TWINSBURG: Green is the dominant color along the new Ledges Trail.Moss-covered rocks, ferns and lichens are abundant along the 1.1-mile trail at Liberty Park that officially opened to the public Tuesday.But the green-tinted cliffs and outcroppings of sandstone conglomerate are the big attraction at Liberty Park.The trail, which takes hikers to Glacier Cave, runs along the base of the spectacular ledges that are up to 80 feet high.The cave is an alcove or grotto in the rock wall with rock fins rising 70 feet above visitors and open to the skies. You can step inside and gaze upward at the surfaces. The rocky room is big enough for two football teams.The layers of sandstone outside the cave look like a giant layer cake. A small spring gurgles away, draining from the cave to the east to Pond Brook, a tributary of Tinkers Creek.A flock of turkeys gamboled through the woods. A trio of white-tailed deer dashed off as hikers approached.It is a pretty spot and it’s hard to believe you are still in northern Summit County between Akron and Cleveland.“The ledges are like nothing else in Summit County, and this is the beginning of more great things to come,” said Keith Shy, director-secretary of Metro Parks, Serving Summit County.The Twinsburg Ledges are similar to the cliffs and outcroppings at the Gorge Metro Park between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls, the Virginia Kendall Ledges in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park or Cleveland Metroparks’ Hinckley Reservation.The new trail begins at the eastern end of a new access road at 9999 Liberty Road. That is opposite where Post Road dead-ends into Liberty Road at the northwest corner of the park.At the end of the quarter-mile access road that is ruled by parading Canada geese is a 70-car parking lot, a kiosk and a portable bathroom.The trail leads off through an old farm field at the northern end of the 1,908-acre park that lies in Twinsburg, Twinsburg Township, Reminderville and Aurora.The dirt-and-rock trail drops down a big hill, curves to the right and heads south next to the Bennett or Reminderville ledges.In all, the park has nearly 1.5 miles of ledges: the more-spectacular Bennett Ledges to the north and the slightly lower, biologically significant McDonald Ledges to the south.Last winter, the Twinsburg Ledges housed a wintering black bear. There is some evidence it might still be around, park officials said.The trail then skirts the edge of a cattail-lined wetlands and runs through a low-lying wet forest on a 2,350-foot boardwalk before climbing the hill to complete the loop.Signs encourage visitors to remain on the trail to avoid damaging mosses and lichens, and areas to the south of the trail are posted as a park-managed Conservation Area that is generally off-limits to the public.Metro Parks, Serving Summit County built the trial in 2009. It got a grant of $20,000 from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.But there was no public access to the trail until the entrance road and parking lot were built this year. That was a $990,00 project.Metro Parks officials and Twinsburg Mayor Katherine Procop dedicated the new Twinsburg Ledges Area with ceremonies Tuesday morning.The park district is developing plans for a small nature center at the site with a tentative opening in 2013.The city manages Liberty Park’s recreation area off Liberty Road with its ball fields and playground. The metro park district manages the remaining acreage at Liberty Park, including the new Twinsburg Ledges Area and the Pond Brook Conservation Area off state Route 82 in Twinsburg Township.Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.