Our Cuyahoga Valley National Park Trip: 5 Days in Ohio

After spending a couple of months at home base, we were ready to get back on the road, and Ohio ended up being a pretty easy place to ease back into our full-time RV routine. We spent a week camping in Stow and exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park, with a few other nearby stops mixed in along the way. Over the course of the week, we hiked to waterfalls, explored old canal history and industrial ruins, visited a farm market, checked out an independent movie theater, and took a ride on a vintage train through the park. Cuyahoga Valley wasn’t the most dramatically different landscape for us as Illinoisans, but there was still plenty to explore, and its location near Cleveland and Akron makes it easy to combine a national park visit with a city trip. In this post, I’m sharing our day-by-day Ohio trip recap, along with how to visit all of the places and attractions we checked out along the way. 

Day 1: American Winery & Brewery

We left the Chicago area Saturday morning and had about 260 miles to drive to our Harvest Hosts stop in Ohio. The traffic around the Illinois/Indiana border was rough, but once we finally got through that mess, the rest of the drive wasn’t too bad.

We spent the night at American Winery & Brewery in Wauseon, which turned out to be a pretty great first stop for the week. Our confirmation email had really clear directions for entering the property and turning around, and they even had the Harvest Hosts spots marked, which is always appreciated when you’re pulling in with a trailer. It ended up being a full house that night, with all four of their Harvest Hosts spots occupied. Once we got the trailer set up, we headed inside to check the place out and, more importantly, get some food and drinks.

They had a pretty extensive selection of both wine and beer, plus food options. Josh was intrigued by their 21 Gun Salute, which is a sampling of all 21 of their wines, but we decided to go for a little more variety instead. We shared a pizza, tried a few wine samples and a few beers, and split a wine slushie. Everything we tried was pretty good, and the prices were surprisingly reasonable. After a long travel day, it was nice to be able to pull into our campsite, walk inside, have some food and drinks, and not have to worry about going anywhere else.

We had a peaceful night parked next to the vineyards, and overall, American Winery & Brewery was exactly what we like about a Harvest Hosts stop. It was an easy place to spend the night, but there was also something fun to do once we got there. Not a bad way to kick off our week in Ohio.

One of our favorite things about being full-time RVers is getting to stay in places we probably never would have found otherwise. That’s one of the reasons we love Harvest Hosts. You can stay overnight at wineries, breweries, farms, museums, and other unique locations in exchange for supporting the host. We’ve had some really fun stops through the program, and it’s become one of our favorite ways to break up a travel day. If you’re an RVer looking for more unique places to stay, https://www.harvest-hosts.com/2MHZ5T2/2CTPL/

Day 2: Getting Into Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Sunday was our first full day in Ohio, so we finished the drive to our campground in Stow and got set up. We stayed at Silver Springs Campground, a city park that’s about 20 minutes from Peninsula, which made it a pretty convenient base for exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Once we were settled, we headed into the park to start exploring. I always like to start a national park visit with the visitor center, so we made our way to Boston Mills Visitor Center. We apparently forgot that it was Sunday, because it was busy. We circled the parking lot multiple times before finally giving up and finding an overflow lot down the road. It worked out, though, because we were able to walk from there to the visitor center. We checked out the exhibits and gift shop, picked up a unigrid and got our National Parks Passport stamp. Since we were already there, we decided to hike the trail to Blue Hen Falls from the visitor center.

It was honestly just nice to be back in the woods. We had spent so much of the spring traveling through the desert, so being surrounded by trees and greenery again felt like a nice change. Josh wasn’t quite as impressed with the scenery as I was. He thought it looked a lot like the forest preserves we have back home. And, really, he’s not wrong. You could even hear traffic in the background in places. But I was just happy to be outside and hiking again, so I wasn’t complaining.

After Blue Hen Falls, we drove over to Brandywine Falls, which is probably the most recognizable waterfall in the park. It’s the one you see all over the Cuyahoga Valley postcards and posters. There are a few different ways to explore the area, including a longer gorge trail, but I didn’t really have the energy for that yet, so we stuck to the two overlooks and got a good look at the falls. It was incredibly crowded, though. Between Boston Mills and Brandywine Falls, we were definitely getting a reminder that we had picked a Sunday to visit the park.

After that, we headed back to camp for dinner. While we were there, our campground attendant stopped by to check us in and gave us a recommendation for somewhere to visit that evening: Szalay’s Farm Market. We decided to take his advice and headed over after dinner for dessert. Szalay’s was also busy, but in a fun, bustling kind of way. They have several prepared food stands on the weekends, so there were plenty of people there getting dinner, hanging out, or stopping in for ice cream. Josh got one of their famous fruit sundaes, while I went with a more boring soft serve cone. We also picked up some sweet corn and a giant rock melon to bring back to the camper, along with some things for a little gift basket we were putting together.

It ended up being a pretty good first day in the park, even if everywhere we went seemed to be packed. We got some hiking in, saw one of the park’s biggest waterfalls, and found a pretty fun local farm market to top off the day.

Day 3: The Ledges Trail

Monday was a rainy day for most of the day, so we didn’t have much of an opportunity to do anything. Thankfully, it let up in the afternoon enough for us to get out and hike part of the Ledges Trail in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This ended up being one of my favorite hikes of the trip. The landscape reminded us a lot of southern Illinois, which is definitely a compliment in our book. We really like this kind of terrain, with the tall rock formations, narrow passages, and tons of ferns and mosses growing around everything.

