Niagara Falls

Saturday, 9/22

We were in three states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York) and two countries (US & Canada) today.

We have four days in the Niagara Falls area so we weren’t in a rush to do any particular thing. We have combo tickets for a few things, a couple of places we’d like to hike, and a ticket to the top of Skylon Tower that allows us to go up twice (so we can see the view in both daytime and nighttime).

Most, but not all, sights in the area have a US version and a Canadian version. But they are not necessarily comparable; the Canadian is often better. Canada has a better view of all three falls (American, Bridal Veil, and Horseshoe). The tourist area is prettier in Canada and they have a more developed rim drive with activities along the way. Canada also has Skylon Tower, which gets you an aerial view of all the falls and the US has a skywalk that allows you to walk out above the river and would get you a decent view of the three falls. Canada has White Water Walk, which gets you at river level where the gorge narrows and there are seriously intense rapids (there is no US equivalent unless you want to hike). The US has a better interpretive/educational center (in fact we never found its Canadian counterpart).

We ended up first on Goat Island which is an island and a New York State Park and separates the two US falls from the larger Horseshoe Falls which is mostly in Canada). We ended up in the RV parking lot at the far end of the island from the falls but the island is only a ½ mile long and that lot was free today. :) We wandered essentially the entire perimeter of Goat Island. We had views of the upstream rapids and we went to the brink of all three falls.

We crossed to Canada on the Rainbow Bridge and Jeff got his first full view of “Niagara Falls” (Serena was here briefly 30ish years ago). Despite being off season it is quite crowded and we had to wait for people to move so we could get a space at the railing to take pictures. The city of Niagara Falls, NY was a zoo of traffic and people.

We decided to stay to watch the fireworks tonight (tomorrow was our other option) which meant we had some time to kill. TripAdvisor said to claim a spot at 9pm for the 10pm show. That’s probably true in summer but here in the off-season 9:15 was good enough; it didn’t start to get crowded until 9:30 p.m. It was worth it to watch the fireworks from above (the top of the tower is 520’ above the top of the falls).

Our campground is about 10 miles away from the border.

Falls Info

Horseshoe falls is 2500’ wide 170’ tall.

200 years ago the falls were possibly ⅓ mile closer to Lake Ontario than they are now.

Horseshoe Falls used to erode at least 3’ per year but now that water is diverted for power generation and the water flow is controlled they erode only about 1’ per year.

20% of the world’s fresh water flows over the falls.

600,000 gal/minute over Horseshoe Falls

150,000 gal/minute over American Falls

Sunday, 9/23

Weather today is sunny and warm. We went back to Canada today and did most of the rest of our ticketed activities. First was the Hornblower mist boat ride which was followed by our daytime Skylon Tower ascension. “Niagara’s Fury” was included so we wasted 20 minutes on a childish “geology” movie and disjointed 4D experience. Last was the Journey Behind the Falls.

Hornblower is the Canadian version of the US Maid of the Mist.

After donning the cheap ponchos they provide we went right to the front of the boat. Initially it was no big deal but as we got closer the wind from the falls was blowing those ponchos all over the place. And then the water came. It was just like a rainstorm and the spray was blocking the view of the falls. It was great.

Journey Behind the Falls is the Canadian counterpart to the US Cave of the Winds. We got to go in tunnels literally behind Horseshoe Falls. We could hear and feel the thrum of the water. There was also a place to go outside near the base of the falls. When we were on Goat Island we saw people getting very wet at the base of Bridal Veil Falls (the smallest of the three falls). We had considered doing that but we’ve decided that here at the base of Horseshoe Falls is better because it’s so cool to be this close to the largest of the three falls.

Monday, 9/24

We went back to Canada today for our final pre-paid activity and some hiking. The activity was the White Water Walk. This area of the Niagara River Gorge gets narrow and turbulent. The rapids here are Class 6 which is the highest classification and deemed impassable. In fact a few people have gone through them and survived but none so far still in their boat. Generally they capsize and/or the boat is destroyed and the people who are wearing floatation devices survive and are plucked out of the river downstream. Those who are not wearing floatation devices are also plucked out of the river downstream. We don’t know when the last attempt was but people do have to get permission to try. The walkway is right next to the river and it was cool to be so close.

