Niagara Falls

We took a vacation this week to the Niagara Falls. We got Kelly a new passport, and made reservations at the Diplomat Inn on the Canadian side for 3 nights. It was an excellent vacation, and we had a good relaxing time. We did do quite a bit of walking on Wednesday, around town on the Canadian side, down to the falls, across the bridge to the New York side, over to Goat Island, back to the Canadian side, and back into town to the Diplomat Inn. I'm guessing maybe 6-7 miles. We would not have been able to slow down and enjoy the view, or get many of the pictures we did, if we would have covered that area in a car and kept moving.

We drove down to Niagara on the Lake, near the end of the Niagara River at Lake Ontario. That is a beautiful little town this time of year. Everywhere you go, there are flowers planted, just like in the town of Niagara, but without all of the noise and tourist trap racket. The drive along the river down to Niagara on the River is very scenic too, with all kinds of vineyards, big fancy houses, and amazing views of the Niagara Gorge. Knowing what we know now, if we had stayed another day, we might have just spent some time either hiking or biking the trails close to the river. You can walk right up to the edge of the river and the whirlpool, and there are trails all over the place on the Canadian side.

We rode the Maid of the Mist, walked up onto the Hurricane Deck, went up into the Skylon Tower, walked across the Rainbow Bridge, walked all over Goat Island and the Three Sisters Islands, saw the Imax movie, and rode on the Whirlpool Jet Boat through class 5 rapids down stream from the falls. The jet boats are aluminum and have 3 turbo diesel engines, producing a combined 1,500 horsepower. They can stop and start, and accelerate with ease going against the current in the middle of a class 5 rapid. They can spin around and do crazy stuff in the middle of the big whirlpool that sucks big logs to the bottom. The one thing they must not do though, is go into a class 6 rapid. Rapids are classified on a scale of 1 to 6. Class 1 is hardly noticeable, and you could float through it on an inner tube. They took us up to a class 6 rapid in the Niagara Gorge, at the entrance to the whirlpool, and showed it to us, but told us that the U.S. and Canadian governments have both outlawed it to attempt navigating that rapid. It is simply too dangerous, even for a 1,500 horsepower jet-ski. That rapid is 300 ft. deep, and has all of the water from the falls flowing through it. Years ago, before the hydroelectric plants were built, they were even bigger, and the owner of the first Maid of the Mist (then a steam boat) navigated down the river from the falls towards Lake Ontario. And survived.

Class 6 rapids, 300 ft. deep.

 

 

Another view of those class 6 rapids.

 

 

Just up the river from the Class 6 rapids and the whirlpool.

 

 

Each of these boats cost about $1.5 million, and they have 14 of them total, not all here.

Keep scrolling down...

 

 

A view of the American Falls from the Skylon Tower.

 

A view of the Canadian Falls from the Skylon Tower.

 

My beautiful wife with some Canadian flowers....

...and again.

 

The Hurricane Deck under the Bridal Veil Falls.

 

A view from walking across the Rainbow Bridge.

 

Some rapids just up the river from the Canadian falls,

as viewed from Goat Island, New York.

The Canadian Falls, viewed from the edge in New York.

 

Some flowers on the New York side.

 

Three C9 Cat Diesels in the jet boat. :-)