A Luxury Loving, Day Hiker’s Guide to Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Which trip is more fitting to start blogging about than the trip that started a new chapter in our lives? This trip happened back in 2023, but I replay it in my mind constantly. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is the second park Ryan and I ever visited together. It’s in our home state of Ohio. It’s where our relationship status changed from “In a Relationship” to “Engaged”. We’ve taken several trips in our relationship, but it will be hard to top this one.

Ryan and I absolutely love hiking, but when we go on trips we try to set ourselves up to meet our other values when possible. When on vacations, typically, we really value food and relaxation. We love a good meal and with limited time off we want to go back to work refreshed. We are willing to stay further away from a park (within reason) if it means having food options and accommodations that fit those wants more. Cuyahoga Valley National Park fits that bill perfectly. It is amazing for people who want to hike without that “off the grid” feeling or for people who are just getting into hiking.

This post will lay out how we experienced Cuyahoga Valley NP. How we made a long weekend into a mix of amazing views, relaxation, and good food. A breakdown of how to see the park with the most ease, our hikes, and favorite spots outside the park.

The Cleveland Browns, A Christmas Story House, and Cuyahoga Valley National Park. What do these 3 things have in common? They are all in the same county. Okay, the National Park is in 2 counties, but it’s approximately 30 minutes from Cleveland and 15 minutes from Akron. During the 2020 census, Cleveland was the 54th largest city by population just behind New Orleans. When you think of U.S. National Parks it can sometimes be easy to start thinking of Yellowstone, Yosemite, or Glacier and get overwhelmed with the planning. Am I in good enough shape? Will I have phone service? What do I need to bring? Cuyahoga’s terrain and proximity to these major cities can really ease some of those concerns.

Firstly, let’s get into the terrain of the area. Within the park, there are many hikes but there are 2 major viewpoints, Brandywine Falls and the Ledges Overlook. Both of these viewpoints are very close to the parking lot. You can get to them without doing much hiking. Brandywine has a boardwalk around it. There are a lot of stairs to view from different angles, but you can view from the top if stairs aren’t your thing. There are hikes from there to go around the area, but the major viewpoint is the falls. The Ledges Trail is a loop trail and it goes around the overlook. My first time there I was so confused about how they got a picnic table to the overlook. If you look at the map, there is actually a grass patch that a lot of people cross over to get to the overlook without doing the hike. Besides just the ease you can get to the viewpoints, the topography at Cuyahoga is fairly flat. Making most of the hikes a lower difficulty level. Almost most of the popular hikes are day hikes, meaning no backpacking is required to experience the popular views. Remember to review before, but a lot of hikes have the ability to add or remove sections. Meaning you can really cater the hikes to how far you want to go. While we were there we did the Three Waterfalls loop which starts at Brandywine, part of The Ledges Trail, and Kendall Lake Loop. Some helpful tips for each:

Brandywine Falls

The falls are probably the biggest attraction in the park. With how short the walk is, the falls can get busy. We went on a Friday morning and there was consistent traffic the whole time. I recommend going on a weekday and/or in the morning to try to avoid the crowd. While this trip was in the fall, the last time I was there was in the winter. If going in the winter, be careful and be prepared. Being close to Lake Erie puts this area in the snow belt. The falls do have a wooden boardwalk with lots of steps. Also, the trail that takes off from there, while fairly flat, does have some wooden steps and bridges. Those areas of the trail and falls can get very icy during the winter.

Three Waterfalls Loop

This trailhead takes off from Brandywine Falls. This trail can be confusing when you are looking at Cuyahoga trail maps. Three Waterfalls isn’t the park’s name for the trail, but you may see that name listed on trail apps and blogs. If you want to do this trail, I would recommend downloading a trail app beforehand. The “trail” is actually just a mix of multiple other trails. You start with the Stanford Trail-Brandywine Gorge Loop. Then when those split you will stay on the Stanford Trail. Then you will turn onto the Avril Pond Trail. Cuyahoga’s maps show that trail as an out-and-back, but it actually connects back over to Stanford Road which is a bike route. The bike route connects back to the Brandywine Gorge Loop. The perk to this route is seeing Avril Pond. If that doesn’t interest you, then you could do the Brandywine Gorge Loop and see most of it. The picture above is just outside of the pond.

Ledges Trail

As discussed earlier, a lot of the trails in the park can be made shorter or longer. We actually did cut off a large portion of this trail. We hadn’t hiked in a minute and had been running a lot. I just got tired more easily than expected and this was the perfect time to use that ability. We ended up cutting off a portion of this trail after the Overlook. The Overlook is an amazing place to see the sunset. As it gets closer to the evening you will see this trail start to fill more with people. If you want a great place to see the sunset in the park, this is a great choice. While the overlook does get more crowded in the evening, we didn’t find many people on the trail itself.

Kendall Lake

My all-time favorite trail! This is the trail we got engaged. Ryan was originally set on proposing at Brandywine. But we are also pretty private people. He didn’t want to pop the question in front of a crowd. There was just constant traffic at Brandywine (not that I helped by being confused as to why he wanted to stay at the falls for so long). The Ledges was his backup option, but we ended up there close to sunset and the crowd was growing the longer we were there. I wasn’t necessarily feeling the greatest that morning so Kendall Lake appeared to be an easy trail. So we went there. It’s a very flat trail that goes around Kendall Lake. We didn’t see many people there on a Saturday morning. The dam side of the trail definitely gives the best views of the lake. It is a very peaceful hike when you want away from the major viewpoints.

We love going to the National Parks and experiencing the outdoors together. We didn’t get to travel many places at the beginning of our relationship, so having that time now is a privilege. I couldn’t think of a better way to get engaged than in a National Park. He picked the perfect one. The park has so many secluded spots and isn’t overly crowded. Plus, it is so close to our house that it can be easily revisited. Cuyahoga is a great spot for a long weekend or if you are just looking to mix in some relaxation and good food.

Let us know in the comments what things you value most when you travel!