07.12.16 Niagara Falls in New York – Part One, the USA side

Tuesday, July 12, 2016 – Monday was one of the most amazing days of our life!  Niagara Falls is the bomb!!!  If it’s not already on your bucket list, it should be!

This experience will be presented in three parts.  1)  Niagara from the USA side, 2) The Maid of the Mist boat tour by the falls and 3) Niagara from the Canadian side.

The two side of Niagara are different and I found a article that explains the differences well.  You can read it by clicking here!  We followed their recommendation at the end for how we saw the falls and it all worked out fine.  There are many different things to see and do and we didn’t do all of it.  We feel like what we did covered most all of what we really desired to see.

We’ll be in the area until Sunday July 24th so there will be lots of time next week for us to go back and see other things!

We started out at 10:00 am for the hour drive to get us to Niagara Falls.  As we started seeing Canada and Niagara signs I started getting happy!

First, parking can be a challenge.  The lot we chose to try out was full so we drove around a bit and came back.  They had some openings and were able to go in.  Absolutely the perfect parking spot!!!  We were able to return to it a couple of times and unload our loot!

It costs nothing to see Niagara Falls except for the two quarters it costs to return to the USA side.  Doing things other than looking do cost but it is truly amazing that you can see it for no cost.  The parking on the USA side is $10 and on the Canadian side is $20.

After walking through a very attractive state park we entered the Visitors Center which is a multi level building that contains information, a museum and a gift shop. When leaving the visitors center this is the first sight we had of the falls.  It is much less crowded on the US side than the Canadian side. I was totally unaware of the layout of the area and found a map that is helpful.  On top is the United States, on the left is the Rainbow bridge we walked across to Canada and the bottom is Canada.

Here we go!!!!!  The photos.

The rainbow at the bottom of the falls!  In this photo is also the Maid of the Mist which we rode and I’ll write about next time.

The view of the falls from the Boardwalk way above the falls.  You can see both the falls on the US side and some of the falls that wrap around the end from USA to Canada.  The mist coming up from there at the end can be seen from miles away and feels like rain when you get anywhere close to that area!

You can start to see the walkway that leads up the side of the falls.  That is an attraction that you can pay $14 for.  It use to go under the falls but a rockslide and some other damage they found showed it wasn’t safe so now it runs up each side of the US falls.

One of the Maid of the Mist boats (it looks so tiny here) from up on the Boardwalk.Some of the walking area down right by the bottom of the falls that leads to the walk way up to the top.The Canadian side (a small bit) and the bridge we crossed to get from USA to Canada and back.

The suds and other things created by the falls hitting the river going under the bridge we crossed.  It is all so beautiful, even this.  The water is an amazing bluish green and even lighter on the USA side due to a water fall that empties into the river at that end.The rock walls on the US side.Looking down from the boardwalk to where people are getting their blue rain coats before boarding the Maid of the Mist.  We were one of those folks just a little bit after this!In this picture you see the walking area and the walkway up next to the falls, the falls and the viewing area from the US side.

Across from the parking lot is a large glass building serving as a Welcome Center.  Mostly they sell souvenirs and food.  Not one bite of American food, however.  There was Indian food, Italian food, Mexican food, Chinese food, and more.  Not only was there no American food but it was all horribly overpriced.   One of the things I would have wondered is why Indian food?  Well at least one out of every two visitors to the Falls is Indian.  We’ve found over and over as we’ve traveled that more people from other countries visit these places than our own Americans.  Can’t quite figure that one out. Our parking lot To the left is the large glass building you just saw, behind the trees in the back is the US State Park leading to the falls.  Behind us was the Pedestrian walkway to Canada.

At this point in our day we went on the Maid of the Mist and we went to Canada.  So that I can keep everything we did or saw on the US side together here is what we saw and did after visiting Canada when we got back to America.

When you return to America or just go into America there is a turnstile that wants fifty cents.  If you only have dollars you can get change in machines in the same room.

In the middle of the bridge going from country to country is a place showing where the International Boundary Line is located.

This is taken looking towards the automobile border crossing behind me.

We enjoyed a delicious burger at Hard Rock Cafe in Niagara Falls, NY.  Very cool place and we loved the food!

I thought this was cool.  As evening started getting darker the half moon at the top and the mist from the falls at the bottom looked so neat I had to take a photo!These are photos as the sun went down and the colors were turned on at the Falls.

Some of the Canadian skyline in the evening.

In my next blog post I’ll share our experience on the Maid of the Mist going down the river and pausing for a few minutes in the middle of the horseshoe falls where the mist was the thickest.  We did not get home until almost midnight so you can tell there is a lot more of our experience to share! This is a really good photo I found that shows the horseshoe falls from the air.  Puts it into great perspective.

Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!!

Click on the links below to go there!

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