The eighth part of our Virginia Trip 2023

We decided to visit the #1 sight in  Cuyahoga Valley - Brandywine Falls; it was also #1 on Ray's list for the area. 

The walk to the falls is short and easy but we had on our hiking boots and backpacks to go further. Come along.

Nice boardwalks

Beautiful Brandywine Falls

Down some steps hoping to get closer to the bottom of the falls
There was no signage

More boardwalks with the rocks cut away

We went down all those steps and got to the TOP of the falls so we hiked back up and then down the other steps to get to the bottom.

Beautiful!

View of Brandywine Falls from near river level

To hike the Gorge loop, we had to go back to the top and down those first steps AGAIN. 

Looking back up the steps for the second time.

On the Brandywine Gorge Loop.

We saw a sign that sounded like this was a shortcut
but it turns out this path took us in the RIGHT direction!
Good thing we turned!

We were getting lower in the Gorge

This is a picture of very clear water in the river

Eventually we crossed this bridge
to get to the other side of the gorge

The water from the bridge

Ray was shooting lots of photos

We stopped to pull up compasses on our phones
The little bit of signage we saw was ignoring
our trail so we were trying to figure out
if this was the right way

Our NPS map (which wasn't to scale and didn't help much) did say steep steps. We finally found them and I didn't get a photo. They were tall steps - steep with no hand rails. We finally knew where we were! It was a beautiful day to be in the woods. 

The other main attraction in the Park is the Ledges. We had our NPS map but maybe we should have been a little concerned after Brandywine Falls. At least we knew it wasn't to scale. We just wanted to go to the Overlook.

Using our map, we left the parking lot and hiked 
quite a while trying to find the Ledges Trail.

Eventually we came across a map on a trail. We kept crossing trails and the Overlook seemed to be in different directions each time. That's because the Overlook was NOT on the Ledges Trail; it was on some trail not on our map! We stopped looking at our map and attempted to follow our instinct and a sign every so often.

We found the Overlook - you could only see down into the gorge  in a few spots.

It was pretty there.

Upon leaving the Overlook, we needed to find the parking lot and our vehicle. So we decided to just follow our instincts. We took a trail in the general direction through the woods, crossed a large grassy area, and could see the parking lot! None of this showed on our map so I'm glad we'd finally put it away. 

The weather was great and we really did enjoy the hike. Cuyahoga Valley National Park is beautiful.

Our next stop is Shipshewana, IN. 

There comes a moment, when you get lost in the woods, 

when the woods begin to feel like home

.-Jeffrey Eugenides