Red Lock Trailhead: Cleveland Hiking Area Guide

Nice trail for walking or bikes. Rough in some areas. Great views and history signs.

Not impressed. The huge green trees are beautiful, but i won't be back. The mosquitoes are the worst!!!! Even with bug spray, and wearing long pants and long sleeves, the mosquitoes were awful. Tons of people riding bikes! I saw a sign on the trail telling bikers to communicate when they are approaching and passing walkers, but most of the bikers did not alert us when they were approaching.... and because my friend and I had our dogs, we were on high alert - which was stressful. Apparently the river is supposed to be beautiful but it was mostly dried up. A gigantic snapping turtle was on the trail, but luckily my friend and I were able to keep our dogs away from it.

This is a fantastic trail with many historical plaques recounting details of the canal and the people lived in those times. For technical hikers, some of the side trails and challenging and very beautiful.

The main trail is often pretty busy and full of Hikers/Mountain Bikers. It’s fully paved. There are a few side trails to disappear in if you are like me and don’t want to be around 20 Karens gossiping about Becky’s new haircut or some shit. lol. All in all it’s still part of the National Park and very beautiful scenery.

This is a good place to end your kayak trip on the Cuyahoga River. I started at lock 29 and ended at Red Lock. I dropped my bike off here, drove my kayak to lock 29, kayaked back to Red Lock, rode my bike back to Lock 29, then drove back to Red Lock to get my kayak. The kayak trip took about 1.5 hours (the river was moving pretty quickly - 410 cfs at Jaite according to USGS), and then about 25 minutes on my bicycle. There were maybe 10 areas of small rapids along the way, including 2 bigger ones just north of the lock 29 put-in area. I was in a sit-in 8ft kayak and got pretty wet from waves. I wish there was something to lock a bicycle to here other than a park bench. The kayak put in/take out point is also a short walk from the parking lot, across the street and down some fairly steep rocks.