Day 3: From Stone Ledges to Sand Dunes

Day 3 was our first real national park day of the trip, and honestly the fact that it happened at all felt like a win.

We had hoped we might be able to squeeze in Cuyahoga Valley National Park before continuing west, but I had not really counted on it. This trip already had enough moving parts, and after the first two days I was trying not to get too attached to any plan that depended on perfect timing.

But the morning came together, and we made it into the park.

That made the day feel like the trip had officially started in a new way. The first day was mostly survival: leave late, deal with a tire issue, set up in a storm. The second day was Cleveland, which was fun and felt like a real recovery. But Day 3 was the first day where we were actually doing the thing I had been picturing when we started talking about this road trip: getting outside, exploring a national park, and giving the boys something they could climb through, crawl into, and remember.

The Ledges

We did not have time to see a huge amount of Cuyahoga Valley, so we picked one hike that seemed like it would give us the most interesting experience in the least amount of time: the Ledges Trail in the Ritchie Ledges area. That turned out to be the right call.

The trail is roughly two miles, and it sits in the Virginia Kendall area of the park. The National Park Service describes the Ritchie Ledges as old Sharon Conglomerate sandstone, and once you are there, that makes sense in a way that is hard to explain from a map. You start in the woods, drop down a bit, and then suddenly you are walking along the base of these massive sandstone walls instead of above them.

It felt less like a typical forest hike and more like we had found a hidden canyon tucked into Ohio.

The boys loved it right away. There were narrow passages, little inlets, rock walls, and enough twists and turns to make the whole place feel built for exploring. Owen especially seemed completely in his element. 

Ice Box Cave was there too, though it is closed now to help protect bats from white-nose syndrome. I was glad we knew that going in, because it kept the boys from being disappointed that we could not go inside. 

At one point, Brian found a tiny crevice and worked his way through it. I looked at it and immediately thought there was a decent chance I was going to get stuck. I had to take off my backpack, turn the right way, and commit to it, but I made it through too.

After the hike, we ended up talking with a National Park Service employee who told us his family was from Wyoming. He shared a few stories about Cody and his family’s connection to the history out there, including a shootout involving one of his ancestors.

West to Indiana

From there, we got back in the truck and continued west toward Indiana Dunes.

The drive from Ohio to Indiana was long but mostly uneventful. We stopped at a couple of rest areas, took a photo with an Ohio sign, and kept moving.

By the time we reached Indiana Dunes State Park, it was already getting late. I think it was around 7 p.m. or so when we pulled in.

This is where the geography can get a little confusing. Indiana Dunes National Park stretches along Lake Michigan, but we were camping at Indiana Dunes State Park, which sits right in the same broader dunes landscape. The 3 Dune Challenge is a state park hike, not a national park hike. That distinction matters if you are trying to be precise, but from a family road trip perspective, it all felt like one big Indiana Dunes arrival.

We got set up quickly, grabbed a few things from the campground store, and then decided to rally the kids for the 3 Dune Challenge.

On paper, it sounded manageable: 1.5 miles over the three tallest dunes in the state park. Mount Jackson is 176 feet, Mount Holden is 184 feet, and Mount Tom is 192 feet. But the numbers do not really capture what it feels like to climb steep, loose sand at the end of a travel day. Indiana DNR lists the challenge as 552 vertical feet of climbing, and Visit Indiana notes that some of the slopes can hit about 40 degrees.

In other words, it was harder than it sounded.

The 3 Dune Challenge

The challenge starts with Mount Jackson, then Mount Holden, then Mount Tom.

Mount Jackson was tough but manageable. The kids did great, and Owen was charging up the hill with a lot more determination than I expected after a long day in the truck.

Mount Holden was harder. By then we were already tired, and Owen’s blood sugar was trending low, so I carried him for part of the climb. Carrying a kid up a steep sand dune after a day of driving is no joke. I do not think the brochure fully prepares you for that version of the challenge.

But Owen handled the whole thing with zero complaining.

At the top, we stopped to breathe, regroup, and let everyone catch up. The boys shot some video with the DJI Osmo Action 6, which made the whole thing feel a little more like an expedition than a hike. 

Then we pushed on to Mount Tom.

Mount Tom is the tallest of the three, but it has stairs, which made it exhausting in a different way. We reached the top around sunset, and that made the whole climb worth it.

From there, we made our way back down through twilight. The boys used their headlamps near the end of the trail, which turned out to be a good call. And somewhere near the end, we saw some of our first fireflies of the summer.

That felt like a pretty good reward.

First Campfire

That night, we had our first campfire of the trip.

Brian and Connor were proactive about getting the s’mores supplies together, which I appreciated. Time to relax.