We took a side trail to check out Happy Days Lodge, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and the nearby cemetery. There was plenty to see along the way, so even though I eventually got tired and we didn’t make it around the entire loop, I didn’t feel like we missed out on the trail. Sometimes you don’t have to finish the whole hike for it to be worth doing. We got to explore some really cool rock formations, spend some time in the woods, and enjoy a completely different landscape from the desert hiking we’d been doing earlier in the year. It was a pretty good way to spend what was otherwise a very rainy day.

Day 4: A Rainy Day in Ohio

Tuesday was another rainy day, which actually worked out pretty well because Josh had late meetings and we weren’t going to be able to go do much anyway.

This is probably a good place for my usual reminder that RV life isn’t a vacation. We still have to work, have meetings, do laundry, make dinner, deal with all the normal life stuff, etc. Sometimes we’re lucky enough to do that stuff somewhere with a national park right outside the door, but unfortunately the park doesn’t magically make the work disappear.

So Tuesday ended up being a pretty uneventful day. We hung around the campground, dealt with work, and waited out the rain. Not every day of a trip is exciting, and honestly, having a slower day in the middle of a busy week wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Day 5: Canals, Waterfalls, and a Movie

Wednesday was a little more productive because Josh took off work early, so we had more time to explore. We started the day at the Canal Exploration Center in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, where we learned about the history of the Ohio & Erie Canal and got to see one of the original locks. We also walked a little bit along the Towpath Trail before moving on.

From there, we drove over to Bradford Reservation, which is part of the Cleveland Metroparks, to check out Bridal Veil Falls. It was a short trail to the waterfall, which was perfect for a day when we had a few other things we wanted to see. It’s kind of funny how many Bridal Veil Falls we’ve ended up visiting now. We’ve seen them in several different states, and somehow there’s always another one.

Next we headed over to Viaduct Park. We started by walking across the top of the viaduct itself. And here’s a fun little bit of terminology I learned: all viaducts are bridges, but not all bridges are viaducts. A viaduct is specifically a bridge made up of multiple, usually uniform, spans. So now you know. After walking on top of it it, we headed down toward Great Falls, which was actually much bigger than I expected. The park also has ruins from the area’s former industries, including old mills and other structures, which made exploring the area even more interesting. Josh even found a little tunnel that went through toward the river, because apparently no trip is complete without him crawling into some random tunnel.

After dinner back at the campground, we drove into Akron for a movie at Nightlight Cinema. I always love finding independent movie theaters when we travel, and Nightlight is a nonprofit independent theater, so it was right up my alley. The theater has only been around since 2014, but they have a really nice setup and do something I wish more theaters did: before the movie, a staff member gives a little introduction. Apparently they do it for every movie, which I absolutely loved. Unfortunately, we didn’t end up loving the documentary we went to see, but the movie itself wasn’t really the point. Getting to check out another independent theater was a fun way to end the day.

Day 6: Riding the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad

Thursday was another work day for Josh, so he worked late and we didn’t get out to do anything until the evening. But we had one last activity planned in Cuyahoga Valley National Park: riding the train. The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad is one of the most popular things to do in the park. During the day, you can ride it more like a hop-on, hop-off attraction, or you can book one of their special scenic excursions. We went with one of their after-hours scenic rides, which they specifically market as more of an adult date-night experience.

It ended up being a really quiet, chill evening. There were a couple of groups who had rented their own cars, but otherwise there weren’t a ton of people on our train. We grabbed some snacks from the snack car and settled in to enjoy the ride. Our train went from Peninsula to Akron and back, which was probably my biggest disappointment with the experience. I think the scenery going north from Peninsula is the prettier route, since you spend more time surrounded by the park. Once we got closer to Akron, there were more urban views, which weren’t nearly as interesting to me. We did get to watch the sunset from the train, though, which was a pretty nice bonus.

And, of course, the trains themselves were a big part of the fun for me. Our locomotive was from 1959, and the passenger car we rode in dated back to 1949. I love vintage trains, so honestly, you could put me in an old train car and drive me around in circles and I’d probably be happy.

Josh was more interested in the scenic parts of the ride, but I was perfectly content just getting to ride around in a train that’s nearly 80 years old. Between the vintage equipment, snacks, sunset, and relatively empty train, it was a pretty relaxing way to finish up our time exploring Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Wrapping Up Our Ohio Trip

Friday morning we packed up the trailer and headed out to our next adventure: Niagara Falls! But before we left Ohio, we had a few thoughts about our week in Cuyahoga Valley National Park:

First, we’re glad we got to check another national park off our list. After spending a couple of months at home base, with a bunch of shorter trips mixed in, it was also just really nice to be back on the road. This was a good trip for easing back into our usual routines of moving around, setting up camp, exploring a new area, and then doing it all over again.

As far as the park itself goes, I think our experience is probably a little different from someone coming from another part of the country. Since we’re from Illinois, none of the landscapes or hiking we saw felt particularly unique to us. We can find plenty of similar forests, waterfalls, rock formations, and trails in other parts of the Midwest. If you’re coming from somewhere with a very different landscape, though, I could see Cuyahoga Valley feeling a lot more special.

What I do think makes Cuyahoga Valley really cool is how many different ways there are to experience it. You can hike, bike, paddle, drive through the park, or even take the train to different areas. It’s not just a park where you pick a trail and spend the day hiking. There’s a lot of variety in how you can explore it. And its location is another big plus. Being so close to both Cleveland and Akron means you can easily combine a national park trip with some city exploring, museums, restaurants, and other attractions.

So while Cuyahoga Valley probably isn’t going to make our list of the most spectacular national parks we’ve visited, we were still glad we went. It was a fun week, we got to explore somewhere new, and most importantly, it got us back on the road and back into our travel routine. And then it was time to head north to Niagara Falls for the next part of our adventure.

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