Circling the U.S. Chapter 13: Niagara Falls

Wednesday, June 26, Niagara Falls, NY

Friday, June 28, Niagara Falls, ON

A visit to Niagara Falls seemed to be a fitting way to end our ride along the Erie Canal. Even though both of us have spent the majority of our lives within reasonable proximity to Niagara Falls, neither of us had been there before. Rob had heard that the Canadian side was nicer than the American side, so of course we had to see it from both places.

It turned out that a close family friend of a friend lives in Lewiston, about seven miles from Niagara Falls. He was happy to host us for two nights, and suggested driving us with our bikes to Niagara Falls and we'd ride back to his house, which was all downhill. It sounded like a good way to get the day off we both needed.

We enjoyed hearing Dave's stories of his adventures, including a bike ride from Alaska in the 1960s. He also has an amazing collection of antiques - a high wheeler bicycle, gramaphone, and victrola are just a few.

I expected to be overwhelmed with commercialism and crowds and to not appreciate the beauty of the falls when seeing it surrounded by crowds of people. In fact, we managed to quickly get through the city of Niagara Falls with its glitzy hotels, didn't find the crowds to be overwhelming, and thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

I was surprised to discover that there is actually more than one waterfall.

The red boat is from the Canadian side going to view the falls. The blue people down below are Americans who get a closeup of the falls and the Maid of the Mist boat tour. Rob and I spent the $39 to do that and decided it was money well spent.

The view down river.

Following are all pictures from the boat ride.

The picture above and below are different perspectives of the same falls.

These are heading into and out of a different set of falls.

We're off the boat and heading up for a closeup of the falls. But we didn't realize we still needed our plastic ponchoes and had put them in the recycling bin. We could have gotten them back if we really wanted to. I don't know what Rob was thinking, but I thought, "It's really hot, and I'm wearing clothes that dry quickly."

After we got soaking wet, we sat in the sun for a little while then took a walk along the trails through the park for different views of the falls and the river.

On the advice of another bicyclist, we decided to cross into Canada over the Peace Bridge in Buffalo. So we left Dave Kimball's on Thursday and visited the Carousel Museum on our way to Buffalo. The last ten miles or so into Buffalo were pretty bad. We were supposed to still be on the Erie Canal path but we seemed to have lost it and found ourselves navigating city streets with no clear direcion. We thought we'd stop in Buffalo for a bit, but when I saw the sign for the Peace Bridge I headed toward it and Rob was happy to follow. We couldn't ride over it though. They were doing construction and the sidewalk wasn't available. We had to wait for a shuttle driver who loaded our bikes into her van, drove us across, and made sure we got through customs without having to line up behind all the cars.

The ride along the Niagara River in Ontario heading north back to Niagara Falls was lovely.

The Canadian side offers a closer view of the falls from above. The American side offers more walking opportunities. We enjoyed both perspectives.