Niagara Falls ~ Day 1
July 19th-22nd
Come along with me on our longest trip to date. Well, if you exclude that trip out west in 2006. We were gone for 3 weeks that trip. I may have to write about it at some point, but back to 2015. We decided to take a 2 week trip and see some of New York State. We left on July 19th and made the drive in 2 1/2 days. We left Pensacola at around 9 am and drove most of the day, stopping for gas and lunch. We arrived a little north of Nashville around 6-7 pm. We stopped at a rest area, had dinner and just kicked back and relaxed overnight. This is a big tip. Most interstate rest areas don’t mind you staying overnight. You can’t open any slide outs or your awning of course but to stop and sleep is ok and this could be a huge money saver not to mention time looking & booking a campsite and the stress of making sure you arrive on time. Check rest areas out first though because there are some that don’t want overnighters.
The next morning we got up, ate a quick breakfast and hit the road again. We drove all day once again stopping only for gas and lunch until we arrived outside Cleveland, OH. where we once again spent the night at another rest area. The exciting part about today was my first glimpse of Lake Erie. The next morning, after 2 days of driving already, we got ourselves on the road and made it to Buffalo by around 2pm.
We were booked at Four Mile Creek State Park. We just loved this campground! It is so peaceful and pretty. There are no pads but the campground is grass covered. Everywhere you walk, except the roads of course, is full, thick grass. This place would be perfect for tent camping but it’s just as enjoyable staying in a pop up, travel trailer or Coach. There are 275 campsites ranging from primitive to full 50 amp hook up and they can accommodate the largest Coach. The bathrooms are well maintained and well lit. There is also a playground and a campstore.
It is located on beautiful Lake Ontario and you can actually see Toronto across the lake. It is only a 15 minute drive to Niagara Falls making this a perfect place to stay in this area. The only drawback we encountered is that they don't have water available at each site. But they do have many water stations available to refill your tank if needed. We were lucky enough to have a water station right beside our site.
Here’s another tip for you. If you travel to this area and stay at this campground AND want to see Niagara Falls the campground sells a ticket booklet that will save you money. It is called the Niagara Falls USA Discovery Pass. It has a ticket for every attraction Niagara Falls USA offers which includes: Niagara Adventure Theater, Aquarium of Niagara, Cave of the Winds, Niagara Gorge Discovery Center and Maid of the Mist. The pass also includes one day of unlimited rides on the Niagara Scenic Trolley. If you bought tickets to all of these attractions individually it would cost you $60. You can also buy the Discovery Pass at the park but having it beforehand saves time because you won’t have to stand in line to purchase tickets once you get there.
So the next morning we went to Niagara Falls. There is no charge to enter the park, only to do any of the attractions. So if you think you just want to look at the falls and maybe do 1 or 2 attractions then it would be cheaper to not buy the Discovery Pass.
Ready for an important tip? When you get into the park set your cell phone to airplane mode. This will turn off your data. That’s important because Canada has different cell phone service and you don’t want to be charged an international rate because your phone picked up a signal from Canada. It’s literally close enough for your phone to pick up the signal. Canada is just across the river. So do yourself a favor and turn on airplane mode but if you forget and do get charged an international fee talk to your provided and let them know that you were at Niagara Falls USA and they should remove the charge.
We started off our day by walking over to Horseshoe falls and and spent awhile looking at the falls there. I literally do not have the words to describe the majesty of these falls. We are waterfall lovers and Niagara Falls does not disappoint!
From there we walked back towards American Falls stopping at places along the way to view the falls. We followed a path all the way along and over the Niagara River to the Observation Deck. You get the best view on the USA side from this deck.
From the Observation Deck we went to The Maid of the Mist. You take an elevator down to the loading area, show your ticket and then they give you a blue raincoat to wear. Trust me. You’re gonna want to wear your raincoat as you will get soaked without it. Make sure all of your belongings are under the raincoat especially your phone/camera. Here’s David wearing his raincoat.
All I could think about while looking at David in his blue Maid of the Mist raincoat was Bruce Almighty loosing it on live TV. "Back to you Evan Backstabber - Pardon me, Bastard. I mean Baxter." So funny!
Once you’re on board the boat sails slowly past American Falls for some amazing views and picture opportunities. This is a great time to snap some pictures because you’re not in the mist yet and your camera is not as likely to get wet. I took my best shot of the whole 2 week trip at this point. Even David, who is a professional photographer, agreed it was the best picture either of us took.
Here is a video of American Falls from Maid of the Mist:
And a picture of us approaching Horseshoe Falls:
Once the boat gets you so close to Horseshoe Falls that you are in the mist it is like it is raining nonstop. Look up at the falls. It is so high and so massive that it doesn’t seem real. The noise is tremendous. There is no way to get a picture unless you have a waterproof camera or a LifeProof case. But the views are just amazing! Here is a picture of David & I coming out of the mist. You can still see the waterfall in the background.
Once you arrive back at the dock and disembark you can either keep your raincoat or they provide a can to place it so that it can be recycled. I recommend recycling it. You won’t need it again and it will save the park money to recycle as many as possible.
Leaving the dock area you can take a little hike up a trail that will take to very near the American Falls. It’s a little walk, mostly uphill but worth the walk with many photo opportunities along the way.
By now it was after lunch time and we were hungry so we walked the path back to the Horseshoe Falls area. There is a restaurant there and the view is incredible. It is called Top of the Falls. The food was ok and the prices were a little expensive for our pocketbook but it is a vacation spot and New York AND very near Canada so that’s to be expected. The view was worth the price. We had an amazing view of the falls.
After lunch we went to The Cave of the Winds. Ok, this was my favorite thing to do at Niagara Falls. You get into a line, not crazy about the lines but this is so worth it. They give you a pair of foam sandals to wear and provide a place to take your shoes off and put the sandals on. They also give you a bag to put your shoes in.
My foam sandals. :)
You then go stand in another line that leads you to an elevator. You take the elevator down into the rock. It opens up into a tunnel which you follow out to the river. Once there they give you a yellow raincoat to wear. Put it on. Trust me. You’re going to get even more wet than on the Maid of the Mist. Once you’re suited up you walk a path along the river. You will see birds that nest here. They are mostly in the water but do come up on the path from time to time. The path will lead you to different level decks. They are place right next to the base of the American Falls. You can really hear, feel and see the power of the falls from this vantage point.
Are you brave? If so go up higher. Now you are on a deck where the water is rushing around and in some places even over the deck! The deck is rumbling under your feet. As I watched the water I wondered how they were able to build these decks. Someone told me later it was mostly done in the winter when the falls were frozen.
Now tell me, are you feeling especially adventurous? Then climb up to the Hurricane Deck. It’s so loud you have to shout to be heard and the water rushes over the boulders at such a high rate of speed that the wind feels like a hurricane. There are 2 places where you can stand where the water is rushing horizontally off the boulders. It’s coming off at hurricane speeds. David and I both stood there. The force of the water was so great that it tore a hole in David’s raincoat soaking the back of his shirt in seconds. There’s no way to get a picture on the hurricane deck because of all the water. Here we are after coming back down.
Once again, after you’re finished with the raincoat place it in the recycle container. At this point we were getting tired so we took a slow walk back through the park and along the river, stopping at a gift shop to do some browsing. We eventually made our way back to the parking lot and called it a day. Just so you know; you will do a LOT of walking at Niagara Falls State Park so wear good shoes and plan on being here for at least 3-4 days if you want to see it all.
After leaving the park we went back to the campground and spent the evening with Hercules who was, as always, so glad to see us. After a relaxing evening and dinner the plan was to get to bed early because we had another full day planned tomorrow.
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