Great Falls of Tinkers Creek


September 2004

State: Ohio

Location: Cleveland (Bedford)

Height: 15

Crest: 10 to 80

Water Source: Tinkers Creek

Waypoint: 41.38361N 81.5325W

Summary: This is a decent sized urban waterfall which is surprisingly unadvertised. It is in Bedford's Viaduct Park. In addition to the waterfall there are ruins of an old mill, an old viaduct, and a very impressive man made tunnel through which the creek now flows.

This urban waterfalls is in the village of Bedford Ohio, which is just south of Cleveland. It is one of the many interesting features in Viaduct Park. This waterfall is not well advertised. I learned of it from Brainy Geography which only tells you the location of a feature and not anything else about it. The falls is not mentioned on several other websites that describe nearby waterfalls and none of the signs in the area mention the falls.

The falls is about 15 feet high. In low water it is segmented, but in high water the crest of the falls is around 80 feet wide. This is presumably the largest of the cascades found on Tinker's Creek, hence the name "Great". It is also known as Big Falls.

The focus of Viaduct Park is the viaduct built in 1865 over the Tinker's Creek gorge. This was built on top of "The Arch", a long tunnel built over the creek. There are also ruins of an old dam and mill race to look at. Interpretive signs explain the significance of all the various ruins.

Tinker's Creek has carved out a very impressive gorge. This can be best explored from the Bedford Reservation area. There are supposedly many cascades and small falls within the gorge, and several very high, but seasonal falls where smaller creeks fall into the gorge. Unfortunately Tinker's Creek is not very clean, so I am not sure how wise wading through the creek while exploring the gorge would be.

Viaduct Park is located at the corner of Willis St. and Taylor Rd. Here is some help from MapQuest. If you are looking for a walk, park at the Egbert Picnic area in the Bedford Reservation. A trail follows the rim of the gorge. A spur trail descends down to the other end of the Arch, crosses over the top of it, and then ascends to the Willis Picnic Area, which is just a short walk away from Viaduct Park.

[Cleveland Area] Nearby Falls

Mill Creek Falls is less than 10 miles to the north east and Chagrin Falls is a similar distance to the east. Brandywine Falls and the other falls of Cuyahoga Valley National Park are 15 miles to the south.

Photo Gallery

The Arch
The other end of the Arch

The Viaduct above the Arch
Looking into Tinkers Gorge

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Last Modified: Sunday, 04-Oct-2009 19:29:15 MDT.

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