'BERRIES IN A BARREL--Part V

Tuesday, March 23, 2006: Niagara Falls in the U.S.

True to the metric weather report we'd watched the night before, the next day dawned bright, sunny and welcoming. Big, fat convalescent clouds hung whale-like over the lands of Ontario, and Jennifer and I were hurling glee like a chimp chucking its own dung. We gobbled the bland remains of a bland meal we previously brought (the details have been omitted from here, but ask us if you'd like them!) and made plans to revisit some of the areas we’d seen the day before. It had been our hope to get a few camera shots of the Horseshoe Falls again under sunlight, so we could compare how it differed from the gray light of yesterday’s clouds and cold.

Dazed and Confused

We didn’t want to take the long, convoluted route back down the mountainous city slopes, and we were unwilling to pay the money (and have to wait) for the Incline Railway that could take us the short route. So we decided to see if we could find a shorter route down on our own. We followed the tourist sidewalk around the hotels for about 10 to 15 minutes, finding some very beautiful picture perspectives of the rear side of the Horseshoe Falls. Then the buildings started to peter out. Then the foilage got thicker. Then the road got narrower. When the first car drove by with the license plate that said: “Je me souviens” (I remember), and a native spoke to us in French, Jennifer and I realized we had, in fact, walked all the way to Quebec. Or maybe it just felt like it. At any rate, we’d gone far from the beaten trail, with no easy path of descent in evidence. So we rolled our eyes, turned around, went a-a-a-ll the way back and headed for the steeply sloping round-a-bout route we’d already taken too many times. Of course, we’d gone another 10 minutes in the other direction before realizing we hadn’t brought our birth certificates with us; we’d need those for the customs officials during our proposed jaunt over to the American Falls later in the day. Rolling our eyes again (I think one was loose by that time and fell out on me…what a topsy-turvy view!), we went a-a-a-all the way back to our room and fetched the necessary documentation. Having lost an hour, we finally got our heads on straight, our eyes back in our sockets and our feet on the dangerous slope downward.

Briefly, we got our comparison pictures of the Horseshoe Falls. The view was much less obstructed today, now that Victoria Day was over and most of the locals had probably gone back to work. If you want to see how much more beautiful the scene was, check out this video:



The Rainbow Bridge—Where Old Glory and the Maple, “Leaves”

Our trek took us away from the Horseshoe Falls and past the American Falls from the Canadian side. Eventually, we passed through customs and walked out onto the Rainbow Bridge, which traverses the Niagara River and acts as a border between the U.S. and Canada.

Oh. My. Gawd. This view from the Rainbow bridge shows the entire gorge that lay before the Travelin' Thornberries, as the Niagara River tumbled over the American Falls on the left and the Horseshoe Falls in the Center.

In fact, right at the halfway point, there are flags for both Canada and the U.S., as well as a sign that basically uses fancy language to say, “You’ve crossed the border, idiot.”

Jennifer couldn’t resist bisecting herself with the imaginary boundary line, sitting in front of that sign with a bosom in each nation. We then finished our walk over the bridge and went through customs on the American side.

The American Falls—The Spunky Little Scrapper that Could

At last, we began to get close enough to appreciate our own country’s piece of the water falling action. Upon beholding our first panoramic view of both Falls the day before, we had come to see the Horseshoe Falls as a vast, living giant. The American Falls, by contrast seemed…well, kind of dinky. At only 1,100 feet wide, it’s less than half the length of its colossal 2,500-foot companion and lacks the characteristic crescent shape. Compared to the Horseshoe Falls’ more than half-million gallons of water dropped per second, the American Falls voids only 75,000, or almost 10 percent as much. Though the distance from the top of the Falls to the gorge below was higher than the Horseshoe (about 183 feet), the jumble of rocks at the bottom reduced even that to an inferior distance. We had pre-planned to see it just to have a Gestalt of the entire phenomenon, but thus far, we hadn’t been that impressed with the American Falls.

That changed as we got closer to it.

First of all, the American Falls is more violent. Yes, compared to the rather tranquil, steady flow of the Horseshoe Falls, the smaller one was quite explosive. There are obviously more jutting rocks and crags at its brink, which cause the water to froth and spray more. While it didn’t have the “horseshoe” shape, neither was its brink a boring straight line. We noted more convolutions in it as we gained a more proximate perspective. Here, take a look at them yourself:



Second of all, the American Falls has more ready access than its wider companion. There were places all around it where we as tourists could get within a few yards of the roaring water. The Cave of the Winds tour, which we decided not to do, allows spectators to get right at the bottom of the Falls, next to those aforementioned jumbles of rocks. In short, it was more up close and personal than the Horseshoe Falls. You don't have to take our word for it, you can see how close we got:



As you can see, the Niagara River is quite vast. There are several little "islands" going across it, which Jennifer and I traversed along a network of bridges. They included Green Island, Goat Island and Luna Island. The last one gave us ready access to the Bridal Veil, a little offshoot of the Falls with even greater crystal clarity than the views we already had.

What made the Bride so radiant this particular day was the glorious rainbow she trailed beneath her. Yes, the omnipresent mists down below caught that sunlight we’d been so gleeful to behold, and shaped it into a spectacular bouquet of colors.

We eventually traveled all the way around the Falls area, coming to our final stop at the Horseshoe Falls from the American side. Another picture or 20 went into our trusty little digital workhorse and then we decided it was time to head back. You see, it was going to be a long walk back around the Niagara River and we still had hopes of getting one last excursion into our schedule before we tried yet again to squeeze something out of that LCBO place!

The Travelin' Thornberries pause for a moment to soak in the sounds and smells of the American Falls

NEXT: A near-religious experience, when the Travelin' Thornberries come as penitents before the Maw of the Beast.


Click for Part VI