During our first stay back in Ohio in a year, we stayed up north near Cleveland. We visited the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. After the scenic train ride, we drove around for a little bit and stopped at the Boston Mill Visitor Center. This was a nice Visitor Center and the boys picked up their Junior Ranger books.
Maps via Google and NPS
Cuyahoga Valley is a little bit weird in its shape. It is a long, narrow park that exists around private property and state parks.
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We went to the Brandywine Falls and managed to find a parking spot in the lot. We walked the boardwalk to the Falls. It was a beautiful area and you could see the remains of a small power plant. It was mostly just the foundations, but still neat to read about.
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It started to rain on us, so we head back home.
DETAILS:*
TICKETS: Free. Some activities have a fee. COVID Restrictions: masks required if not vaccinated
HOURS: Open daily
PARKING: Yes
BATHROOM: Yes
TIME RECOMMENDED: 1-3 hours
*Details correct at the time of posting, but please double check before you go.
For Father’s Day we took a train ride through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. We had heard it was a good way to see the park, but the only tickets available when I looked were the Donuts With Dad for Father’s Day.
We had a friend in town visiting, so I booked tickets for all of us. The ride was 2 hours long and everyone got a drink and a donut.
Masks were “required”, but it seemed like most of the passengers took them off as soon as they boarded the train.
The train was neat looking and had a variety of different seating arrangements based on the cars. We were in a table car, but I would have loved to have been in one of the other cars. I think it would have made the train ride more enjoyable. You can purchase an all-day pass to get on and off the train. There is also an app where you can track the train and listen to audio clips. When we tried it, it did track the train pretty well, but we could not get the audio tour to work. However, it was a free app, so we weren’t too disappointed. If you are a runner/biker/kayaker/hiker, you can purchase a one way Explorer Pass ($5/bike/hiker, $10/single kayak) and jump on at a stop.
There were several seat types: Coach (padded seats of 4 looking at each other), Table Top (4-seater table and chairs), and Executive Class (this one looked really nice, padded seats, more room). All seating was assigned.
The train also had a snack car that sold drinks (even some alcoholic drinks, but not on Sundays until after 1:00), bagged snacks, granola bars, candy, popcorn, hot dogs. The snack car also sold some souvenir type of items (key chains, shirts, train hats, train whistles, toys).
We did see some things along the way. We went by a state park, a neighborhood, a farm, parts of the National Park.
We needed a place to park the RV for a month while we sold the house. We wanted to find a campground that had full hookups so we could get used to the systems in the RV. Everything was new to us.
Most of the local (within 45 minutes of the house) campgrounds were booked for the month, or didn’t have full hookups available. We tried both private and state parks. Our HOA doesn’t allow for long term RV parking either. Finally, I found an opening at a campground that was doing monthly/long term rentals: Frontier Campground in Waynesville, Ohio.
The campground is only RV’s (travel trailers, 5th wheels, a few class A’s in the mix), although there are also cabins available for rent. There is an office that sells ice ($2/bag), a laundry facility (takes quarters), a shower house (closed currently due to Covid-19), a small dog park, some play equipment, and a rec room (also closed to Covid, but looks fun in the pictures).
Sites are $500/month (cash/check, or $515 with credit card), plus electric ($0.18/kwh). Everyone we dealt with on the phone or in person was really nice and helpful. Walter even took time and helped me pull into the spot and get the water hooked up (it was still shut off from winter) when he knew it was my first time trying to park the RV.
Pictures from Frontier, including a frog visitor in our water hookup basin
The campground is close to Caesar’s Creek State Park, a canoe/kayak rental place, Little Miami Bike Trail, and Spring Valley Wildlife Area. Walmart, Kroger, Aldi, and Target are about 20-30 minutes away.
Most of the spots are shaded and there are a lot of trees on the lot, although it seems like they keep them decently trimmed. The shade definitely helped when it hit 90 degrees! It does seem like a mostly long term, full time facility. There is an Air Force base close by that they said they get a lot of business from.
The dog park was small but fenced. It was nice to let her off leash to walk around. There was a bunch of poison ivy along the back fence, so we kept her away from there.