We have read about the Whirlpool river feature and it so happens there is a trail to it at the Niagara Glen Nature Center. There are many other intersecting trails but we didn’t have time to do it all. Jeff wanted to hike to the Whirlpool so that’s where we went. The Whirlpool trail is the only one in the park that is labeled as strenuous and they weren’t kidding. The forest and trails up to the point of connecting with the Whirlpool trail were lovely. The trail to the Whirlpool is not so much a trail as a line of rocks in the forest that you can see because the foliage is slightly less dense there. It was necessary 100% of the time to literally watch your step because of the uneven footing scrambling over the rocks. Luckily the “trail” is well marked so we were certain we were going the right way. And it was only a bit over a mile long. However, the whirlpool was not worth it. We had been led to expect a toilet flushing type of water feature - NOT! We didn’t even take one picture.

Along our drive south to cross back to the US we stopped at the Whirlpool Adventure Center ‘cause it looked so fun (we knew it was closed for the day but we were able to find out that the “Classic Course” is $45 CAD per person). And there was a Whirlpool overlook. If only we had stopped here first we would have been able to see and know not to do the Whirlpool hike.

Tuesday, 9/25

It rained overnight and it was still a bit uncertain if it might continue this morning. We knew this was likely so we saved our housekeeping for this morning (laundry, dumping the holding tanks and refilling water). After our chores we went to the US Niagara Gorge Discovery Center and we were glad we did. They charged us $3 each but other than that it was pretty much like you would expect if it had been a national park visitor center - movie and interpretive information. It is on the site of a former water power works that catastrophically collapsed into the gorge back in 1956? after operating for about 40 years. There was info about the power plant, geology/fossils, weather and its impacts on the river, etc. There were a few hiking trails in the area also but nothing we needed to explore.

Spent a bit of the early evening working on this blog - please let Serena know if you read this. Tomorrow starts week five of our adventure. We are headed to Watkins Glen State Park which is in the Finger Lakes area of New York.

upstream from Horseshoe Falls

The spray was visible from at least 6 miles away.

View from Goat Island of American Falls, the skywalk and Rainbow Bridge.

You can stay in the US and see more than just the brink of the falls if you are on the other side of the river.

View from Canada of American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls (the little one on the right).

People getting very wet at the base of Bridal Veil Falls/Cave of the Winds.

Maid of the Mist (US)

Hello from Canada

The falls are lit up at night with ever-changing colors (and sometimes multiple colors).

This was our view from the top of the Skylon Tower.

View of American & Bridal Veil Falls from the top of Skylon Tower.

Fireworks Fri/Sat/Sun

The pink building in the background was not pink - just reflecting the fireworks. The lights on American Falls did happen to match in this moment.

fireworks

View from Canada - Skylon Tower and the brink of Horseshoe Falls.

View of American Falls from the Hornblower Canadian boat that goes into the Horseshoe Falls spray.

Horseshoe Falls are so pretty from the boat.

View from Skylon Tower of Goat Island, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls.

View from Skyon Tower of Horseshoe Falls.

Journey Behind the Falls viewing portal. There’s nothing to see but the sound was awesome.

View of the base of Horseshoe Falls.

Every activity that gets you close to the water issues a poncho. Most people throw them away but we used ours all day. It was easy to find each other on the Journey Behind the Falls ‘cause we were the only people wearing red ponchos; yellow is the color for this activity.

Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We could see Toronto on the opposite shore.

Niagara River class 6 rapids.

White Water Walk allows people quite close to the rapids (a few people got splashed).

more rapids

Carolinian forest at the Niagara Glen Nature Center.

“Trail” to the Whirlpool
Can you tell if any of this greenery is Poison Ivy? Neither can we but we didn’t end up with a rash so I guess we got lucky.

Whirlpool we could see from rim-side overlook.

Canada does have a touristy part of Niagara Falls but it is not highly visible until you are in the middle of it. Niagara Falls, NY is dismal. The area of Niagara Falls, Canada just beyond all this had tons of lovely B&Bs and vacation rentals. If you have a choice, stay in the Canadian Niagara Falls.

Whirlpool Adventure Center looks so fun from the ground. Pretty sure it’s a bit intimidating once you’re up there. Unfortunately it’s all academic; we didn’t have good weather for this on our last day and didn’t know about it before then.

Afternoon rainbow at Horseshoe Falls is a sunny day occurrence.