Info:
- Great for adventure!
- Many places to go
- There’s a waterfall and trails beyond the ledges
Where is this located? Portage county near Garrettsville
The Way There
I just drove from Tinker’s Creek SP and it was really the same. Straight-shot roads and some hills through nice weather. Finding parking was easy and full of people on the Saturday morning I arrived.
What I Did
My ‘AllTrails’ app for this state park didn’t really help me. At first sight, I loved this version of ledges than the ones at CVNP. To me, there was more to climb. They both are awesome, nonetheless. I walked around, tiny me against large rocks. There’s formations called ‘Devil’s Icebox’ and ‘Old Maid’s Kitchen’ but I had no idea which was which but I assume I went in one of those with all the tight squeezes and crouching I had to do.
I gave up on the app after I was circling around the same areas for 20 minutes. I started climbing to various areas and finally got to the upper level. Then I started walking on a path that sort of led away from the ledges and to a lake. After I realized that there was nothing really to see over in that area I started walking back to a ledge that led down to the bottom level. It was more of a cove with water trinkling down it (you can go over the stream on a bridge) with a big puddle in the cove. I went down and had to crouch under a ledge that was my roof. The thought of jumping to the other side of the ledge was diminished as I watched the ‘split face incident’ on the web awhile ago (DON’T LOOK IT UP).
I really had to piss on the way back from that and the sound of trickling water made it worse. I delved deep in the woods part and did my thing…adventure at its finest. Walking further on the upper level I caught views of the cascading waterfall. It was more of a cascading stream. Throughout this state park, I felt like an adventurer exploring over the various ledges while at the same time feeling like I was in a jungle. The squishy dirt on the ground made me sink in at times (lol) and the grime of the moss covered my hands as I was climbing myself up and down whilst trying to balance myself.
It took me 15 minutes to get back to the lower levels by climbing up and down rocks and ledges and mustering up the courage to jump over one. Once I got down, I went to get a better view of the waterfall. Lovely view.
Thoughts
It’s really an underrated state park. There’s so much adventure to be experienced there, but on the other hand, the trails are somewhat poorly marked. I witnessed numerous people trying to figure out where to go as they kept pulling up a map. The trails are ‘marked’ by colored blazes on the ledges like blue or yellow. My trail was the one I made by my wandering lol; however, the times I was frustrated I stopped, took in a deep breath, and remembered to embrace the spontaneity/unknown.
I loved climbing and feeling like an adventurer. This was probably the best one, in terms of things to do, I’ve been to so far!