Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls are one of the wonders of nature.  The falls are divided into two distinct areas, the same height and drop but the Horseshoe Falls which bend around in an arch are the much wider and spectacular and only visible from the Canadian side of the Niagara River.

The US falls.

The Horseshoe falls. The spray from the large torrents of water is immense and these falls are never clearly seen because of this.









Both falls are thundering falls of water and in terms of sheer volume of water they are hard to beat.  People who have been to Iguazu Falls and also to Victoria Falls say that both are much wider and go on for ages but Niagara Falls are still pretty impressive.

One of the things a package tour provides is a ride in a boat which goes as close to both falls as possible and where you get transparent rain coats as you get pretty drenched with water.  The plastic coats are red on the Canadian boats and blue on the US ones.

The yellow raincoats are for another part of the tour, for when you go below the Horseshoe Falls.

You go down a lift and through tunnels to look closely at the great torrent of water coming down.  It is a great experience.

Each night, since 1925, the falls are lit up by colourful spotlights from both the Canadian and US side and the lights flicker across the misty foam. The mist across the Horseshoe Falls really don't allow a good display of colour but the US Falls look nice.  In addition, each Wednesday and Friday nights there are fireworks lighting up the sky.

The illuminated Skylon Tower overlooking it all.  The colours keep changing by the second.  We parked there for $7 a day and whilst the first night at Niagara we camped at the hideously expensive (for us) campground for $50 a night, the next night we found that we could stay overnight at the Skylon Tower car park.

Niagara Falls are actually very accessible.  Maybe the parking situation gets much more desperate later on in the summer season, in late June it was fine for us.  We very much enjoyed the spectacle the falls provided.

The rapids panorama.  The rapids are downstream from the falls and a boardwalk is provided for about 1 km along the rapids which are Class 6 rapids, the most dangerous there is.  The water is flowing SO fast - 35-40 kph.

The Whirpool at the end.  The wires above are for the cable car that crosses above it.