Macedonia, OH: June 17-19, 2020 - Cuyahoga Valley National Park

My quest to see the National Parks continues!  As does my quest to find trips that are possible under covid.

I did not know of this park at all before the trip; I had simply opened a map of National Parks and seen that this one was, possibly, within a moderate driving distance, and decided to give it a go.  Actually, that's not the full story.  The thing that sealed the deal was something a bit narcissistic that I'll get to later.

I arrived Wednesday evening and saw that the following day had a threat of rain, so I decided to get the main attraction out of the way: Brandywine Falls.

This waterfall was nestled at the end of a twisty, turny wooden skywalk:

within a picturesque forest.

Next, I took the trail around the waterfall, which made for a pleasant evening hike:

where I also met A Cat:

before returning to the top of the waterfall and driving back to the hotel:

The next morning, I arose bright and early to get a start on that aforementioned narcissistic reason for visiting this park:

The Wetmore Trail!!!!!!!!

This is something I found completely by chance, scrolling through the NPS website about this and other parks.  This trail name came up, and I knew I had to go.

Sadly the trail did not have any big overlooks or points of interest, it was just a nice trail.  The morning light dappled across the wooded landscape, amongst a hush unbroken by animals or other people:

Also there was a lot of horseshit everywhere:

And it was kinda muddy.  So no, my namesake trail did not live up to my wildest expectations.  Ah well.

Next, I went over to the Ledges trail, which was a little more interesting scenery-wise.

It also had an overlook:

and a lodge.  A ledge lodge!

Those were my big trails for the morning.  I returned to town and had lunch, then set out for a more car-centric afternoon.  First I visited the town of Cuyahoga Falls, which was south of both the town of Macedonia and the National Park.  In this town, there was this Episcopal Church:

Which was founded in 1830 by none other than William Wetmore, A.K.A. Cousin William, who is also the namesake of the Wetmore Trail.  

I have no idea how this guy fits into my own family history, if at all, but it felt like family history, and that's what matters.

From the town, I then took the central road north through the park, stopping at a few points of interest along the way.  Points such as Howe Meadow:

Indigo Lake:

This swampy marshland:

Everett Covered Bridge:

This other waterfall with winding wooden walkway:

And yet ANOTHER waterfall, which I was able to get up close and personal to:

And then lastly, the northernmost point in the park, a railway station called Rockside:

This station, like the one above at Indigo Lake, is part of a train ride that is normally available through the valley, which is the best way to sightsee in the park.  Sadly it, like so much, is shut down due to the coronavirus.  

Dinner followed, then some downtime at the hotel.  Then, my final excursion into the park, I went back to Brandywine Falls to get a shot above the falls at sunset:

Knoxville, TN: June 11-13, 2020 - Fun in the Sun(sphere)

Clay and I parted ways after Asheville, and I made my way up to a brief stay in Tennessee.  Knoxville was chosen, mainly, because it was already on the route back and was a major city I'd passed by on the way from Louisville to visiting parents many many times, but never actually been to.

I decided to take the long way there, though, in order to put the drive through a National Park: The Great Smoky Mountains.  I'm sure I've visited GSM before, since it's half in my home state of NC, but I'd certainly never been there on my own, and had no specific memories of it, so in my quest to visit every National Park, it seemed prudent to do it for sure on this trip.

By the way, I've now added labels to all my posts so you can sort out just the ones that pertain to, say, trips to National Parks.  I'll make a real blog outta this yet.

The main road through that led, eventually, to Knoxville connected two visitor centers - open to limited capacity at the moment - neither of which were in an area that even remotely could connect to data, so I was flying a bit blind on my drive.  Luckily, the best spots for views - decidedly NOT the visitor centers - were well marked and easy to find.  Here were a few views from those overlooks and one major parking lot and connection area for trails, including the Appalachian Trail!

I got into Knoxville mid-afternoon, checked into the hotel, and then took a stroll around town to get the lay of the land.  Mainly, I saw these bridges:

I also saw Gay St., which seemed to be the hip area of town:

For dinner I made my way up to Market Square, a nice area of shops and restaurants:

Don't worry: I played it safe and got my order to-go.  The following night, that same area would be teeming with people like it was a national holiday.  Still too soon to do that, I think.  But then, many would say it's too soon to be travelling at all.  I guess we're all rolling those dice.

The next morning, I went up to the Old City, just a few blocks further than my walkabout the evening before.  I don't know if I was expecting an "old city" like, old Cathedrals and European-style buildings, but it really just looked like generic small town America buildings, only in the process of being gentrified to host coffee and beer places:

That plus a bit more sightseeing at the waterfront was about it for the morning's adventures.  Next, I went to Louisville.........TENNESSEE!!!!  GOTcha.

Yes, in rummaging about the map of Knoxville I'd spotted a town of Louisville just 20 minutes or so south, so I had to drop by and see what it was like.  There is not very much there, I gotta say.  Not even a real town center to check out.  But they had a relaxing park to see, so I made that my destination:

On my way back in to Knoxville, I stopped at Fort Dickerson Park, which had some Civil War stuff:

And a big ol' quarry!

This would not be the only quarry I'd see that day.  I'd set out to Louisville with no swim gear, so this one was view only.

But, to remedy that oversight, I returned to the hotel, got into my swim attire, and then made my way to the second quarry at Ijams Nature Park.  

And here, I DID indulge in an hour kayak rental to paddle around the water and enjoy my fun in the sun, which of course was the only category of fun available to me during my whole trip.

I returned to the hotel and to normal clothes, got dinner, then set out for my expertly planned grand finale: seeing the sunset from the Sunsphere, a spherical observation tower left over from the 1982 world's fair and just to the west of downtown.

Sadly my expert planning was thwarted when it turned out that the observation deck was closed due to the 'rona.  Womp womp.

But I did get a nice sunset walk around the world's fair park:

That was essentially it, aside from an absolutely incredible biscuit I had the next morning for breakfast.  With a checkout time of noon and nowhere in particular to be, I took my time getting out of town to complete at last the drive home I'd begun two days prior.