This Cleveland Natural Study Area Makes For The Perfect Casual Day Trip

I love hiking, but I hate crowds. As a result, the busier, more touristy parks around Greater Cleveland fall lower on my bucket list. Instead, I seek out the lesser-known parks in the area and grab a nature buddy to hike with so we can enjoy the solace of nature without a ton of noise. One of my favorite secret escapes near Cleveland is Terra Vista Natural Study Area in Valley View, Ohio. This is the perfect place to rock your Parks Project apparel as you reconvene with nature and hunt for butterflies. That’s right… this natural space is lovingly preserved for butterflies, and it’s frequently full of color as a result. Lace up your hiking boots and prepare to spend the day exploring, because this landscape has loads of history and beauty to offer.

Peter Kilburn/Google Reviews

This lovely stretch of land is part of Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and it's one of one thousand U.S. research sites dedicated to tracking butterfly populations.

Cuyahoga jco/Flickr

With a small army of National Park Service volunteers and staff combing the landscape for invasive plants, this landscape has been beautifully preserved. As a result, it's home to more than 20 types of butterflies.

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Peter Kilburn/Google Reviews

According to the National Parks, Ohio experienced a 33% decrease in its butterflies from 1996 to 2016, due in part to invasive plants moving in. Plants like the autumn olive compete with native plants, and in addition to being aggressive and taking up a lot of space, they only provide food to butterflies when blooming in the spring. By removing these plants and making way for native plant populations, the local national park has taken a massive step toward restoring Ohio's native butterflies by ensuring they have food all year-round.

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Marty Vondrasek/Google Reviews

Summer is the best time to see the butterflies at Terra Vista, but in the off-season, I recommend a trip to the historic cemetery in the park. This lovely spot is Tinker’s Creek Cemetery, and it dates back to 1811.

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Peter Kilburn/Google Reviews

While some allege that the cemetery is haunted, I find it to be a peaceful resting place where 66 early locals are buried. I love seeing how the various types of stones have weathered over the years, and it's fascinating to see which names were popular when this area was first starting out.

Dan Kelley/Google Reviews

As the year winds down, plan to swing through this area in September. That's when the annual monarch migration takes place, and as you might expect, a natural sanctuary that caters to butterflies is the perfect place to spot these orange beauties.

Mark Basniak/Google Reviews

Butterflies can be notoriously hard to get close to... after all, they can fly away and out of sight in the blink of an eye. If you're an avid hiker, investing in a good pair of binoculars is a great way to enjoy the natural world without disturbing its residents.

H Sylvester/Google Reviews

You'll find it at 11400 Tinkers Creek Rd, Valley View, OH, 44125.

If you’ve never been to Terra Vista Natural Study Area, you’re in for a treat. This lovely landscape is a natural wonder, and its abundance of butterflies makes for an incredible experience in the warmer months.

Need more convincing? Check out our article on reasons to drop everything and visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park… There’s so much to discover in Ohio’s one and only national park, and visiting multiple points in a single day makes the experience all the more memorable.