We had a good stay. Towards the end we did loose power (and water) twice, due to the high heat and the electric demand of the area. It didn’t stay off for too long (a few hours the first time and 30 minutes the second time). It was a quiet place to stay and pretty close to various stores and trails.
Caesar’s Creek is a great place to explore. See the Caesar’s Creek post for our experiences there.
The Little Miami Scenic bike path isn’t too far away either. We drove down to an access point (maybe 5 minutes away), parked, and took a walk. There was a brief view of the river, some smaller feeder creeks, and old telephone poles (the shorter ones with metal spikes that probably has the glass caps). I eventually got made fun of for taking too many pictures of the old poles: “Hey Mom! Look! It’s a telephone pole!” We ended up near a park and turned around. Keep in mind this is not a loop trail, so you will have to turn around! Different points on the trail offer different views. Our was pretty boring, but there are several access points nearby, so we may try another one soon.
The Spring Valley Wildlife Area main parking area was closed, as was the boardwalk. We tried walking some of the trails close to the campground, but didn’t have much luck. (Too many biting flies.) I think once they get the boardwalk repaired and the trails cleaned up it could be a really cool spot to walk through.
Caesar’s Creek State Park is located in Ohio. We didn’t stay in the Caesar’s Creek campgrounds as the full hookups were completely booked. We do know several people who have enjoyed camping there though. Our campground was about a 15 minute drive to the hiking areas, so we ended up making several day trips. Most of the trails are really well maintained, some with gravel paths.
NOTE: Some of the trails had a No Pets and No Bicycles restriction.
Our first time venturing out into new hiking trails, we were trying to find the waterfall, but ended up taking the wrong trail. However, we did end up seeing a mom and two baby raccoons!
We stopped at the damn and saw a few boaters and a kayaker on the lake. It was a beautiful day. The boys loved the hike and we only saw a few other people out. (It was great for social distancing!) We walked through the fossil area and all of the boys added a rock to the tower that had been started.
We have tried four of the Caesar’s Creek trails:
Caesar’s Trace: This one was our first trail. No pets or bikes. It had a few spots where the trail went close to a creek. The boys had lots of fun climbing around the banks and over tree roots. It was on this path that we saw the raccoons. We were both minding our own business and ended up startling each other. They ran up a tree to watch us, while we stood on the trail and watched them.
Horseshoe Falls: We started on part of this trail and must have crossed over to another one. I want to go back to finish as it looks like there are several cool features. We ran into the fossil collection area as well. When I actually used Maps from the All Trails app (we just use the free version for now), it got me to the right parking lot! We loved this trail. In fact, it was just the boys and I since Ben had a meeting. I think this one is one to go back to so Ben can hike it too. The path was nicely compacted dirt, just a few muddy spots that were easily dodged (it rained a few days ago), and wide enough that I didn’t feel like I had to turn sideways to make it down the path. There was plenty to see along the trail; a glimpse of the lake, a creek, tiny waterfalls, a cool rock wall, then finally the falls (now granted, they are not like Niagara Falls, but still pretty darn cool and beautiful). You can stop there, or if you walk up the trail a little bit more, there is a rope bridge and a path that you can take to cross to the other side of the falls. Nick found out the hard way (probably the 100th time) that wet rocks are slippery. Luckily he only scraped the side of his leg a little bit, and may have some bruises.
Gorge Trail: We liked this trail a lot. If you take the path one way, you go up a somewhat steep set of wooden stairs. If you go the other direction to begin the hike, you will end up walking down the stairs. There was a pond, several bridges, and the water runoff area was pretty cool to see. To help wear the boys out, they ran up the steep hill that makes up the side of the dam (this is by the water runoff area).
Fifty Springs Loop Trail: I would skip this one. This was not as well maintained or marked. It was supposed to be an orange marked trail, but because of organic pigments in the sun, had faded in many places to yellow. It crossed an actual yellow marked trail, so it was easy to get on a wrong path and not end up where you wanted to go. Much muddier after the rain than the other trails.
