Camping at Cuyahoga Valley National Park

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Updated: March 27, 2020

Our Family Camping Backstory

Prof’s father is an avid fisherman. Naturally, Prof grew up camping as part of his family culture, something not in my cultural DNA. I grew up in the country, so my family didn’t see camping as a place of refuge and retreat. Perhaps that’s why my dad calls me a “city girl,” someone who enjoys basking in the comforts of A/C, walking on paved concrete sidewalks, and enjoying the beauty of ancient and modern architecture from the comforts of my hotel room. But as a mother of two boys, I see how much our boys enjoy the outdoors – jumping in big pools of water after a rainstorm and biking around town, which meant I would have to embrace all of God’s creation including those pesky bugs. Piano Man recently took an interest in fishing, so that was a new to-do on his checklist of must-do childhood activities too.

However, I am not completely out of touch with nature. I have gone “camping” a few times before, but I am not sure those times counted. Years ago, my college church group would go on an overnight camping trip somewhere in Austin. They’d squeeze a bunch of people in rental tents from UT’s recreational department, build a small campfire, and eat all sorts of excellent Korean BBQ grilled meats with rice. (That’s how Korean-Americans like to camp.) But most of my memories were of sleeping in the rain, catching a cold, getting eaten by bugs, or having to walk to the nearest rest area to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

This year, we along with Prof’s sister and brother-in-law decided to take a family camping trip together. Prof’s sister and brother-in-law (Aunty I and Uncle C) are avid campers as well. All three have grown up camping at one of America’s top national treasures, Yosemite National Park. I felt like the boys and I were in good hands when we decided to take our trip to Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

History of Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, which means “crooked river” in the Iroquoian language, is an impressive 100-mile stretch of river. Mini-glaciers built this impressive winding river at Cuyahoga, which attracted Native Americans. They used the river for fishing and transporting materials, but when European settlers began an exploration of the North American landscape in the 1600s and 1700s, they too found Cuyahoga River to be valuable as an asset, which unfortunately displaced Native American Indians off their territory. Moses Cleaveland, who served as a land agent for a Connecticut company, conducted the first urban planning project now known as Cleveland. Unfortunately, most people found the land and environment difficult to inhabit, so Cleaveland went back to Connecticut never to return to the town he helped establish. Although Moses Cleaveland could not imagine how the city and its surrounding areas would grow, today the U.S. National Park Service manages Cuyahoga Valley to ensure that Ohio’s natural environment is around for future generations.

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As an aside, Piano Man has fallen in love with Calvin and Hobbes, thanks to his loving aunt and uncle. Piano Man noticed several comic strip series about Bill Watterson’s childhood camping experiences. In Watterson’s The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book (contains Amazon affiliate link), he mentioned that he used to go camping with his family. While Watterson doesn’t mention Cuyahoga Valley, I assume that since he grew up in Chagrin Falls, he could have gone camping around there.

Watterson captured a non-camping mother’s personal perspective on camping very well. Although I must say that Prof and I evenly split the packing duties because I had no idea what you need to pack for a camping trip.

Cuyahoga Valley National Park Amenities

Cuyahoga Valley National Park offers an impressive list of summer activities for all ages:

• fishing
• hiking
• sightseeing with ranger-led tours
• picnicking
• golfing
• visit small farms

Based on what we read, we were looking forward to some of these activities.

Campsite

Like I’ve said before, I am a novice camper. I was excited to go on this family excursion in the great outdoors, away from cell phone towers and backlit minicomputers called iPads and laptops. I expected my camping experience to have shade and plenty of trees surrounding the campsite.

However, we walked down a narrow tall grassy path to this:

Notice there are no trees or surrounding vegetation to provide cover from the blazing hot sun. Someone must have mowed a 20 ft radius, labeled it campsite number 4, and called it a day. They added some hooks on a large wooden pole to hang your food or trash so that wild animals don’t scavenge for food while campers are away. When we purchased our first family tent, and it was a roomy space that allowed our boys to play without getting bitten from bugs. There was only one problem. During the day, it felt like it was 100 degrees inside.

No shade at campsite = No relaxing in tents during the day.

Once nightfall hit, we enjoyed the cooler temperatures. After a night of sleep, we woke up to this:

The morning dew and fog were a glorious view. Too bad there was so much moisture that I couldn’t take a decent shot of the rising fog.

Grilling in the Great Outdoors

So far Cuyahoga Valley confirmed all of my fears about camping. No lake or body of water nearby to let the kids play. No free green space other than our 20 ft radius to run and explore. No nearby fire pit at our campsite to roast marshmallows or broil marinate Korean BBQ meats over a fire. We had to walk 50 feet in another direction to go to the fire put. Once we got there, it took so long for the men to get the fire going, the boys didn’t think we would ever roast marshmallows. The wood was saturated with water from dew and overnight condensation that it took almost an hour to get a fire going.

But when the fire got going, it was time for some fun. They liked melting marshmallows, but I don’t think our boys understood the concept of fire. Fire makes things hot; thus marshmallows become scalding hot when cooked over a fire. They ate a few smores and called it a day.

Thank goodness that we brought two camp grills. We were able to cook Korean-styled marinated meats with rice and eat plenty of panchan (Korean side dishes). Dining in the great outdoors was a lot of fun, and I don’t think I have seen the kids eat better too.

The next morning, I woke up with bed head, the sun glaring in my eyes, and some pesky birds chirping in the air. If Disney made a movie of Sleeping Beauty camping at Cuyahoga Valley, I think they’d make her out to be a perfectly coiffed Aurora. As I awoke in a disheveled state, I downed some of my favorite instant Korean coffee, Maxim Coffee (contains an affiliate link), and felt much better.

All-American breakfast foods, scrambled eggs and bacon, tastes much better in the morning sitting outdoors too. After breakfast, we hit the road to find some fish.

Fishing

I don’t know what got Piano Man so interested in fishing, but this was his opportunity to try something new. It must be in his father’s genes.

Prof and Uncle C led the boys to the lake as if they were on an excursion to turn these boys into men.

We spent part of the afternoon one day and another part of the next day fishing. When Linus looked up at Prof, that had to be one of my favorite moments of our fishing expedition.

Prof caught a bass, while Piano Man waited patiently for his moment of glory. Linus watched with intrigue how his big brother’s pole could catch an actual fish. Then I had another favorite moment when the boys spent quality time together. Precious.

Although I wonder if Linus would have had more fun playing the part of Hobbes in Bill Watterson’s version of Calvin fishing by the lake.

Waiting wasn’t Linus’ strong suit. He was better at making up Michael Jackson’s dance moves. (photo not shown)

Then the glorious moment arrived.

Ta-da! Piano Man caught his first fish, a Blue Gill!

Linus watched in amazement as everyone celebrated Piano Man’s triumphant moment. A local Ohioan saw Linus’ sad, deflated face, and he asked Linus to help catch another bass. Now that’s pure Ohioan hospitality and kindness.

I can’t say the campsite was anything spectacular, but the fishing trip was a moment to celebrate with Aunty I, Uncle C, and our boys.

Cutting our First Camping Trip Short

We were supposed to spend two nights at Cuyahoga Valley, but we called it a day on day one. It could have been the impending thunderstorm forecast, but I think the lack of free space, nearby body of water, shade cover, or kid-friendly activities did us in. Based on his comic strips, Watterson must have encountered rainstorms during his family camping trips. We took Watterson’s advice and looked for a hotel at a free-wifi spot at a nearby Starbucks. Thank you, free-wifi for giving us the out to return to civilization when we needed it.