We arrived in Niagara Falls at about 7 in the morning, at the Daredevil museum which doubled as the Greyhound station. A souvenir/convenience store, the squat building cornered an intersection only 10 minutes from the Niagara State Park.
The weather was gloomy, a posse of clouds ambivalent on the subject of rain, so rather than hit the falls straight away we wandered round the State Park island, chancing that it would brighten up. The river leading into the Horseshoe Falls ran wide between the island and the mainland, gathering momentum before its final 100 ft fling into empty space; a thunderous, crashing roar produced a never-ending plume of cloudy water vapour that rose up from the river below, the river between the USA and Canada. The path round the island ended at the gift shop, a guy gave us a couple of free tickets to the Cave of Winds since he couldn’t use them, but in the end we opted for the discovery pass – 33$ for all the attractions.
The Cave of Winds isn’t a cave, unless they count the tunnel leading away from the elevator, it’s a route around the American falls. The awe-inspiring drop as soon from the island is something much more heart-stopping from beneath: from above the water vanishes, and the spray’s kicked high in plumes of rainbow-tinged spray; from beneath the spray is invisible beyond the wall of white, a billion drops of water weighing no more than a gram battering over the wooden walkway every second.
At the entrance to the Cave of Winds they issue ponchos and flip-flops, and an elevator takes you down 75 feet to the tunnel on the west side of the falls. There’s plenty of walkway that’s dry enough to shoot pictures from, and plenty of walkway where the water literally rains all over.
Speaking of rain, the clouds took the opportunity while we were ascending in the elevator to try and steal the Fall’s glory. Thumbs up for ponchos. The discovery pass grants access of the Cave of Winds, the trolley shuttle bus (which we never took), the aquarium, the Maid of the Mist boat ride around the falls and the IMAX theatre. As it was raining and the theatre was a short walk away on the mainland it seemed like a good idea to go inside.
The history is Niagara and the Falls was shot beautifully in the 40 minute film. The Lelawala, the first steam boat to do tours around the falls before the Civil War, was recreated in its last Hurrah! journey through the troubled waters before the falls; the story of the Maid of the Mist was told, of a Native American girl unwillingly married, who sailed her canoe over the Falls, and as legend tells can still be seen in the rainbow of the Falls; of the few survivors who made it over the falls, including a school teacher encamped in a barrel with her black cat, the cat returning as white as fright from the descent.
Rain abated, we emerged from the show hungry and set off for Canada. Crossing the border wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it’d be, no pat-down, no queue, not even any more than a query over my washed-out visa photo. There was no way that we couldn’t go into Canada with it staring us in the face across the ravine, and going there for a lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe and buying a postcard can hardly be said to qualify as seeing the country... but I have a stamp in my passport.
Once back on American soil we went on the Maid of the Mist boat tour. The Canadian side does have the advantage of a walkway behind the falls but the boat rides are the same as far as I could see. Everyone dons a blue poncho and crams onto the boat. The boat pulls out from the dock beneath the observation platform that juts into the void over the river, the motors fight the flow from the falls and charge toward the largest. Foam builds up in the water near the falls, but it’s a thick skin in the semi-circular cove around the falls where the Maid of the Mist turns, tilting into the spray until your eyes can’t stay open. I had my glasses and my hands to shield me but in the midst of the stream all I had were infrequent blinks in which to catch the majesty of the cascading water. Of all the things I did in Niagara, I was determined to experience this one completely, and hence avoided taking any photographs.
The rest of the time in Niagara was spent wandering around, seeing the shell of city that for all intents and purposes operates a life-support machine for the tourism. The same could not be said of the Canadian side, built-up and vibrant. We did visit the aquarium, watched a seal show, and stocked up on food for sandwiches before heading back to the bus station. Had I the chance to go back I would have gone to see the Falls at night, where lights of different colours illuminate the water and on some evenings fireworks do the same to the sky.
The bus from Niagara Falls to Washington, DC, was uneventful... I slept, in complete contrast to the first bus journey, and was fully ready for all the happenings at the capitol.
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