One of the lovely amenities of Northeast Ohio is the Emerald Necklace, a network of parks surrounding the Greater Cleveland/Akron area. It spans 23,000 acres with over 300 miles of walking, bicycle, and horse trails as well as numerous picnic areas, nature education centers, golf courses, and countless fishing spots. In addition, the district includes the zoo in Cleveland. Several of the reservations are adjacent to Cuyahoga Valley National Park (Wikipedia).

We can walk or drive to the Rocky River Reservation within minutes. After dinner at Herb’s Tavern this week we drove home through the park. David & I have spent many pleasant hours over the years in this park but never knew there was a section above the valley that overlooks the river and main park below. I stumbled upon it a few months ago and this week showed it to David for the first time.

This section is the Stinchcomb-Groth Memorial, dedicated to the first two directors of the Cleveland Metroparks, William Stinchcomb and Harold Groth.

David takes great panoramic photos on his iPhone and shot these two images.

Off to the left in the second photo is a 30-foot tower dedicated in 1958 to Stinchcomb and Groth. We thought it almost looked like an amphitheater.

A few other shots taken on Thursday night:

Finally, the Panoramic Master at work.

It was a pleasant evening.