Following our lunch at the Winking Lizard, we seemed to still be getting lucky with the rainy day weather, so we opted to head on over to Brecksville Reservation, another Metropark area that sits adjacent to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. We entered this park from the west entrance along the main road through the National Park.
The first thing we encountered was a fun walking path that had a “fitness trail” along it. We parked by a bridge and did the western part first (which was a little out of order numerically, and then finished with others on the east side of the bridge.
On the way back to our vehicle it was a little bit rainy and we opted to take the Cedar Trail back through the woods for a nice scenic walk along the creek and over a small suspension bridge.
From there we drove towards the middle of the park and made a stop in the Brecksville Nature Center where we got to learn about wildlife local to the area. Outside this Nature Center they also have some very nice park bathrooms, probably the nicest park bathrooms I’ve ever used.
From there we drove towards the north entrance of the park to check out the Chippewa Creek Gorge Scenic Overlook. This was a nice area, but even hiking down the path a little ways didn’t provide as nice of view as I was expecting.
Our final stop in the park was a bit further in towards the southwest portion of the park. We decided to explore the Deer Lick Cave Path. We weren’t quite sure what to expect and didn’t even start at the main trailhead, but where we entered the woods we continued clockwise. This first brought us to a “cave like” area that had a small waterfall and lots of fun creek area for us to play around in and explore. We thought this was the cave and were greatly enjoying it. Please note…..this was not the actual cave! If you reach this point, continue over that bridge shown below and keep going!
Luckily we did keep going over the bridge instead of turning back. This brought us to the real Deer Lick Cave and boy was it impressive! Pictures don’t do it justice, but due to the rainy weather that day, it even had a nice eerie fog/mist inside the cave that made it extra fun to explore!
If you have extra time while in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park area, be sure to give Brecksville Reservation ample time on your schedule! It has a great variety of trails and is fun for all ages!
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