Ledges Trail (5/20/2017)

Saturday, May 20, 2017
The Ledges Trail, located in the Virginia Kendall Unit of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, took us around the Ritchie Ledges, which appears to be a large outcropping of rock that ascended straight out of the ground, and requires a 2-mile hike to walk around it. The ledges have been overgrown with trees and vegetation.

On the plateau of the ledges is the Ledges Shelter (c. 1930s),
built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) using stone from
Deep Lock Quarry and wood from blight-infested American chestnut trees

The Ledges Trail on top of the ledges

A stand of hemlocks

Gus, Kent, and Brynne have reached the edge of the ledges

Looking down into a crevice

A right-angle crevice

We made our way down to the bottom of the ledges
and started around them

A jumble of fallen rocks

Ice Box Cave has been closed to the public because of
White Nose Syndrome, a fungal infection fatal to the resident bats

Looking back through that right-angle crevice

Trees growing on rocks

Layered rock

Sharon conglomerate with quartz pebbles

Wooden bridge

Honeycombed rock

Balancing rock

Gus and Kent

Steps made by the CCC

A foundation?

Symplocarpus foetidus/Skunk Cabbage 

A curve in Haskell Run

Mater Dolorosa Cemetery (1869) of
the former Mother of Sorrows Church

CCC Worker statue, a replica of one found
throughout the USA at CCC work sites

Happy Days Lodge was a former CCC camp, named after President
F D Roosevelt's 1932 campaign song, “Happy Days Are Here Again”

The creek bed has cracked into
pretty even squares (sorry, hard to see)

The sandstone cliffs average 30-40 feet in height

A particularly large overhang

Fallen rocks stuck in a crevice

Another overhang

Another CCC-built shelter, the Octagon Shelter

Tree roots

Liriodendron tulipifera/Tulip Tree blossoms
were scattered on the ground

A patch of sand (eroded from the cliff?)

Forest on the rocks

The Overlook

Hmm, a tour bus in the parking lot?