Niagara Falls

When we last visited Niagara Falls in 2012 we were staying on the American side, mainly explored that area, and actually walked over the Rainbow Bridge into Canada.  That actually made for an easier experience than our experience in 2018.

This time we were staying in Canada, but quite a distance from the Falls, so we had to find a place to park before we could walk to the Falls and had to pay for the parking space.

Regardless of how you arrive, it is always awe-inspiring to see Niagara Falls and this time we got to let the kids experience the wonder as well.  We started out in the middle of the road actually when we finally managed to find parking.

Before too long we caught a glimpse of the American Falls.  Back in 2012 we took the Cave of the Winds tour (which we really enjoyed) and even took time to stand on the Hurricane Deck beneath the falls.

The kids were quite fascinated as this is definitely the largest waterfall they'd ever seen.  They're used to much smaller ones that we have hiked to in National Parks.

New this time were zip lines, which seem to be sprouting up everywhere.

We also spotted some of the tour boats down in the water.  Someday we might take a ride on one of those.

Here is a better view of the American Falls, which are wholly inside the United States.

This video gives you some sense of what it is like to be across the river from the falls.  FYI you can view it in fairly high quality as it was filmed on my iPhone 6 in 4K.

You can see a 360° view of the path to the falls here in Google Photos.  As we kept walking we got our first good glimpse of Horseshoe Falls.

For a while you can see both of the falls at the same time.

As you get closer you can see more and more detail, though there is definitely so much spray shooting into the air.

I find standing next to the edge especially awe-inspiring as you get just a bit of an understanding of how much water is pouring over every second.

I'll leave you with a video of Horseshoe Falls, over which pours 681,750 gallons of water per second, which means if you watch the whole video you've seen about 51 million gallons of water rush down.

You can view even more photos of our visit in this album.  Sadly this was our last major stop in Canada as we left the next day to head towards home.

~Matt