November 16, 2012 ----Nathan had an annual conference in Chicago for a few days, and I wanted to go with him because I had never visited the city, so we decided to drive there instead of flying. It would take about 12-13 hours of driving, so we split our journey into two days and spent our first night in Ohio.
We stayed at a suite hotel right outside of Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's the only national park in Ohio, which we didn't expect much out of...
Winter time is definitely not the best time to visit the park unless you want to go skiing. All the trees were dead and there wasn't much wildlife to see. We were lucky enough to see some deer in the leafless forest...
The first stop we made was at Boston Store Visitor Center. There was a nice exhibit here about the canal and boat-building in the past. Then we drove to Brandywine Falls, the most significant waterfall in the park. There was a very nice board walk leading to the falls, and some steps down to the prominent spot for a photo snap in front of the majestic fall. It was very cold on the day we visited, and there was some slippery ice on the board walk, so be extra careful if you visit the fall in the winter.
Nathan and I didn't spend much time in the park because we had a long way to drive to Chicago, and there wasn't much to do in the park in the winter. We hope to come back in the summer and take a scenic train ride through the park or hike on the Erie Canal Townpath Trail.
Boston Store Visitor Center
Brandywine Falls
