Exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Ohio) by foot, bike, & train! 🚴🏻🚂

vikings was taking the train that's our new favorite way to explore the national park that was so much fun [Music] for the last month we've been road tripping around some of the great lake states we've driven down minnesota's north shore which reminded us of the pacific northwest with its rocky cliffs kayaked in sea caves at the apostle islands learned how cheese is made and explored the beautiful scenery and farms in wisconsin and hiked learned mining history and saw some of the bluest waters in michigan while there is still so much left to explore along the great lakes our goal is to make it to new england for the fall so after taking some time off with family near chicago we're back on the road and continuing our drive east with some stops along the way starting with our 40th u.s national park cuyahoga valley cuyahoga valley national park is located just 20 miles south of cleveland ohio and is home to waterfalls rock cliffs marshes lakes and more and today we're going to explore the park by foot bike and train we're kicking off our one day in the park at one of the most popular spots brandywine falls it's a quick walk to the 60 to 65 foot falls we read different numbers but the best part is dogs are allowed [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] this is brandywine falls and you've seen some photos where the water goes the entire rock face and it's just raging so this is a very light flow compared to what we've seen but still really beautiful especially with all the layered rocks and the waterfall just kind of cascading down them [Music] [Music] we've headed about 15 minutes away to the ledges trail which is a 2.3 mile hike that takes you through narrow sandstone cliffs and this hike is also dog friendly in fact most of the park is dog friendly which is awesome because normally the national parks do not allow dogs on trails and another unique thing about this national park is that it's 100 free to access [Music] it's pretty neat to walk amongst these ledges they're just overhanging you and they're 50 60 feet above you [Music] so along the trail there's a couple little detours you can take that are just barely off the trail and this is one of them this is probably the most narrow one we've come across really cool [Music] if you do this trail you have to take some of the offshoots off the main trail those have been some of our favorite spots on the hike so far we just found this one area and walked through it and it opened up to this we're just surrounded by the ledges there's this green moss on them it just feels like something out of a fairy tale it's this is the cool spot on the trail so far [Music] a huge part of this area's history as well as ohio and united states history is the canal in the 1830s the ohio and erie canal ran through the cuyahoga valley on its way to connect the ohio river with lake erie this canal created an inland water route between the east coast and the gulf of mexico which helped fuel westward expansion with many goods being transported through its canal by 1850 largely due to the canal and the people it brought ohio was the third most populated state once the railroad arrived in the 1880s the canal became less used and in 1913 a flood damaged the canal and it was too expensive to repair but fast forward to today what was once the canal is now an 87 mile towpath trail with 20 miles of it taking you through cuyahoga valley national park this tow path is accessible by foot bike wheelchair and strollers and it takes you along the path that mules walked as they towed boats through the canal loaded with goods and passengers and today we're gonna experience some of it by bike [Applause] [Music] we just rented bikes from century cycles and peninsula which is right along the towpath here it costs ten dollars per bike per hour we have a handful of stops we want to make so let's hit the trail [Music] i love riding bikes when i was a kid used to ride bikes all the time all over the neighborhood takes me back [Music] we passed a couple locks along the towpath and if you don't know what a lock is it's basically a water-filled elevator so there's one part of the river or canal that's higher than the other the boat goes into the lock the water lowers and then the boat can keep going or the other way around it enters the water raises keeps going on the higher side [Music] we backed about 3.3 miles to zalay's farm and market which started in 1931 as a vegetable farm and now is a sweet corn farm but they also have a market where they sell a bunch of fruits veggies and other goodies [Music] [Music] [Music] on the weekends they sell roasted corn and ice cream but we're here midweek so we missed that but we did get some nice goodies for a little picnic [Music] i stopped off at beautiful indigo lake for a nice little picnic so we got some chips what goes best with chips some salsa this is avocado tomatillo salsa from zalay's farm and then some this is random but we got a big cup of cantaloupe but it sounded good yeah this is some of our favorite things some nice sweet fruit chips and salsa can't beat it [Music] our last stop on bike is the beaver marsh and this is a beautiful example of how a place can be cleaned up from junk literally so before the 1800s this area was a wetland and then the railroad came along and it was drained out parts of it were then used as a dairy farm and then before the national park service came along an auto body shop littered this place with all kinds of car parts and old cars and in 1984 there was a big cleanup and at the same time beaver started to come back to the area they had been absent from here because they had been trapped out for their fur humans cleaned up and preserved the land and then the beavers restored natural water levels awakening long dormant seeds in the soil wetland plants returned creating habitat for diverse wildlife [Music] as we mentioned earlier trains started running through the cuyahoga valley in the 1880s and they're still running here today you can either take a multi-hour train ride through the valley or you can kayak hike bike or walk aboard the train which basically means that you kayak hike bike one way and then you take the train the other way which we just think is so cool it costs five dollars per person to bike aboard the train and the train schedule is pretty limited so make sure you check it beforehand because if you miss it you're either gonna have to wait a long time or walk or bike back [Music] so this isn't one of the main stations so you're supposed to wave the train down so they stop for you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] vikings was taking the train that's our new favorite way to explore the national park that was so much fun [Music] [Applause] [Music] we had a great day exploring cuyahoga national park by all the modes of transportation it was just so fun to be able to see so many different types of things and in so many different ways but we're now going to hit the road and head a couple hours east to pittsburgh to see some family and also explore a bit of the city [Music] here they hear thee i am the queen of gold if i didn't have these on it would just the gangster queen apparently it's like a tomato tomato thing cuyahoga cuyahoga the ranger just said cuyahoga so so sexy oh my god [Music] you

Channel: Adventures of A+K

Views: 12,268

Rating: 4.9944057 out of 5

Keywords: cuyahoga valley national park, cuyahoga valley, brandywine falls, towpath trail, things to do in cuyahoga valley national park, what to do in cuyahoga valley national park, visiting cuyahoga valley national park, cuyahoga valley national park ohio, visiting the national parks, us national parks, brandywine falls ohio, cuyahoga valley train, cuyahoga valley train bike and ride, ledges trail cuyahoga valley national park, things to do in ohio, what to do in ohio

Id: 4oSWS-Dmb54

Length: 15min 2sec (902 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 27 2021