Field Notes Ohio

Ohio's parks, forests and wildlife areas with camping, the ancient mounds beside them, and the Buckeye Trail that links them. Stories, trails, wildlife, and where to eat and fuel up nearby. Book campsites on ReserveOhio.

Try:

Explore Ohio

One map for every park, mound, historic site, beach, cave, waterfall and oddity in the app.

Tap a symbol for a preview, or search for a place. Open the key to show or hide categories.

117 parks in 7 regions

Brandywine Falls

Sagamore Hills · Summit County

Plunge falls over a Berea sandstone caprock into a wooded gorge

60 to 65 ftheight

Easywalk

Yesaccessible overlook

Visiting information you can trust

Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source: Official page
Location confidence: Verified property location
Published coordinates for the falls or its trailhead
Check current conditions: Official conditions or closures

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The tallest waterfall in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, reached by an easy boardwalk with a wheelchair accessible upper overlook.

Height: About 60 to 65 feet
Trail: Short boardwalk to upper deck, plus about 80 steps to lower deck
Managed by: National Park Service, Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Best time: Year round; especially dramatic after rain and in winter ice
Fee: Free, no park entrance fee
Accessibility: Upper boardwalk overlook is wheelchair accessible

When it flows

Flows year round because it is spring and groundwater fed, though volume drops in late summer dry spells. It is one of the most popular winter destinations in the park because the spray builds up into large ice formations.

The story

Brandywine Falls formed where Brandywine Creek pours over a resistant cap of Berea sandstone into softer Bedford and Cleveland shale below. Differential erosion of the soft shale beneath the hard sandstone undercuts the ledge, the classic process behind most of the plunge waterfalls in this part of the Cuyahoga Valley, and glacial meltwater helped carve the surrounding gorge roughly 10,000 years ago.

George Wallace built a sawmill at the falls in 1814 to capture its water power, and the small settlement of Brandywine grew up around it with grist and woolen mills and worker housing. The Ohio and Erie Canal bypassed the village in the 1830s and railroads later drew business away, so the settlement declined; a lightning strike destroyed a later factory, the Champion Electric Company, in 1937. Only scattered foundations remain today, and the 1848 James Wallace House now operates as an inn just outside the park boundary. The site became part of Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area (redesignated a national park in 2000) as the Park Service assembled the valley's parkland in the 1970s.

Stay behind railings and on marked trails. Wet rock at the top and base of a falls is slick in every season, and most Ohio falls do not allow swimming, wading or climbing. Flow depends on rain: many falls are a trickle in late summer and at their best after a wet spell, in spring, or frozen in a hard winter.

Getting to the falls

A short paved and boardwalk path from the parking lot leads to an upper viewing platform that is wheelchair accessible, and about 80 additional wooden steps lead down a steeper, unpaved gorge trail to a lower deck closer to the falls.

Status

Open

Hours

Trail open dawn to dusk; the park itself has no gate hours

Cost

Free

Phone

440-717-3890

Managed by

National Park Service (Cuyahoga Valley National Park)

Please note

Stay on the boardwalk and behind railings, no swimming or wading, no climbing on the rocks, dogs permitted on leash