Trail Ratings

1=Easy

2=Moderate

3=Strenuous

In 1833, 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 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 hairgrass, satin brome and southern hairy rock cress.

The Oxbow Area offers a baseball field, three lighted softball fields and two soccer fields – all of which are used by the City of Akron’s Recreation Bureau. When not reserved for league use, the fields are available to park visitors. Cross-country skiing is possible on lower portions of both the Oxbow and Chuckery trails, and the Oxbow Area features a large sledding hill that is illuminated for nighttime thrill seekers. Scenic views of the Cuyahoga and Little Cuyahoga rivers await picnickers at the reservable shelter atop the Oxbow Area hill.