We’ve visited a lot of different waterfalls over the past year and a half, but how about one that empties right into Lake Erie? When researching for an interesting place that was not that far from Pittsburgh I found a not very well-known park called Columbia Park. This park is actually a small dog park, and one of the smallest parks we’ve been to, but it has a waterfall that actually flows right into Lake Erie! It is not often you see something like this so we knew we had to check it out!
Getting to Columbia Park
As I mentioned Columbia Park is very small, you might actually drive right by it and not even know (we did!). The address for the park is 25436 Lake Rd, Bay Village, OH 44140. There is a small parking lot across the street (on the corner of Columbia road) from the park with a handful of parking spots. Here you can easily park and walk across the street to the park. For those wondering Columbia Park is about 2 hours and 20 minutes from Pittsburgh.
Exploring Columbia Park
Walking across the street and into the park it is nothing more than a concrete path that leads you to an overlook right above the waterfall. The waterfall itself is pretty impressive and is just so cool how it flows right down into the lake. By my estimation the waterfall is about 40 feet tall and maybe 10-15 feet wide.
There is a set of stairs that lead you down to the lake, since it was raining and water was crashing off the bottom of the stairs it was a little bit scary, but we ran to make it down to the base of the waterfall. Once down on the beach even though it not to prettiest day it was still very peaceful. You have the waves of Lake Erie right in front of you and the sound of the waterfall behind you. We actually ended up just relaxing down here for a while. The waterfall is pretty impressive and it awesome how the water has just cut through the rock to make its way to the lake.
We decided to be a little adventurous and climb up the waterfall. Please be very careful when you do this, the waterfall here is very slippery. Once we made it to the top of the waterfall we could get a better look at the smaller waterfalls that are back the creek a little bit. You can make your way back there, but be prepared to get wet.
We spent a few hours exploring the small, but unique Columbia Park. The best part was sitting at the base of the waterfall watching it flow into the lake. While this small park might not be worth a day trip depending on how far you are from it, if you are within an hour drive it is definitely worth it and there are not a ton of waterfalls the spill into Lake Erie!
Things to Know About Columbia Park
It is very small and there is only a small sign so make sure you don’t miss it!
The beach area can be a little difficult to get to and at could be under water when the lake has high conditions.
While there is a beach there are no life guards on duty so please be careful.
The park closes at dusk.
Columbia Park Photo Gallery
