II. Monday May 22, 2006: Niagara Falls in Canada
At long last, after bouncing around the area for an evening and a night, the Travelin' Thornberries were ready to see the gutload of falling gallons themselves!
The Horseshoe Falls—The Complacent Giant of Canada
Unfortunately, even though our hotel was right next to the Falls, there was no ready access to them from where we were. So we had to walk a round-a-bout route that took another 20 minutes.
The entire Niagara Falls area is essentially a huge gorge, with the Niagara River flowing through it. Ergo, the city is built on a significant slope that slants at what feels like a 70-degree angle. Jennifer and I felt like we could have bent over, grabbed our ankles and rolled head over heels like human inner tubes down to the bottom. Instead, we rappelled our way down, trying to keep our shoes from slipping and moved down the busy sidewalk.
[Sigh]
Victoria Day continued to rage around the Falls, with people cramming themselves into us from every direction. Accents and foreign tongues abounded as the Canadian love of cultural diversity rose up and cracked us over the skull. There truly were people from all over the world ringed around the Falls, a beautiful display of peacefully coexisting multiculturalism that just seemed like a gigantic oscillating pain in the buttcheeks for us. It translated to a logistical nightmare just trying to get close enough to the Falls for a view and a picture or 280.
It was worth it.
Despite the cloudy cold day, the frozen Thornberries, the Victoria Day frustrations, the crowds…the Horseshoe Falls was absolutely awe-inspiring. A massive giant that forms a semi-circle close to 2,500 feet long, we would later learn that it dumps 675,000 gallons of water per second into the gorge 173 feet below, or enough in a single minute to fill a million bathtubs.
A panoramic view of Niagara Falls
We moved as close as we could, trying to capture it on the camera from as many angles as possible. In particular, we were impressed by the “brink,” where the water moved away from the bottom of the river, hung in the air for just a split second, then fell down to the waters below. At that point, it turned a neat aqua colour and looked like pristine crystal.
What amazed Jennifer the most was how easy it would be to kill oneself at Niagara Falls. One would think there would be high fences and barricades to prevent a suicidal person or a plain thrill-seeking idiot from going over the side. But no, the fence that did exist was only about three feet high and easy to jump over. One flip and one would either be in the inexorable current and bound for the drop-off of the Falls, or standing on a small shelf of land that could easily give way and still plunge them to their watery deaths below. There were signs that warned people not to do this, of course, but nothing with teeth.
At one point, I experienced a Zen moment, when I watched the relatively shallow waters of the Niagara river, right before they reached the brink at 20 miles per hour. If I concentrated, I could see past the raging wakes and waves to the grasses and mud of the river bottom. It was similar to how a good meditation can allow one to see past their raging, fleeting, distracting thoughts, to the soothing calmness and serenity resting passively (and reassuringly) beneath.
At last, tired and hungry, we caught some delicious dinner and eventually found our way back to the room. We spent the rest of the night reading and watching the particularly intriguing aspects of Canadian television, courtesy of one of our three channels. Then it was time for bed, and the restoration we'd need for our next adventure....
NEXT: The journey to see the American side of the Falls.
Click for Part V
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