I’ve been traveling through Ohio for the past three years getting to and from school in Missouri. To be completely honest it used to rank just as boring a drive as Kansas. But I recently discovered the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. A national park in Ohio, who would have thought Ohio would actually have something I would be interested in. This trip home, my mom and I decided to stop and explore it to finally uncover its uniqueness… and because my little sister needed to get out of the car and run around before we continued on our 22-hour car ride!
When we first got there we stopped at the Boston Store Visitor Center which was pretty much located underneath two massive interstates. Cool, what a park. I was already bored with the place and wanted to get back in the car until my sister yelled TURTLES. So I looked at the logs and what do you know there were tiny little turtles sunning themselves with their legs stretched out as far as they could go. We continued down the path and came across more and more of these little creatures. Another stunning aspect of this park was that the bird life was incredibly boisterous. I have never heard so many different birds singing. One cardinal literal sat on a branch of a sapling tree, about eye level, and belted out some magnificent tunes!
As we continued down the Towpath Trail, we came across a few of the old locks from the days when people would walk along what used to be the Erie and Ohio Canal pulling the barges. In one of the old locks, my sister pointed out another turtle but this one was huge and had a pointy tail. We looked at him a little harder and then realized that it had to be a snapping turtle (we were hoping that was the case at least)!
We were coming up to the next station called Peninsula Depot. There, we decided we better turn around and head back to the Boston Store Visitor Center because we needed to get back on the road. But before we left we witnessed a beautiful blue heron getting an afternoon snack! It was amazing because of how close we were to it.
Just as I thought the wildlife would end, we saw three more blue herons on our way back to the car not to mention a mother duck and her four ducklings, hundreds of tadpoles, and schools of minnows. Cuyahoga National Park is a pretty neat place and one day I hope to return. We only walked 2.5 miles of the 125 miles of trails opened to walkers, hikers, bicyclists, and horseback riders. Who knew Ohio could be cool! I encourage everyone to stop in! Don’t let the interstate scare you away because you’ll be sorry you missed it. Sometimes you have to look a little deeper, or in this case, walk a little farther, before true beauty can be experienced!
