The Gorge Dam Sediment Is Being Stored in Akron's Cascade Valley. Most of That Park Is Still Open This Fall.

Sediment has been building up behind the Gorge Dam on the Cuyahoga River since 1911. It is now being dredged, sent through a temporary pipeline and stored in the Chuckery Area of Cascade Valley Metro Park, on the Akron side of the valley. The Glens Trail and the lower Gorge Trail are closed this October. Cascade Valley's other trailheads on Sackett Avenue and Cuyahoga Street are open. So for the next few seasons, most river-valley walking with a view starts in Akron.

Where the closures start and stop

As of the Summit Metro Parks alerts page updated October 5, 2026, closures cover these areas in two parks.

The park district says the Gorge closures are expected to last several years. The Chuckery has a firmer outlook. It is closed now for dam-related site work, and afterward the City of Akron will use the same ground to prepare for the Northside Interceptor Tunnel, its sewer tunneling project. That is why the Chuckery closure runs through at least 2028. The Highbridge Trail runs 3.2 miles round trip on the opposite bank from the Glens and Gorge trails, between the two parks. Its parking lot is on the closed list.

What's happening behind the fence this month

The U.S. EPA posts photo updates from the job, and the latest set is from the week of September 28, 2026. A barge-mounted excavator is dredging sandy material from the dam pool. Silt Barge #2 drops bucketfuls into a hopper that screens out large debris before the material goes into the sediment pipeline. A conveyor called the Total Clean system separates sand from debris, and the sand is stockpiled to be mixed back in later. The southern section of the Sediment Placement Area has its first layer of stabilized dredged material. The updates are on the EPA's Gorge Dam cleanup page.

The EPA puts the total at 865,200 cubic yards of contaminated sediment. The main contaminants are PAHs, PCBs, oil and grease, and heavy metals including cadmium and lead. Dredging began in 2025 and is expected to continue through 2027. After a winter pause, work resumed in early March 2026, with Sevenson Environmental Services as the EPA's dredging contractor. Summit Metro Parks says the placement site will be replanted with trees and vegetation once the sediment is contained.

The trail closures follow the route the sediment takes. It leaves the dam pool on the Cuyahoga Falls side, so the Glens and the lower Gorge Trail are fenced off. It ends up at the Chuckery, so that part of Cascade Valley is closed too. The rest of Cascade Valley is outside that route.

The Akron trailheads that stay open

These three areas line the same stretch of river and are all open this fall.

• Overlook Area, 354 Sackett Ave. The Overlook Trail is half a mile long, flat, rated easy and ADA accessible. It ends at a deck 125 feet above an oxbow in the Cuyahoga River, with views across the valley. Of the open spots, it takes the least effort to reach.
• Oxbow Area, 1061 Cuyahoga St. This 1.2-mile trail, rated moderate, covers hilly ground with river views. It also climbs to connect with the Overlook Trail, so you can walk the oxbow at river level and then look down on it from the deck.
• Valley View Area, 1134 Cuyahoga St. The Missing Link Trail is 1.1 miles, rated easy, and runs through the restored Valley View Area. Summit Metro Parks calls this area the "missing link" that connects 1,800 acres of continuous green space.

All three are on the Akron side of the river, and none of them depends on the closed Gorge parking lots.

The open Akron trail that counts toward the Fall Hiking Spree

The 63rd annual Fall Hiking Spree runs September 1 through November 30, 2026. To earn the reward, you complete at least eight designated trails and turn in the form, and one of the eight can be a Hiker's Choice. The Missing Link Trail is Cascade Valley's designated Spree trail this year.

This year's Spree theme is how parks and landscapes have changed, and what plants and animals thrive in fall. Interpretive signs along the designated routes cover the theme. In a valley where a 1911 dam pool is being dredged out next door, that theme has plenty of local material.

If you finish your trails and need help attaching your shield, volunteers hold sessions from 1 to 3 p.m. on these dates:

1. Sunday, October 18, at Liberty Park Nature Center
2. Sunday, November 1, at Summit Lake Nature Center
3. Saturdays, November 7, 14, 21 and 28, at F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm

The Fall Hiking Spree page lists the session dates but no separate sign-up for them.

The Front Street side, for the upper trail

The Gorge Metro Park Main Entrance at 1160 Front St. in Cuyahoga Falls is still open, and so is the upper Gorge Trail. The full Gorge Trail is 1.8 miles and rated 3, the park district's "difficult" rating. The park does not publish a separate length for the section that is still open.

The park's trail description puts Old Maid's Kitchen, a large rock shelter, about half a mile from the parking lot, with rugged rock ledges past it. Some older maps call it Mary Campbell Cave. In 2020, Akron.com reported that Summit Metro Parks found no primary evidence that Mary Campbell ever lived there and went back to the older name. The closed section is described as the lower Gorge Trail down to the observation deck. Summit Metro Parks posts a closure map on its Free the Falls page that shows where the open trail ends.

A little farther north on the same road, Cuyahoga Falls' High Bridge Glens Park at 1817 Front St. has an observation deck and a river walkway.

This is the stretch where the river drops 200 feet in about two miles. It is also where, as the glaciers retreated about 12,000 years ago, the forming river hit a large bedrock deposit that turned it north and gave it its "U" shape. Visitors were coming here to see the Big Falls of the Cuyahoga more than 150 years ago. The Big Falls is still under the dam pool for now.

How long the trails stay split this way

The project has four phases. Phase 2, the dredging, started in summer 2025. Phase 3 takes down the dam itself, and Phase 4 restores the river channel through Gorge Metro Park. Summit Metro Parks says there is currently no firm timeline for finishing the project.

Signal Akron reported in April 2026 that dam removal is expected to start in 2028, with the full project done by 2030. Those dates are forecasts. In a separate April report, Akron Public Service Director Chris Ludle said the removal plans should be finalized in 2027. After that, the city still has to pass legislation for construction management and put the dam removal out to bid. Signal Akron also reported that once the pool is lowered, the river could run as rapids or as a more defined waterfall, and nobody can predict which yet.

Summit Metro Parks' Chief of Conservation, Mike Johnson, has said the aim is a free-flowing river with better water quality and more recreation. The park district has said that both Gorge Metro Park and Cascade Valley will change significantly before the closed areas reopen, and that the public will be invited into a master planning process. Summit Metro Parks also has a Free the Falls e-newsletter and podcast for updates. For trail access questions, its Administrative Offices are at 330-867-5511, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

For this fall, that leaves the Overlook deck on Sackett Avenue as the easiest open view of the river: a flat, accessible half-mile walk to a deck 125 feet above the oxbow.

The Bartlebaugh Team has spent more than two decades in the Akron area. If you'd like to talk through which trailhead suits your weekend, or how a long project like this one fits into life near the valley, Nancy Bartlebaugh and the team are glad to help. Let's Connect.