having not done as much exercise as we had been use to, it felt good to be heading back out for some ‘proper’ hiking. We did 5 hikes in the park - Hawksbill Mountain, Dark Hollow Falls, Blackrock Summit, Hightop Peak and Old Rag Mountain.
The best hike by far was, Old Rag Mountain. It’s a 9.4 mile loop with an elevation gain of 2,400ft. This was an epic day BUT probably one of the most technical hikes Mel has done. So thought we’d give you a Mel/Ben perspective:
Mel's Perspective - The guidebook said some rock scrambling/climbing at the top - What I hadn’t anticipated was jumping across gaps, sliding down the side of 10 ft rocks and having Ben hoist me up several boulders as my legs just weren’t long enough. Add in the fact my ass actually got stuck (I nearly cried) shimming along a rock passage. This craziness went on for about 800ft of elevation in the last mile up and almost took us an hour to complete. In all fairness it was a great accomplishment but rock climbing is not within my hiking repertoire… note for the next NP Benny!
Ben’s Perspective - In hindsight maybe do a little more research before attempting the hike other than
1) It was ranked as the best hike in the park and
2) the lady at the visitors centre said it wasn’t just strenuous, it was extremely strenuous - shrug, lets do it!
What’s Next?
We plan to continue to follow the Appalachian Mountain range south, driving parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway that connects Shenandoah to Great Smoky Mountain NP. We’ll make one diversion on the way to explore New River Gorge NP that’s only a couple of hours away.
Looks awesome - very envious!