Niagara Falls, NY

«Cinderella Motel/RV Park, Grand Island NY • Oct 2-9, 2018 »

This campground was better than we expected.  We just wanted a place to park the truck and camper so we could go on Falls excursions.  Sites were tight but there was a nice grassy area in the middle for the dogs.

We took two Gray Line Tours; Maid in American (USA),  and Rainbow Tour (Canada). We scheduled these even before getting to the campground at the ‘NY Welcome Station’.  Both tours we were picked up right at the campground in a 24 person van.

Our first stop was ‘Cave of the Winds’.  They gave us these funky little sandals and the rain ponchos.

There were places on the ‘Cave of the Winds’ tour that I didn’t dare get my phone out to take pics.  Pelting rain from the falls hit us.  These elaborate wooden structures are taken down and rebuilt every year before it freezes.  This is just a small part of it!

The ‘Maid of the Mist’ was next.  Of course, Dave wanted to be on the top level at the VERY front.  This is before we got into the ‘mist’ which is all the white blur in the background.

Horseshoe Falls from the boat.  The boat got even closer and stayed in the area for a few minutes.  It sure makes you feel small!

This is one of the look-out points we hiked.  There are two small boats below.  One is the American ‘Maid of the Mist’ and the other is the Canadian boat ‘Horn Blower’.  The buildings are on the Canadian side.

We hiked the gorge trail along the Niagara River.  I definitely got some exercise that day and was shocked the next day when I wasn’t sore.  We took one set of steps down and another up.  Down was fun, up was work with several ‘catch my breath’ stops.  I think Dave could take stairs up forever.

On the gorge trail we had fun watching the jet boats take people to the whirlpool.  When they hit certain places in the river the first three rows of people went completely underwater.  Of course they had on life jackets, but they also had helmets!  The more churned the water the prettier the aqua color.

Horseshoe Falls and Rainbow Bridge taken on the Canadian side.  Rainbow Bridge connects Canada and the US.

We viewed this Whirlpool on both the American and Canadian side.  This is the Canadian view. The little spit of land on the right is the US. The contraption is a gondola that goes across the whirlpool.  You are still in Canada when you get to the other side.  From here we were able to see where we hiked the Gorge Trail the day before.  The whirl pool is as far as the jet boats were allowed to go because of the class six white water a little further up the river (not pictured here).

Clock of flowers on the Canadian Tours.  It says, ‘Niagara Parks’.  They change out the flowers to a different theme several times a year.  Our tour guide said he worries that he’ll bring a tour there and it will just be a mound of dirt.

The Canadian Tour took us to Skylon Tower which is 775 ft. high.  We were able to see the light show for all the falls.  This is the American Falls with the Canadian ‘Horn Blower’ boat.

We took many walks around the rim trail and saw some beautiful sights!

I was one of many people I heard say, ‘I’ve never seen a black squirrel!’.  It took me many days and tries to get a picture of one.  Our Canadian Tour Guide said that they are more common than the gray squirrel here.

We went over Rainbow Bridge twice; once with the tour and then we walked over another day.  Good thing we had our passports.  This was taken from the American side on a rim hike before crossing the bridge by foot.

The mist from the falls could be seen for miles.  No matter where you were in Niagara, you knew where the falls were.

On several of our gorge hikes we were able to view the class six rapids.  Class six means ’emminent death’ from what we were told.  No boats are allowed in them.  Across the river is the Canadian Class Six River Board Walk.

Niagara Falls went above and beyond what I had expected.  The hiking was fantastic with out of this world views.  The two tours we took were also better than expected. There were many great bike trails that Dave took advantage of, but even with a week there wasn’t time to explore most of them.

Just by accident, we were in Niagara for our twelfth anniversary.  That made it even more special!