Valley Trail

At A Glance

A 25-mile horse-friendly trail that welcomes runners and hikers and provides a good challenge. Boston, Buckeye, Everett NPS Map

Distance & Difficulty

Brecksville to Boston Store: 6.9 miles, moderate

Boston Store to Wetmore Trailhead: 9.25 miles, moderate

Wetmore Trailhead to Everett Covered Bridge: 2.75 miles, easy

In total, Valley Trail spans close to 19 miles, but you have the option of attacking it in three segments:

Everett Covered Bridge Trail to Wetmore Trailhead (2.75 miles), Wetmore Trailhead to Boston Trailhead (9.25 miles), or Boston Trailhead to Brecksville Reservation (6.9 miles). They’re rated Easy – Moderate, but remember, they’re rated for horses, not humans.

Begin your hike the corner diagonally opposite from the kiosk in Everett Covered Bridge’s parking lot. From there you will cover a lot of ground through field and forest and face different terrain along the way, sometimes flat and moderate and at other times steep and sandy with fist-sized rocks that roll beneath your feet.

Directions

Park at the Everett Covered Bridge Lot. CVNP is open year-round, 24 hours a day, and does not charge a fee. Visitors may bring dogs as long as they are on a six-foot leash.

Take I-77S to Exit 143 for OH-176 toward I-271 N/Richefield. Turn left onto Wheatley Road. Take a slight right to stay on Wheatley Road. The Everett Covered Bridge Trailhead will be on your right.

Brecksville to Boston Store: 6.9 miles, moderate

Boston Store to Wetmore Trailhead: 9.25 miles, moderate

Wetmore Trailhead to Everett Covered Bridge: 2.75 miles, easy

What Makes it Great

Valley Trail is one of the most scenic trails in CVNP, just because it covers so much ground. The scenery along the hike is beautiful, passing over the Cuyahoga River and through the woods past a few privately-owned farms, and finally to a hill that overlooks the valley. The second section, Wetmore Trailhead to Boston Trailhead, will delight nature lovers with oaks, hickories, and maple trees as well as violets, daffodils, and other flowers. If you’re still going, the remainder of the trail alternates between field and forest for your viewing pleasure.

This trail can be made as long or as short as you want and it’s speckled with interesting views and attractions along the way. You’ll pass a tree nursery that operated during the Great Depression and provided 3.5 million seedlings that repopulated the valley, the Hunt Farm Information Center, and Szalay’s Farm market at .9 miles where you can stop and take a break, but not a long one. You have a lot of ground to cover, and this is not a loop.

Who Is Going to Love It

Valley Trail enables equestrians to see a wide swath of land without tiring. They can even start at one end and have someone pick them up at another trailhead with a horse trailer.

Though it is not as precarious as the Perkins Trail, the Valley Trail presents a few challenges that serious hikers will enjoy.