Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Brecksville, OH: Ritchie Ledges


We left Wildwater Kingdom and headed 15 miles southwest to Cuyahoga Valley National Park's Ritchie Ledges.
There are so few national parks east of the Mississippi River and I hated the idea of not going to any this year (the centennial celebration for the National Parks Service), and since we were going to drive so close to it anyway, I requested a stop here to be on our itinerary.


Let's just say Eric lived in Cleveland for four years and never came here. There is no entrance fee and it doesn't feel much like a national park (more like a disconnected state park; it was originally a recreation area in 1974 and became a national park in 2000). It is still nice and well maintained, but just know going in that your expectations should not be on par with any other national park you've been to.

We stopped at two places in the park, starting here with Ritchie Ledges. Like all our trips, I did a bunch of research beforehand and saw this stop pop up all over the travel sites I was looking at that it was a nice stop in the park. Well...the rocks were kind of neat, but we probably won't go back.


We took the Ledges Trail from the parking lot (just Google Map to Ritchie Ledges and it'll take you to the parking lot). You do not need to do this if you only want to get to the overlook. Just go to the far end of the parking lot and head across the open field - you will hit the trail and the overlook and save yourself half an hour. We did the reverse on the way back to our car. The hike in is relaxing and pretty through the woods but also a little buggy. There are other attractions elsewhere on the Ledges Trail but you won't hit anything else if you go to the overlook.




There are some interesting rock formations and crevices. Be careful and wear hiking shoes. (Eric is surefooted and stays smart about where he walks; I don't generally go as close to the edge as he does.)









I think we were hoping for a better view, but this wasn't bad. There was a family having a picnic nearby. We didn't stay long, as we wanted to head to the next stop in park before going to Cleveland.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Brecksville, OH: Ritchie Ledges Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Brecksville, OH: Ritchie Ledges Reviewed by Maria on 1:00:00 PM Rating: 5

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