national park in Ohio, United States
Cuyahoga Valley National Park is a national park of the United States in Ohio that reclaims and preserves the industrial, commercial, and rural landscape along the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cleveland in Northeast Ohio. The 32,783-acre (51.2 sq mi; 132.7 km2) park is administered by the National Park Service, but within its boundaries are areas independently managed as county parks or as public or private businesses. Cuyahoga Valley was originally designated as a national recreation area (NRA) in 1974, then redesignated as a national park 26 years later in 2000, and remains the only national park that originated as a national recreation area. Cuyahoga Valley is the only national park in the state of Ohio and one of three in the Great Lakes Basin, with Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior and Indiana Dunes National Park bordering Lake Michigan. Cuyahoga Valley also differs from the other national parks in the US in that it is adjacent to two large urban areas and it includes a dense road network, a railroad, high tension lines, small towns, commercial businesses, four reservations of the Cleveland Metroparks, four parks and one multipurpose trail of Summit Metro Parks, and public and private attractions. It was the twelfth-most visited American national park in 2023, attracting nearly 2.9 million visitors, primarily due to its proximity to Cleveland and Akron.
