"It's a slot canyon!" Dave exclaimed in surprise.
"Here?"
We were deep in the heart of Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio surrounded by tall skinny trees and giant, moss covered rocks. Not exactly where I expected to find a slot canyon.
Deep in the heart of may be a bit of an exaggeration as this is easily the smallest, most peculiarly located national park we've been to...but I'll get to that in a moment.
I walked over to where Dave was standing on the edge of rock overhang to see where he was gesturing. Sure enough, below us was a narrow path between two rock walls. It was not as long or winding as the ones we explored in Arizona but still...exciting!
This section of the park is called The Ledges. It winds around these massive rocks which are just so amazing to look at.
We followed the trail down, around and alongside these quiet stone giants, peering into every crack we thought we saw. One of the openings contained a barricaded bat cave we took a moment to check out before continuing onward.
The way into our end of the slot canyon was a slightly snug fit (for us. A child wouldn't have noticed how close the walls were), but if Dave could fit (which he did) so could I.
A brief deep breathing kind of moment later, and voila!
It wasn't a terribly long slot canyon, but it was still fun.
Occasionally there's a path leading to the top, but only one is a set of stairs that looks like it should lead you on an adventure.
It took us a couple of hours of wandering to finish the 1.8 mile trail, but we also scrambled over the lower rocks exploring as much as we could. There is a surreal kind of beauty here. Almost ancient and primordial.
And the rocks are stunning! Mossy. Grey. Green. Black. Ochre. Sparkling!
Along the way, we visited the upper section of The Ledges where an expanse of smooth stone sits high above the trail providing lovely view of the forest. You don't even realize how far above the path below you are until you walk to edge.
Cuyahoga Valley NP is only 32,572 acres. Compare this to Grand Teton National Park at 310,000 acres or The Badlands which is 244,000 acres. It's not a big park. It's long and skinny with random neighborhoods bordering and cutting across it. We had to drive out of the park, through a section of a town, then back into the park to reach the ledges.
It's so weird for a national park but so worth the effort to see it.
Since visiting Cuyahoga didn't take enough of our Saturday up, we drove around looking for someplace else to see and found Great Tinker Falls, a definite locals favorite.
Again, not a long overall walk. A short jaunt takes you to the upper part of the falls.
Continuing down the path will lead you to an overlook for the falls...nearby that if you happen to find an irresistible tunnel, take it.
It leads to a ruined pathway which takes you to the bottom of the falls. The ruins are from an old mill that once stood here. Not that you could really tell today, which is part of the fun.
Granted, there's an easier way to reach this area, but it's not as entertaining.
As enjoyable as the falls are, the arch at the end of the trail begs to be checked out. Unfortunately(?), you get in trouble if you go past this point. Something about it being dangerous, so we admired it from afar.
Thus ended another wonderful Saturday wandering through parts of the country neither one of us had seen yet. Ohio is turning out to be a pretty nice state.
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