Cascade Valley Metro Park–Schumacher Trail
1690 Cuyahoga Street
Akron, Ohio 44313
Cascade Valley Metro Park webpage
Cascade Valley Metro Park maps
Also, see Cascade Valley Metro Park
Cuyahoga Valley National Park-Lower Cuyahoga River Important Bird Area
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Cascade Valley Metro Park–Schumacher Trail
Coordinates: 41.1361726, -81.5283442
eBird links: Hotspot map – View details – Recent visits
My eBird links: Location life list – Submit data
About Schumacher Trail
The hilly 1.2-mile Schumacher Trail provides a closer look at some of Summit County’s most pristine scenery.
Tips for birding Cascade Valley Metro Park
Access to the park is through four separate areas:
+ Chuckery from Cuyahoga Street at Peck Road
+ Overlook from Sackett Avenue
+ Oxbow from Cuyahoga Street
+ Schumacher Valley Area from Cuyahoga Street at Northhampton Road
Each area has several trails that provide for quality birding, from flat to challenging.
From Elizabeth Szabat and Susan Carpenter
Birds of Interest
This park is a reliable location for Wood Thrush, Baltimore Oriole, Rose-Breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Towhee, and many migrating warbler species. Since 2015, there is a Bank Swallow nesting colony at the end of the flat Overlook Trail on a bank overhanging the river about .25 miles from the parking lot.
About Cascade Valley Metro Park
In 1833, the hydraulic engineer and entrepreneur Eliakim Crosby built the Cascade Race, a waterway that powered the mills and businesses along the Ohio & Erie Canal. The Cascade Race helped transform Akron into a boomtown. Years later, Crosby built the failed Chuckery Race; traces of it can still be seen in this Metro Park.
Today, fish here are prey for belted kingfishers and great blue or green-backed herons. Beautiful white trillium grows in the floodplain woods each spring beside wild ginger and several types of violets. Summer and fall wildflowers also flourish, illuminating the landscape.
Several rare and unique natural features can be found within the Chuckery Area. South of the entrance drive, near the intersection of the Chuckery Trail, is a meadow that harbors many unusual plants and several species of showy wildflowers. Just up the hill from the meadow is a prairie, where wild lupines bloom about mid-May. Other rare species can be found individually throughout the park, including butternut trees – a species surviving despite the butternut canker disease threatening their range. Less conspicuous, but no less rare, are crinkled hair grass, satin brome, and southern hairy rock cress.
From Cascade Valley Metro Park webpage
Restrooms on-site, nonflush toilets.
