Rockhounding Around: The Brandywine Falls - Cuyahoga National Park (2011)

One of my goals in life is to visit the National Parks and when I was growing up this area was not a National Park but I would visit it often and it has a lot of found memories for me. I'm very appreciative that they have made this area into a National Park. One of the places we liked to visit was Brandywine Falls.

Awhile back I started this post and only put this down about it and never got back to it until now..

Brandywine falls in Ohio - the Cuyahoga National Park. (From "Geology of National Parks" 6th ed Harris et al (2004))

The top of the falls is the Berea Sandstone, Mississippian age.

The Berea is part of a delta system and coastal sands, the shales are prodelta marine deposits.

The geology in the area is:
Period Group Formation Member

Pennsylvanian Pottsville Sharon Conglomerate

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mississippian Meadville shale

Cuyahoga Sharpsville SS

Orangeville Sh

Berea Sandstone

Bedford Shale

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Devonian                                                           Ohio Shale                Cleveland Shale
                                                                                                                    Chagrin Shale

Now on to my images:
When you get to the Park you get to see this display to find out how to get to Brandywine.

We took the road and finally found the parking spot. When we got out and started to walk we could hear the falls but was very disappointed with seeing it since the vegetation was so lush and overgrown. I could just imagine what early settlers in the area must have thought of this place since it wasn't easy to get to. But there was a path and we decide to follow it.

There was a bridge and you got to walk over the top of the falls. That was pretty exciting. You could really see that resistant Berea Sandstone. On this day when I saw the level of the water I was disappointed thinking the falls wouldn't be very full since the creek seemed to be down.

Then as you continue to walk you came upon outcrops like this. I always remembered seeing these for the first time after I started studying geology and being amazed at all the cross bedding I could see. For years and years to me they were just cliffs made from rock but now I could tell that at one time this area had been coastal sands.

Then as you get closer they have this sign which reads as follows:
"BRANDYWINE FALLS - The rock layers of 66 foot Brandywine Falls can be read like a book. Each chapter covers millions of years, as ancient seas left sediments that were compressed by added layers. The rocks here at the base were formed 300-400 million years ago.
Brandywine and this 'bridal veil' cascade began about ten thousand years ago after the last ice age. The falls have now exposed the harder yellowbrown Berea Sandstone which rests atop the softer deeper red Bedford Shale. Since sandstone is more resistant to erosion, the shale below is frequently undercut. As these layers wear away the story of the earth continues to be revealed. "
The layers shown are top- Berea Sandstone, with under it the Bedford shale and at the base the Cleveland Shale.

So here's I was looking back at the bridge and seeing the Brandywine creek water flow over the resistant Berea Sandstone and realized more water was going over than it looks like.