Mountaineering to Raccoon Falls and Romane Falls in Cuyahoga Valley Nationwide Park is a good way to spend a number of hours exploring a number of the park’s lesser-known waterfalls. The largely off-trail hike in CVNP requires crossing the Ohio & Erie Canal, together with climbing over and ducking below scores of fallen bushes, making it finest fitted to hikers who get pleasure from off-the-beaten-path adventures. For these keen to depart the principle trails behind, the reward is a quiet, scenic hike and the possibility to see two hidden waterfalls in Cuyahoga Valley Nationwide Park that the majority guests by no means know exist.
Water seasonal all through the ravine
Do not miss mountaineering in winter when the falls are frozen
Mountaineering to Raccoon & Romane Falls
We’re again within the single digits (-20 with the wind chill) when Heather and I head out to Cuyahoga Valley Nationwide Park for a number of miles, which is nearly good for chasing frozen waterfalls. The plan is to take a look at two falls that neither of us has been to earlier than. From the Station Street Bridge Trailhead, we cross the bridge and switch left onto the Towpath, heading north.
About 0.4 miles in, we go Mudcatcher Falls, a man-made cascade on the mouth of the ravine that leads all the way down to Twin Sister Falls. We had been simply on the market final week, so we maintain transferring.
At 1.15 miles, we go one other ravine, then a 3rd a number of hundred toes later that holds Contour Falls—one other current cease—so we skip that one too. Lastly, at 1.6 miles (close to coordinates 41.339068, -81.586769), we attain the fourth ravine from the trailhead and cross a large part of the frozen canal, the place the surroundings modifications shortly.
As we enter the ravine, it instantly feels acquainted—steep partitions, loads of downed bushes to step over or duck below, and a pleasant mixture of hardwoods and hemlocks. It’s not fairly as stunning because the ravine cradling Loopy Man’s Hole Falls a number of miles south of right here, but it surely looks as if place to spend a while exploring.
Like the opposite streams within the space, the unnamed tributary right here is frozen stable after three weeks of bitter chilly, and the snow from Winter Storm Fern hasn’t budged a lot. About 0.4 miles after getting into the ravine—2 miles into the hike—we attain a break up. The left department results in Raccoon Falls, the appropriate to Romane Falls, and we flip left to take a look at Raccoon first.
Extra of the identical surroundings unfolds as we stroll deeper into the ravine, till lastly, at 2.2 miles into our day, we attain the 30 foot Raccoon Falls. It doesn’t seem on any park maps, and its identify’s origin is unknown, but it surely’s an fascinating waterfall—one which each suits in with, and stands other than, lots of the others discovered off this stretch of the Towpath.
After snapping a number of images, we backtrack to the break up and head towards Romane Falls. Right here, the hike will get just a little trickier, with much more downed bushes to climb over and loads of spots the place our footsteps punch by means of the skinny ice.
This stretch of the hike isn’t only a tree or two to duck below or climb over—it’s large piles of fallen bushes that gradual our tempo significantly.
At round 2.7 miles in, we attain the 20-foot cascade—a single-drop, horsetail waterfall that we each agree is extra scenic that Raccoon. With no view from above—which isn’t doable from the place we’re standing—it’s onerous to make certain, but it surely seems two separate streams spill down from the rock partitions overhead to type two cascades, not one.
We stick round for a couple of minutes earlier than retracing our steps to the canal and cross it as soon as once more.
Then, it is again on the Towpath to make our manner again to the trailhead. It ended up being a good way to spend a number of hours within the park, exploring a few the realm’s lesser-known waterfalls. I’m trying ahead to coming again in late spring, when the streams are flowing once more, to see how completely different they appear with out the ice. For now, although, one other stretch of well-below-freezing temperatures means frozen waterfalls and icy trails are right here to remain.
