Cuyahoga Valley National Park

From Kentucky, I drove north and east, all the way to Cleveland. Unfortunately, I arrived to late to go to an Indians game at JacobsProgressive Field.

Other than being a stopping point on the long road home, the Cleveland area is home to
Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This might be a place to insert a joke about the Cuyahoga River catching fire and what a polluted mess it might be. However, it is somewhat cleaner now, and the stretch of river and canal preserved in this park are of historical interest. I spent a few hours exploring a portion of the canal, which has walking/jogging/biking paths along the old tow path.

From there, the road turned further east, as I drove on into New York.

Mammoth Cave National Park

I left Saint Louis and headed east. I ended up in Leitchfield, Kentucky (not to be confused with Litchfield, New Hampshire, where I once lived), which was only convenient because it was near Mammoth Cave National Park.

I spent a day going on two tours through parts of Mammoth Cave. This cave system is unlike the caves I saw out west (Carlsbad and Kartchner), in that it is largely a dry cave. Most of hill above the cave is capped by an essentially waterproof layer, so water does not shape the cave much, except near its entrances. I found it to be relatively un-photoworthy, complicated by the fact that I had dropped my camera near theDruid Arch in Utah, and was not zooming very well.

I spent the night in Cave City before continuing the long road north and east.