It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these! One of the things I love about Northeast Ohio are the various ledges and rock formations around here. The Nelson-Kennedy Ledges (link to trail map) in Garrettsville has a lot to offer, making it well worth the drive! The trails themselves aren’t very long, but they do provide a heck of a workout. Good shoes are a must (although I saw a surprising number of kids hiking in flip-flops, which nearly caused my ankles to break just watching them).
The parking lot is across the street from the ledges – there are some picnic tables there as well if you’d like to make a day of it. Just be aware that there are no trash cans along the trail so if you bring any wrappers, bottles, etc., please back out your trash. Across the street and up the stairs you’ll see trees with different color blazes. The tree to the left is blue, the other has red, yellow, and white. You can follow whichever ones you want, but today, I started with yellow, then came back and took red, and then ended with blue taking me back to the entrance. I didn’t get around to the white blazes today, but I’ve done it previously and it’s also worth exploring.
But yellow is fun to start with because it’ll lead you to Cascade Falls, a 40 foot waterfall. There are numerous ways to get there, but if you’d like to enjoy the full range of adventure, the yellow blazes will lead you to “Dwarf’s Pass.” If you want to stay on the boardwalk, you’ll have to contort a bit, but it’s not like there’s a huge drop if you need to step off (I made it across the first time without much of a problem, though the tripod and camera bag added some extra obstacles, but on my way back I did end up just stepping off a bit). The boardwalk curves around – be careful, because one of the boards was loose today.
You can either walk out onto more open/flat terrain and follow the outskirts of the ledges or you can keep going through. Either way, the trail will lead you to what’s known as “Old Maid’s Kitchen.” From there, you’ll scrabble over some more boulders towards the falls.
The Cascade Falls is gorgeous and you can see it from several vantage points. I ran into a ranger while hiking who said that in winter, this waterfall will freeze completely, so I may have to try another trip then. But for now, I’m happy to enjoy it in the summer.
What’s even more fun is that the water goes over a cave, known as Gold Hunters Cave, which you can walk into and get an entirely different perspective of the falls. I spent a lot of time at this part, in part because I also ended up being the unofficial photographer for couples and families who wanted portraits there (just using their phones, although I’m beginning to think I should look into setting up a studio!). It was a lot of fun.
As a bonus, I decided to take advantage of having my tripod and very slow shutter speeds to get an image of the back of the cave. I didn’t have enough light to really focus, but it turned out well! I pressed the shutter button, used the flashlight on my phone to “paint” the area briefly, then turned that off and waited to see what would happen. Took a few tries, but I’m happy with what I got – though I’m sure at least some of the people who were walking back and forth behind me were wondering what in the world I was doing taking a picture of darkness when the waterfall was behind me.
You can keep moving through the cave and climb out on the other side and go up to the top of the ledge and make it to the top of the waterfall. I didn’t end up going that far, but I did take a minute to sit on the rocks and enjoy the view. It was a hot and humid day and you really feel the difference climbing in and out of the caves!
After that, I backtracked and then picked up the red trail (fyi – the white trail will lead you to another waterfall). The red trail is definitely the most challenging, in my opinion, but also very cool (literally and figuratively). You’ll be going through some deep ravines/trenches and you should be prepared for places where you may have to literally climb a bit. There’s a “Fat Man’s Peril,” which I’ve done before but I think I missed it this time – one of the other things you’ll notice is that you can easily get a bit off track and end up walking around the top, which is nice if you’re not feeling up for testing what their definition of “fat” is.
Eventually, you’ll start heading down again and into a narrow trench – I didn’t get my camera out for this part because I didn’t want to take any chances of slipping while it was in my hands and then some people were coming up behind me and I didn’t want to stop and block the path, so here’s a shot from afar and then one from my phone.
When you get through, turn immediately to your right and you’ll be at the entrance to The Devil’s Icebox. I think there used to be a sign for it, but there’s not anymore. Be prepared for water – there’s a stream running through here, but it’s not very deep and there are usually rocks you can hop across on. Once again, it is refreshingly cool on a summer’s day.
After you’ve cooled down, you can cross the stream again and keep climbing around, or you can follow the water to a little bridge that connects you back up to the blue trail. I was originally going to keep going, but by that point, I knew I was just about done for the day (I had done another hike before going here, was running low on water, and as I’ve said before, it’s important to listen to you body and respect your limits). So I followed the blue trail back to the parking lot. The nice part about that is the blue trail just takes you along side the ledges, so you’re not picking your way through boulders and narrow passes. It’s just a pretty walk in the woods with cool rock formations to your left (and the road on your right, but I tried to ignore that).
So I highly encourage you to take some time and explore it all for yourself!
