The Rocky River is a relatively short river which forms the western boundaries of the cities of Cleveland and Lakewood, Ohio. The city of Rocky River, on the west bank bordering Lakewood, is named after the river. The Rocky River was ranked by Field & Stream as one of the top steelhead trout rivers in the world, and has also been featured on ESPN.WatershedThe river itself is formed by the confluence of the East and West Branches in North Olmsted at Cedar Point Hill (unrelated to the theme park of the same name north of Sandusky), just west of Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport.The headwaters of the larger West Branch are predominantly located in Medina County, where the north and south branches merge to form the west branch and flows and northward through, among other locales, the town of Olmsted Falls. The East Branch first begins in the Cleveland suburb of North Royalton, near State Rd. and Wallings Rd. Flow here is actually to the south, through Richfield and Hinckley Townships. The East Branch wraps around Whipp's Ledges in Hinckley Township, and begins its north-northwest journey. Hinckley Lake is actually the East Branch Rocky, impounded in the late 1920s/early 1930s. On its course back through southwestern Cuyahoga County, the East Branch is an important local feature in the cities of Strongsville and Berea.
