"" Writer's Wanderings: September 2021

Wednesday, September 01, 2021

The Covered Bridge In Cuyahoga Valley National Park


During the visit with our Florida son and his family we spent a day visiting several places in the CVNP. We started at Szalay's Farm Market which is always a wonderful place to visit for the produce as well as the weekend food stands. Roasted corn and sausage sandwiches. Yum!

It was a bit of a trip down memory lane for our son. He pointed out to his wife and kids all the places he visited as he worked a couple of summers for the EPA testing the Cuyahoga River and some of its fish population. Much to our surprise, he wanted to visit the covered bridge.

"What covered bridge?": I asked.


"The one in this direction," he said as he turned down a road I was unfamiliar with. I thought we'd explored most of the park in that area but apparently we hadn't.

Sure enough there was a sign that said Everett Covered Bridge. We parked and walked down a short path that thankfully was shaded as it was another hot humid summer day. There it was. A beautiful covered bridge. It was originally built in the late 1800s. In 1975 the bridge was destroyed by a spring storm. With funds raised by the community, the bridge underwent historically accurate reconstruction and was finished in 1986. It's a beautiful look at another era in time.


Of course we had to stop at Peninsula where Grandma could tell them all about how this little stop on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railway becomes the North Pole at holiday season. They were more impressed with the train that happened to pull into the station and stop. A friendly wave from the engineer made our youngest's day. 

Along the path to the parking lot, we stopped to look at one of the locks that are on the canal that runs through the park. There are many locks along the canal and one that used to be a working lock at the Visitor's Center at Hillside Rd. before COVID shut things down. Hopefully that reenactment will happen again when the world gets closer to normal. 


If you live anywhere near the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and haven't explored, you are missing out. And it's all free to drive through! The visitor centers are free as well. This is one of the only, if not the only national park that is. 

We finished the day with a barbecue and s'mores just before a summer thunderstorm welcomed the cold front that promised a better weather day to come. 
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