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| - About me: a huge lover of national parks. I also think 1 star reviews of them are hilarious. Caves are dark? The Grand Canyon is too crowded? Great stuff. But hear me out.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park shouldn't be a national park. It should be a state park, or at most, a national historic site or recreation area (as it used to be).
As a green space, it's great, and I would visit a lot if I lived in Akron or Cleveland. Plenty of roads and trails for hiking and biking.
Read up on the place. So toxic it was a superfund site and took more than 20 years to clean up and redesignate as wetlands. I'm glad the area is clean now, don't get me wrong.
The main deal here is that the Park protects part of the old Erie Canal (Towpath Trail). This is cool, and historic. Not a natural wonder. There is a lot of preservation of old farm life. Neat, historic, not awe-inspiring or grandiose. You see what I'm getting at with the designation?
Nature-wise, you get Brandywine Falls, which I found to be incredibly underwhelming. You can find prettier scenery in state parks. Try Ohiopyle, for instance. If you grew up near woods, none of this will impress you.
I was also really bothered by how many people live inside the park. Drive in from the south and you'll question why the federal government bought and is paying to keep up land that people unaffiliated with the park live on. It's weird. I kept questioning if I was at the right place.
I feel bad if you have to make a special trip to Ohio to complete visits to all the National Parks.
2/59
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