Ritchie Ledges

By far, one of the most unique and stunningly beautiful sites in Northeast Ohio to birdwatch and hike, the “Ledges” themselves are massive walls of Sharon conglomerate rock, draped in ferns, mosses, hemlocks and seeps. The rich woodlands remind one of the west coast’s Olympic rainforest. Stately stands of enormous Eastern Hemlock trees sit atop the crown of the ledge wall, while oaks, beeches, birch, tulip tree, and maples cover the base of the gorge.  The unique, rare, and sensitive plant life and community is highly diverse, and the list of specialty birds, here, is locally famous. Icebox Cave, a wet, cool “box” carved in the side of the sixty-foot ledges, is surrounded by a diverse mix of tree and herbaceous species that benefit from the cooling effect of the shady ledges, and the groundwater seeps that spring from the base of the ledges.