Cuyahoga Valley National Park

So, yet another relatively unplanned national park stop.  I had originally looked into doing this park, but had put it out of my mind and the technical logistics.  I decided to revisit it when reviewing the map for our Friday drive.  That’s when I saw we would be pretty close to passing through it anyways, so of course I could not pass it up!  Unfortunately when I talked Doug into this plan (which isn’t hard because he has an appreciation for getting as many national parks as possible too) I didn’t realize how badly Penn was starting to feel.  Last night after that full, long day in the lake he woke up in the night several times with terrible congestion and a raw sore throat.  During the morning’s drive away from Indiana it got only worse and he also had a fever at this point.  We ended up doing the planned park stop though thinking maybe he would like stretching his legs and it would at least be a restroom pit stop.  Turns out Penn had no interest in getting out of the van, so instead the other three boys and I bolted into the Canal Exhibition Center for a little education on why is this a national park??

Turns out that remains a mystery.  I mean, there is a lot of interesting history in this area.  But there is also a lot of infrastructure, neighborhoods and businesses.  You do not feel like you are in a national park.  There is a cool, scenic railroad along the Ohio-Erie Canal (see boys at one of the locks below) 

 

which is what the park is designed around.  It houses many hikes and also a 20+ mile bike trail.  We even read the description and information in our national park book and still can’t really understand what the impetus was for making this a national park (so we are thinking maybe political reasons?!).  But oh well, we got another sticker (at a different visitor center because the one we went to of course didn’t have any good ones).

Now on to Pittsburgh!  And please make note, unless you are in it to just check the boys, this national park is lackluster at best (especially when you are tired of driving, have a sick kid and it’s sticky and hot outside)…DON’T STOP.