Cuyahoga Valley

This national park in Ohio is by far the closest national park to where I grew up in Northwest Pennsylvania, but for whatever reason, I didn’t visit it until I was 28. The first two times I visited, in 2018 and 2021, it was still early enough in spring that the trees were all still brown and nothing had yet bloomed, but there was still a certain sense of magic to be found here. The Brandywine Falls are captivating any time of year, and the easy hike along the Buckeye Trail to the tranquil, tiny Blue Hen Falls was also well worth the trek. I got to go back for a third time in 2025 with some of my best friends from high school. We hiked the Ledges Trail which was really beautiful with fascinating layered rock formations. It was the end of September so I finally got the see the park with trees full of leaves too!