Thursday 25th September. It was all about Niagara Falls today. It certainly lived up to all my expectations. The WOW factor is certainly front and centre. Just like the Grand Canyon it can be explored “any which way”.
- Helicopter flight
- Walking behind the Falls
- Dining overlooking the Falls
- Turning spotlights on to light up the Falls
- White Water Walking
- Walking beside the Falls
- Hornblower cruise on the Niagara River to near the base of the Falls
- Looking at the Falls from the Canada or USA
- Aerial car over the Whirlpool downstream of the Falls.
So many choices. I stayed on the Canadian side and I took a helicopter flight, walked alongside the falls, got very wet on board the Hornblower cruise, enjoyed a great meal overlooking the Falls and had the opportunity to light up the Falls with spotlights that had originally been used in the Battle of Britain.
There is also a rather ugly side to Niagara – of course if a tourist attraction can be commercialised this one can certainly be. There are huge hotels, casinos, restaurants, gifts shops and some really corny amusement parlours. But on the positive side these can be avoided as there are acres of beautiful gardens and no shortage of water to keep everything very green. If I ever visited again I would stay in the beautiful little village – Niagara on the Lake.
The Niagara River links Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It is not the highest waterfall in the world, there are about 500 others that are taller. There are 2 spectacular waterfalls to view – the American Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. 168,000 cu mts of water goes over the falls every minute during the day. At night the water flow is substantially reduced and diverted to the hydro electric station. The Falls do partially freeze in winter.